Politics of the Womb: Women, Reproduction, and the State in Kenya

by Lynn M. Thomas

In more than a metaphorical sense, the womb has proven to be an important site of political struggle in and about Africa. By examining the political significance—and complex ramifications—of reproductive controversies in twentieth-century Kenya, this book explores why and how control of female initiation, abortion, childbirth, and premarital pregnancy have been crucial to the exercise of colonial and postcolonial power. This innovative book enriches the study of gender, reproduction, sexuality, and African history by revealing how reproductive controversies challenged long-standing social hierarchies and contributed to the construction of new ones that continue to influence the fraught politics of abortion, birth control, female genital cutting, and HIV/AIDS in Africa.

Genres: Africa, History, Grad School, Anthropology, Feminism, Nonfiction

318 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2003

Reviews

[Hannah Wu · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read for class but found the politics of the womb concept to be a very interesting way to think about how national consciousness is constructed.

[Andre Tan]

Wonderful exegesis that goes beyond the Manichean paradigm of postcolonial discourse. Thomas shows how entangled the woman's body (in particular the womb, representing reproductive capabilities) is within historical developments, cultural and moral economies, and colonial relationships, and where the power imbalance actually comes in. Politics of the Womb is a good read for a deeper understanding of issues such as politics of female genital cutting and childbearing law in early postcolonial Kenya.

[Jonathan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Reread for teaching. By my friend, but she is really good.

[Chris · Rating 4 out of 5]

By understanding what we commonly call "Female Genital Mutilation" instead as a form of "initiation," Thomas attempts to wrest the practice free from a hundred years of Western colonial and post-colonial censure. Instead, she makes a persuasive case for initiation as residing within a complex and changing nexus of concerns about gender, generation, and class. Debates between colonial and anti-colonial interests, in this way, are marginalized and complicated, and Thomas is able to tell a more nuanced story of struggles over women's reproductive rights.

While I thought Thomas's approach to the subject matter was suitably novel, I felt her analysis didn't always match the theoretical standards she sets out in her introduction. Despite claiming to draw from Foucault and his conception of bio-power, this connection was not made explicit in her analysis; likewise for her stated concern about the problems of representing Kenyans' "voice." She name checks the right subaltern studies academics, but does not play their ideas explicitly against hers.

Nonetheless, this is an important and innovative contribution to African history that can help us better understand the complexities embedded in debates about reproduction in Kenya and Africa.

[Celeste · Rating 5 out of 5]

An excellent study of the controversies surrounding female excision from the early twentieth century to the 'Female Genital Mutilation' controversy of the 1990s. The author is primarily concerned with the earlier period however, and seeks to complicate our understandings of 'colonial impositions' and 'African resistance' by complicated the categories of 'colonialist' and 'African' along class, gender, and generational lines. She demonstrates how efforts to stop practices of female excision took power away from older women by placing female sexuality in the hands of male law makers and government officials. The book illustrates the complexities of these controversies and is worth a read for anyone interested in 'FGM' specifically or trans-national women's issues more generally.