African Feminism
ISBN: 9780812200775
Platform/Publisher: De Gruyter / University of Pennsylvania Press
Digital rights: Users: Unlimited; Printing: Unlimited; Download: Unlimited

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.

Contributors include Tsehai Berhane-Selassie, Carlene H. Dei, Shawn Riva Donaldson, Ilsa M. Glazer, Enid Gort, Betty J. Harris, Dolores Koenig, Takyiwaa Manuh, Gwendolyn Mikell, Maria Nzomo, Brooke Grundfest Schoepf, D. J. Shehu, and Jeanne Maddox Toungara. Gwendolyn Mikell is Professor of Anthropology at Georgetown University.

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