How did African
women negotiate the complex political, economic, and social forces of
colonialism in their daily lives? How did they make meaningful lives
for themselves in a world that challenged fundamental notions of
work, sexuality, marriage, motherhood, and family? By considering the
lives of ordinary African women—farmers, queen mothers, midwives,
urban dwellers, migrants, and political leaders—in the context of
particular colonial conditions at specific places and times, Women in
African Colonial Histories challenges the notion of a homogeneous
"African women’s experience." While recognizing the
inherent violence and brutality of the colonial encounter, the essays
in this lively volume show that African women were not simply the
hapless victims of European political rule. Innovative use of primary
sources, including life histories, oral narratives, court cases,
newspapers, colonial archives, and physical evidence, attests that
African women’s experiences defy static representation. Readers at
all levels will find this an important contribution to ongoing
debates in African women’s history and African colonial history.
