African womanhood in colonial Kenya, 1900-50

Author(s)

Bibliographic Information

African womanhood in colonial Kenya, 1900-50

Tabitha Kanogo

（Eastern African studies）

James Currey , EAEP , Ohio University Press, 2005

  • : James Currey : cloth
  • : James Currey : paper
  • : Ohio University Press : cloth
  • : Ohio University Press : paper

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Note

Bibliography: p. 252-259

Includes index

Description and Table of Contents

Volume

: Ohio University Press : cloth ISBN 9780821415672

Description

This book explores the history of African womanhood in colonial Kenya. By focussing on key sociocultural institutions and practices around which the lives of women were organized, and on the protracted debates that surrounded these institutions and practices during the colonial period, it investigates the nature of indigenous, mission, and colonial control of African women. The pertinent institutions and practices include the legal and cultural status of women, clitoridectomy, dowry, marriage, maternity and motherhood, and formal education. By following the effects of the all-pervasive ideological shifts that colonialism produced in the lives of women, the study investigates the diverse ways in which a woman's personhood was enhanced, diminished, or placed in ambiguous predicaments by the consequences, intended and unintended, of colonial rule as administered by both the colonizers and the colonized. The study thus tries to historicize the reworkings of women's lives under colonial rule. The transformations that resulted from these reworkings involved the negotiation and redefinition of the meaning of individual liberties and of women's agency, along with the reconceptualization of kinship relations and of community. These changes resulted in-and often resulted from-increased mobility for Kenyan women, who were enabled to cross physical, cultural, economic, social, and psychological frontiers that had been closed to them prior to colonial rule. The conclusion to which the experiences of women in colonial Kenya points again and again is that for these women, the exercise of individual agency, whether it was newly acquired or repeatedly thwarted, depended in large measure on the unleashing of forces over which no one involved had control. Over and over, women found opportunities to act amid the conflicting policies, unintended consequences, and inconsistent compromises that characterized colonial rule.
Volume

: James Currey : paper ISBN 9780852554456

Description

This is the most interesting general Kenyan social history that I have had the pleasure to read for many years. It fills a large gap in the colonial history of Kenyan women as they negotiated changes in the most domestic areas oftheir experience. - John Lonsdale, Trinity College, Cambridge Within a broad analysis of colonial oppurtunities for physical, social and educational mobility, Kanogo Kanogo explores the history of African womanhood in colonial Kenya. She shows how African and British male authorities tried, with uncertain opinions and from different perspectives, to control female initiatives, and how, to very varying degrees, women managed to achieve increasing measures of control over their own lives. She examines the legal and cultural status of women, clitoridectomy, dowry, marriage, maternity and motherhood, and formal education. By following the effects of the all-pervasive ideological shifts that colonialism produced in the lives of women, the study investigates the diverse ways in which Kenyan women's positions were diminished, or enhanced, or placed in ambiguous predicaments by the consequences, intended and unintended, of colonial rule. North America: Ohio U Press; Kenya: EAEP

Table of Contents

Introduction 1 'Capax Doli'? Debating the Legal Status of African Women 2 Sexuality in Culture & Law 3 Becoming Kavirondo Clitoridectomy, Ethnicity & Womenhood 4 Debating Dowry 'A Daughter is Like a Bank' 5 Legislating Marriage 6 The Medicalization & Regulation of Maternity 7 Girls are Frogs Girls, Missions & Education Conclusion
Volume

: James Currey : cloth ISBN 9780852554463

Description

Within a broad analysis of colonial oppurtunities for physical, social and educational mobility, Kanogo shows how African and British male authorities tried, with uncertain opinions and from different perspectives, to control female initiatives, and how, to very varying degrees, women managed to achieve increasing measures of control over their own lives. North America: Ohio U Press; Kenya: EAEP

Table of Contents

  • "Capax doli?" - debating the legal status of African women
  • sexuality in culture and law
  • becoming Kavirondo - clitoridectomy, ethnicity and womanhood
  • debating dowry
  • legislating marriage
  • the medicalization and regulation of maternity
  • girls are frogs - girls, missions and education.

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