Women, Marriage, Divorce and the Emerging Colonial State in Africa

Lyons, T. (1999). Guns and guerrilla girls: Women in the Zimbabwean National Liberation struggle.

The article addresses the perceptions held by the world on the role of women in the Zimbabwean national liberation struggle. According to Lyons (1999), the roles and experiences of women in the struggle contrast starkly with the reality on the ground, with evidence pointing towards acts of nationalists and feminists who obscure and silence the truth about the contributions of thousands of girls and women towards liberation. Lyons (1999) discusses the role of women in the struggle, including their responsibilities in the guerrilla training camps from which the battles were organized. Issues such as enlightenment on subjects such as lobola, their active engagement on the battlegrounds, and women protests all played a key role in the liberation of Zimbabwe. The article effectively covers the facts on how women played a key role in the liberation but largely remained oppressed.

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Beukes, M. (2003). The Birth of the 'New Woman': Antjie Krog and Gynogenesis as a discourse of power.

The article also touches on feminism and the role of the women in society, with particular emphasis on their contribution to literature. Beukes (2003) discusses the contributions of one particular poet by the name of Anjie Krog to Afrikaans literature, indicating that extreme feminism exhibits the same militant connotations of power as patriarchal discourses. The article defines this feminist grab of power as gynogenesis, describing its ideological and political undertones. Trask (1986) quoted in Beukes (2003) further illustrates incidences of female domination and argues that the female body has been appropriated for sex and children. The article concludes by indicating the aspects of Antjie Krog poetry that illustrates women's need for self-directed sexual expectation.

Bradford, H. (1996). Women, gender and colonialism: Rethinking the history of the British Cape Colony and its frontier zones, C. 1806-70.

The article addresses the issue of omission of women's place in the documentation of African history. Bradford (1996) decries the marginal attention dedicated to women and gender in traditional African societies and ancient history, with special emphasis on the Xhosa people. The article gives examples of the political organization of the Xhosa, juxtaposing the claims made that Xhosa society was democratic against the negligible representation of women in their history. In the instances where women appear in texts, they are represented in a stereotypical manner that reduces them to subservient beings confined to their sexual attributes (Bradford, 1996). The article concludes by stating that recorded history has been such an effective tool for the preservation of the gender imbalance because historians, just as their communities, harbored prejudicial views about the role of women in society. The author accords gender stratification as high a priority as the racial apartheid that existed in South Africa, the home country of the Xhosa, until 1994.

Broadhead, S. H. (1997). Slave wives, free sisters: Bakongo women and slavery c. 1700-1850.

Susan Broadhead tackles the contribution of women in the Bakongo slavery system in their role as productive and reproductive possessions. In her article, the author classifies free women into two categories of the sisters and wives, with wives being subjugated and sisters enjoying autonomy and power. The middle ages of the women were almost always spent in subjugation as child-bearing wives, supporting families until their old age when their status might be improved back to that of 'sister' and their opinions sought on various affairs. For slaves, the whole life was spent in servitude. Slave women were 'wifed' and the slave owners could exploit them for sex or reproduction at any time, and with no consequences. While young adult males were exported for exploitation elsewhere, female slaves were acquired as slave wives in the Kongo (Broadhead, 1997). The author concludes that women played a significant role as workers and producers of laborers for Bakongo slave owners.

Brooks, G. E. (1990). An Nhara of the Guinea-Bissau region: Mae Aurelia Correia.

Brooks (1990) narrates the account of West African trade relations with strangers, stating with the landlord-stranger dynamic whereby a community's elite received first priorities in trading with strangers. The article focuses on the role of women in the relationship between natives and newcomers, stipulating that many women benefited from trade with Europeans. Such women included the famed trader and commercial intermediary Mae Aurelia Correia in the first half of the nineteenth century. While women actively participated in the commercial activities of their communities, their role was in most cases confined to that of intermediary between Europeans and male family members (Brooks, 1990). However, outstanding traders like Mae Aurelia Correia established trading dynasties that exploited the landlord-stranger privileges to command large portions of the political and economic life of the Upper Guinea Coast.

Brooks, G. E. (1984). The signares of Saint-Louis and Goree: Women entrepreneurs in eighteenth-century Senegal.

The article addresses the relationship between Portuguese traders and the natives in the Cape Verde Islands. Of particular interest is the quid pro quo the men established by throwing themselves at the most influential women to gain privileges in the coastline trade (Brooks, 1984). In these regions, women of outstanding commercial abilities and amassed wealth enjoyed the same privileges as the males and could rule villages. According to Brooks (1984), signares created an attractive lifestyle that greatly tempted Europeans. However, as the article does not give the social origins of the signares, it is virtually impossible to say if these societies were gender fluent or they were elitist and gave special privileges to people from certain well-established families.

Byfield, J. (1996). Women, marriage, divorce and the emerging colonial state in Abeokuta (Nigeria) 1892-1904.

The article evaluates the state of Yorubaland in the nineteenth century, shortly after the fall of the Oyo Empire when sporadic wars broke out. Women grabbed the opportunity when men were too concerned with the battle to break free from bonds of marriage, a fact that is supported by an increased rate of divorce in the colonial era. The introduction of Western rights and entitlements into the African customary law that governed communities created an advantage for women who would otherwise never have broken free from marriages. Byfield (1996) explains how women were granted access to greater power, rising to prominence and supporting men even in war, such as Iyalode of the Egba, a wealthy woman who supported the Egba during the Dahomey Invasion. Even though women could separate from their wives, as was the case with Madam Jojolola, Iyalode of Abeokuta, the community disapproved of divorce and often ostracized divorcees. The only time when divorce was tolerated was after the missionaries started influencing societies with their religion when they granted divorces to women in polygamous unions to increase their converts.

Candido, M. P. (2008). Strategies for social mobility: Liaisons between foreign men and enslaved women in Benguela, ca. 1770-1850.

Candido (2008) focuses on the relation between slave women and foreign men in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries at the regions of west-central Africa. The article accounts for the men who participated in the Atlantic slave trade, especially their views of local women as being readily available for their sexual fulfillment. Demand for slave women was higher in Benguela because they fulfilled the double purposes of serving their masters' labor as well as sexual needs. In conclusion, Candido (2008) mentions that while sexual exploitation was used as a tool of domination over slaves, it also gave them a chance at freedom during and after their liaisons with their masters.

Chambers, D. L. (2000). Civilizing the natives: Marriage in post-apartheid South Africa.

In this essay, Chambers (2000) discusses the state of South African society, touching on the legacy of apartheid, the 1994 regime change, and the subsequent adaption of gender equality laws. The author also touches on the changes experienced in regards to wealth and control of property as women increasingly became workers in the cities and started contributing to the family's financial well-being. Chambers (2000) observes that changes are inevitable in a progressive society and predicts that the market economy and globalization will continue to change the dynamics of male-female relationships in the rural areas where conservative views of women's rights prevail.

Cooper, B. M. (2003). Anatomy of a riot: The social imaginary, single women, and religious violence in Niger.

The article addresses the conflicts that occur at the intersection of democratization processes, religious activism, the interference of Western donors in the decision-making processes of African countries, and women rights. Cooper (2003) emphasizes the point that single women have come under increasing assault in recent times as various factions of the powers-that-be attempt to exercise their control over them. The author cites studies that have underscored the affiliation of these movements with traditionalism that stresses family units comprising of mother, father, and children. Thus, the existence of single mother families posits an inconsistency with this traditionalist view. The article concludes by defining the conflicts in Niger as having to do with establishing her relationship with modernity, secularism, and the liberation of all genders.

Curto, J. C. (2003). The story of Nbena, 1817-20: Unlawful enslavement and the concept of 'original freedom' in Angola.

The article addresses the issue of enslavement in Portugal-occupied Angola, operating on the premise that mutual trust between the communities and the slavers was only maintained by establishing a strict rulebook on the kind of people who could be enslaved. The case of Nbena reveals that, although not widely known, slavers followed some legal precedents that specified the kind of person who could be legally sold in slavery. More importantly, the case of Nbena illustrates the kind of solidarity and support that slave owners, such as Nbena and her family displayed in their quest to avoid one of being condemned to servitude. The article gives a detailed account of how the case played out, including detailed exchanges between the Governor of Benguela Mello e Alvim and his superior the Governor of Angola Luiz da Motta Feo. Curto (2003) illustrates that the slave trade was in many instances a balancing act where administrators needed to maintain protection for some sectors of the community to allow the slave trade to thrive.

Eastman, C. M. (1988). Women, slaves, and foreigners: African cultural influences and group processes in the formation of northern Swahili coastal society.

Eastman (1988) suggests that in the northern areas of Mombasa and up to Lamu, some practices worked together to form a gender-based dual culture with polarities towards merchants and clients, the rural folk and urban dwellers, and slave owner and the enslaved. The article shows that female slaves were favored far and beyond male slaves and that they were used as much for their reproductive qualities as for their productive ones. Because of their induction into the Swahili culture and way of life, they brought to Swahili culture the practices from their backgrounds. The article concludes that while Swahili women, who are predominantly Muslim, are not allowed to divorce their husbands, they can force a divorce...