Our new husbands are here
Subtitle: households, gender, and politics in a West African state from the slave trade to colonial rule
By: Emily Lynn Osborn
Series: New African histories series; New African histories series
Publisher: Ohio University Press
Published: 2011
Place of publication: Athens
Language: eng
Number of pages: 273
ISBN-13: 9780821419830; 9780821443972
Subjects: Politics and government; Social aspects; Mandingo (African people); Administration; Colonization; Households; Social conditions; Colonies; Women; History
Description: "In Our New Husbands Are Here, Emily Lynn Osborn investigates a central puzzle of power and politics in West African history: Why do women figure frequently in the political narratives of the precolonial period, and then vanish altogether with colonization? Osborn addresses this question by exploring the relationship of the household to the state. By analyzing the history of statecraft in the interior savannas of West Africa (in present-day Guinea-Conakry), Osborn shows that the household, and women within it, played a critical role in the pacifist Islamic state of Kankan-Bať, enabling it to endure the predations of the transatlantic slave trade and become a major trading center in the nineteenth century. But French colonization introduced a radical new method of statecraft to the region, one that separated the household from the state and depoliticized womens domestic roles. This book will be of interest to scholars of politics, gender, the household, slavery, and Islam in African history."--Back cover.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references and index.
Table of contents: title: Introduction : households, gender, and politics in West African history; title: Origins : the founding of Baté, 1650/1750; title: Growth : warfare and exile, commerce and expansion, 1750/1850; title: Conflict : warfare and captivity, 1850/81; title: Occupation : Samori Touré and Baté, 1881/91; title: Conquest : warfare, marriage, and French statecraft; title: Colonization : households and the French occupation; title: Separate spheres? : colonialism in practice; title: Conclusion : making states in the Milo River Valley, 1650/1910.