Women and Work in Northern Nigeria is a study of the social and economic opportunities open to and seized upon by Muslim Hausa women, primarily in the city of Katsina, Nigeria, over the course of the past three decades. In the context of multiple political regimes, the turmoil of the Nigerian economy, and major ideological shifts, women have sought to optimize their resources and situations. Women and Work in Northern Nigeria take as a primary theme, women's ability to recognize and to cross the physical, spatial and discursive boundaries which ostensibly service to define and confine them
AN INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER A READ WITH JENNA TODAY SHOW BOOK CLUB PICK! “Brave, fresh . . . unforgettable.”—The New York Times Book Review “A celebration of girls who dare to dream.”—Imbolo Mbue, author of Behold the Dreamers (Oprah’s Book Club pick) Shortlisted for the Desmond Elliott Prize and recommended by The New York Times, Marie Claire, Vogue, Essence, PopSugar, Daily Mail, Electric Literature, Red, Stylist, Daily Kos, Library Journal, The Everygirl, and Read It Forward! The unforgettable, inspiring story of a teenage girl growing up in a rural Nigerian village who longs to get an education so that she can find her “louding voice” and speak up for herself, The Girl with the Louding Voice is a simultaneously heartbreaking and triumphant tale about the power of fighting for your dreams. Despite the seemingly insurmountable obstacles in her path, Adunni never loses sight of her goal of escaping the life of poverty she was born into so that she can build the future she chooses for herself – and help other girls like her do the same. Her spirited determination to find joy and hope in even the most difficult circumstances imaginable will “break your heart and then put it back together again” (Jenna Bush Hager on The Today Show) even as Adunni shows us how one courageous young girl can inspire us all to reach for our dreams…and maybe even change the world.
An analysis of how traditional power structures in Nigeria have survived the forces of colonialism and the modernization processes of postcolonial regimes. This book analyzes how indigenous political power structures in Nigeria survived both the constricting forces of colonialism and the modernization programs of postcolonial regimes. With twenty detailed case studies on colonial andpostcolonial Nigerian history, the complex interactions between chieftaincy structures and the rapidly shifting sociopolitical and economic conditions of the twentieth century become evident. Drawing on the interactions between the state and chieftaincy, this study goes beyond earlier Africanist scholarship that attributes the resilience of these indigenous structures to their enduring normative and utilitarian qualities. Linked to externally-derived forces, and legitimated by neotraditional themes, chieftaincy structures were distorted by the indirect rule system, transformed by competing communal claims, and legitimated a dominant ethno-regional power configuration. Olufemi Vaughan is Professor in the Department of Africana Studies and the Department of History, State University of New York at Stony Brook. Winner of the 2001 Cecil B. Currey Book-length Award from the Association ofThird World Studies.
In Africa and around the world, the church has been established through the faithful effort of men and women working together for the sake of the gospel. However, failure to acknowledge women’s contributions in evangelism and ministry – or to integrate women’s stories into the history of the church – has led to treating women as secondary within the body of Christ. Women in Mission explores the powerful legacy of women in SIM (formerly, Sudan Interior Mission) and the Evangelical Church Winning All (ECWA), demonstrating that from the beginning women have been active and essential participants in the work of God in Nigeria. Dr. Lami Rikwe Ibrahim Bakari examines various theological and cultural frameworks for understanding the role of women in society before delving into the rich historical reality of women’s involvement in Nigerian church history. This study is a powerful reminder that God’s call to partner in the gospel is not limited by sex, and that it is precisely in recognizing women as primary and active participants in God’s mission – maximizing and not suppressing their giftings –that the kingdom of God is best served.
The Hausa are one of the largest ethnic groups in Africa, with populations in Nigeria, Niger, and Ghana. Their long history of city-states and Islamic caliphates, their complex trading economies, and their cultural traditions have attracted the attention of historians, political economists, linguists, and anthropologists. The large body of scholarship on Hausa society, however, has assumed the subordination of women to men. Hausa Women in the Twentieth Century refutes the notion that Hausa women are pawns in a patriarchal Muslim society. The contributors, all of whom have done field research in Hausaland, explore the ways Hausa women have balanced the demands of Islamic expectations and Western choices as their society moved from a precolonial system through British colonial administration to inclusion in the modern Nigerian nation. This volume examines the roles of a wide variety of women, from wives and workers to political activists and mythical figures, and it emphasizes that women have been educators and spiritual leaders in Hausa society since precolonial times. From royalty to slaves and concubines, in traditional Hausa cities and in newer towns, from the urban poor to the newly educated elite, the "invisible women" whose lives are documented here demonstrate that standard accounts of Hausa society must be revised. Scholars of Hausa and neighboring West African societies will find in this collection a wealth of new material and a model of how research on women can be integrated with general accounts of Hausa social, religious, political, and economic life. For students and scholars looking at gender and women's roles cross-culturally, this volume provides an invaluable African perspective.
While providing critical perspectives on women, gender, sex and sexuality, and the colonial encounter, she considers how it was possible for this woman to take on the office and responsibilities of a traditionally male role.
This book explores the relationship between plantation labour and gender in Africa, particularly Cameroon. It demonstrates that the introduction of plantation labour during colonial rule has had significant consequences for gender roles and relations within and beyond the capitalist labour process. These effects have been quite ambivalent, being marked by both profound changes and remarkable continuities. The book focuses on two tea estates established in anglophone Cameroon in the 1950s, the Tole Estate and the Ndu Estate, the first employing mainly female pluckers, the second mainly male pluckers. This allows for an examination of the variations in male and female workers' modes of resistance to the control and exploitation they meet in the labour process. [ASC Leiden abstract]
