African Women: A Modern History

by Catherine Coquery-Vidrovitch, Beth Raps, Translator With *

Over the last century, the social and economic roles played by African women have evolved dramatically. Long confined to home and field, overlooked by their menfolk and missionaries alike, African women worked, thought, dreamed, and struggled. They migrated to the cities, invented new jobs, and activated the so-called informal economy to become Africa's economic and social focal point. As a result, despite their lack of education and relatively low status, women are now Africa's best hope for the future.This sweeping and innovative book is the first to reconstruct the full history of women in sub-Saharan Africa. Tracing the lot of African women from the eve of the colonial period to the present, Catherine Coquery-Vidrovitch explores the stages and forms of women's collective roles as well as their individual emancipation through revolts, urban migrations, economic impacts, social claims, political strength, and creativity. Comparing case studies drawn from throughout the region, she sheds light on issues ranging from gender to economy, politics, society, and culture. Utilizing an impressive array of sources, she highlights broad general patterns without overlooking crucial local variations. With its breadth of coverage and clear analysis of complex questions, this book is destined to become a standard text for scholars and students alike.

336 pages, Hardcover

First published January 30, 1996

Reviews

[A YOGAM]

African Women: A Modern History (Social Change in Global Perspective) ist ein Überblick über die Geschichte afrikanischer Frauen von der vorkolonialen Zeit bis zur Moderne. Sie untersucht verschiedene Aspekte ihres Lebens, darunter Arbeit, Bildung, Ehe, Sexualität und politisches Engagement. Ein Schwerpunkt liegt auf den Auswirkungen von Kolonialismus und Urbanisierung auf die Rolle und den Status der Frauen. Das Buch beleuchtet auch die Vielfalt der Erfahrungen von Frauen in verschiedenen Regionen und sozialen Schichten Afrikas, und betont die Komplexität von Geschlechterdynamiken. Zudem wird die Bedeutung mündlicher Überlieferungen und die Rolle von Frauen in Kunst und Kultur untersucht. Es zielt darauf ab, traditionelle Stereotypen zu dekonstruieren und ein nuanciertes Verständnis der afrikanischen Frauengeschichte zu fördern.

[Matthew Quest]

This is an outstanding textbook and introduction to African Women's History. The title suggests the puzzle it unravels. African Women are often presented as being at the center of problems of underdevelopment in contrast to the rights and dignities associated with modern industrial nations -- of course this comparison is an imperial falsity. Nevertheless, one must grapple with women as peasant farmers, their theologies and ethnicities, struggles with health and wisdom for healing, their relationship to tribal warfare and national liberation movements. The cover photo, with these women adorned with colorful African clothe, baby wrapped in tow, and vessels on their head to gather water or carrying wares to sell, in the midst of unpaved brush, may suggest an odd image to some to discuss African women and modernity. Are these women pre-modern or backward from another time in place? Such an assumption shows it is the intellectual who has failed. This book when accompanied with a proper discussion reveals that African women should not be the subject of developmental aid but have something to teach those who hail from imperial nations about the pathways for their own self-government. The author, a Francophone scholar, surveys concisely many regions of Africa. But the English reader of African Studies will find they get access to case studies in Francophone Africa that often are minimized by Anglophone speaking scholars.