African Feminism : : The Politics of Survival in Sub-Saharan Africa / / Gwendolyn Mikell.

• Superior document: Title is part of eBook package: De Gruyter Penn Press eBook Package Complete Collection
• HerausgeberIn: Mikell, Gwendolyn,
• Place / Publishing House: Philadelphia : : University of Pennsylvania Press, , [2010]; ©1997
• Year of Publication: 2010
• Language: English
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (392 p.) :; 2 illus.

African feminism, this landmark volume demonstrates, differs radically from the Western forms of feminism with which we have become familiar since the 1960s. African feminists are not, by and large, concerned with issues such as female control over reproduction or variation and choice within human sexuality, nor with debates about essentialism, the female body, or the discourse of patriarchy. The feminism that is slowly emerging in Africa is distinctly heterosexual, pronatal, and concerned with "bread, butter, and power" issues.Contributors present case studies of ten African states, demonstrating that-as they fight for access to land, for the right to own property, for control of food distribution, for living wages and safe working conditions, for health care, and for election reform-African women are creating a powerful and specifically African feminism.

Table of Contents

Frontmatter -- Contents -- Illustrations -- Tables -- Acknowledgments -- Introduction -- Chapter 1. Changing the Meaning of Marriage: Women and Family Law in Côte d'lvoire -- Chapter 2. Wives, Children, and Intestate Succession in Ghana -- Chapter 3. Pleas for Domestic Relief: Akan Women and Family Courts -- Chapter 4. Swazi Women Workers in Cottage Industries and Factories -- Chapter 5. Alcohol and Politics in Urban Zambia: The Intersection of Gender and Class -- Chapter 6. Women's Roles in Settlement and Resettlement in Mali -- Chapter 7. Ethiopian Rural Women and the State -- Chapter 8. Women and Grassroots Politics in Abidjan, Côte d'lvoire -- Chapter 9. Kenyan Women in Politics and Public Decision Making -- Chapter 10. "Our Women Keep Our Skies from Falling": Women's Networks and Survival Imperatives in Tshunyane, South Africa -- Chapter 11. Technology and the Fuel Crisis: Adjustment among Women in Northern Nigeria -- Chapter 12. Swazi Traditional Healers, Role Transformation, and Gender -- Chapter 13. AIDS, Gender, and Sexuality during Africa's Economic Crisis -- Conclusions: Theorizing and Strategizing about African Women and State Crisis -- Appendix -- Contributors -- Index