Africa After Gender?

Front Cover
Catherine M. Cole, Takyiwaa Manuh, Stephan Miescher
Indiana University Press, 2007 M02 7 - 328 pages

Gender is one of the most productive, dynamic, and vibrant areas of Africanist research today. But what is the meaning of gender in an African context? Why does gender usually connote women? Why has gender taken hold in Africa when feminism hasn't? Is gender yet another Western construct that has been applied to Africa however ill-suited and riddled with assumptions? Africa After Gender? looks at Africa now that gender has come into play to consider how the continent, its people, and the term itself have changed. Leading Africanist historians, anthropologists, literary critics, and political scientists move past simple dichotomies, entrenched debates, and polarizing identity politics to present an evolving discourse of gender. They show gender as an applied rather than theoretical tool and discuss themes such as the performance of sexuality, lesbianism, women's political mobilization, the work of gendered NGOs, and the role of masculinity in a gendered world. For activists, students, and scholars, this book reveals a rich and cross-disciplinary view of the status of gender in Africa today.

Contributors are Hussaina J. Abdullah, Nwando Achebe, Susan Andrade, Eileen Boris, Catherine M. Cole, Paulla A. Ebron, Eileen Julien, Lisa A. Lindsay, Adrienne MacIain, Takyiwaa Manuh, Stephan F. Miescher, Helen Mugambi, Gay Seidman, Sylvia Tamale, Bridget Teboh, Lynn M. Thomas, and Nana Wilson-Tagoe.

 

Contents

When Was Gender?
1
Unveiling Sexuality Discourses in Uganda
17
Representation versus Mobilization in the South African Gender Commission
30
Placing Schoolgirl Pregnancies in African History
48
4 Dialoguing Women
63
Gender Class and the Public Sphere in Africa
85
Variations on Gender Relations in the Yorùbá Popular Theatre
108
7 Doing Gender Work in Ghana
125
Acknowledgments
342
When Was Gender?
1
Unveiling Sexuality Discourses in Uganda
17
Representation versus Mobilization in the South African Gender Commission
30
Placing Schoolgirl Pregnancies in African History
48
4 Dialoguing Women
63
Gender Class and the Public Sphere in Africa
85
Variations on Gender Relations in the Yorùbá Popular Theatre
108

A Survey of New Womens Organizations in Nigeria since the 1990s
150
9 Constituting Subjects through Performative Acts
171
10 Gender After Africa
191
Gender and National Identity in Wole Soyinkass Death and the Kings Horseman and Mariama
205
African Women Writers and National Cultures
223
The Emergence of the Male Breadwinner in Colonial Southwestern Nigeria
241
Elders Gender and Masculinities in Ghana since the Nineteenth Century
253
PostGender Theory and Ghanas Popular Culture
270
16 The PostGender Question in African Studies
285
The Production of Gendered Knowledge in the Digital Age
303
Resources for Further Reading
309
Contributors
313
Index
317
Cover
335
Contents
340
7 Doing Gender Work in Ghana
125
A Survey of New Womens Organizations in Nigeria since the 1990s
150
9 Constituting Subjects through Performative Acts
171
10 Gender After Africa
191
Gender and National Identity in Wole Soyinkass Death and the Kings Horseman and Mariama
205
African Women Writers and National Cultures
223
The Emergence of the Male Breadwinner in Colonial Southwestern Nigeria
241
Elders Gender and Masculinities in Ghana since the Nineteenth Century
253
PostGender Theory and Ghanas Popular Culture
270
16 The PostGender Question in African Studies
285
The Production of Gendered Knowledge in the Digital Age
303
Resources for Further Reading
309
Contributors
313
Index
317

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