Conjugal Rights: Marriage, Sexuality, and Urban Life in Colonial Libreville, Gabon (New African Histories)
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | 4.21 (672 Votes) |
| Asin | : | 0821421204 |
| Format Type | : | paperback |
| Number of Pages | : | 336 Pages |
| Publish Date | : | 2016-08-21 |
| Language | : | English |
DESCRIPTION:
Marriage and sexual relations determined how people defined themselves as urbanites and shaped the shifting physical landscape of Libreville. Colonial rule increased the fluidity of customary marriage law, as chiefs and colonial civil servants presided over multiple courts, and city residents strategically chose the legal arena in which to arbitrate a conjugal-sexual conflict. Sexual and domestic relationships with European men allowed some African women to achieve a greater degree of economic and social mobility. Bridewealth became a motor of African economic activity, as men and women promised, earned, borrowed, transferred, and absconded with money to facilitate interpersonal relationships. Rachel Jean-Baptiste expands the discourse on sexuality in Africa and challenges conventional understandings of urban history beyond the study of the built environment. Conjugal Rights takes a fresh look at questions of the historical construction of race and ethnicity. Those interested in sexuality, gender, marriage, law, colonialism, and urban history— and not just in an African context—will be richly rewarded by the book.” — American Historical ReviewConjugal Rights is a history of the role of marriage and other arrangements between men and women in Libreville, Gabon, during the French colonial era, from the mid–nineteenth century through 1960. Black and métisse
Bringing together cutting-edge urban studies, gender history and the history of emotions, Jean-Baptiste’s work insists that the shape of Libreville owed as much to the shifting fortunes of marriage and sexual relationships as to any set of commodity imports and exports. Barnes, associate professor of history, African studies, and gender and women’s studies, University of Illinois. As a study of Francophone Africa written in English, Conjugal Rights is doubly valuable. It points us toward a new and much fuller understanding of the lives of African women and men in cities where personal and political constructions regularly flowed over the boundaries planned for them by colonialism.” Teresa A
"Gabon has been somewhat neglected in African studies, but" according to Kathleen Sheldon. Gabon has been somewhat neglected in African studies, but this book provides a notable corrective, and also adds important information about African women and urban history by focusing on marriage and sexuality from the mid-nineteenth century to independence. Chapters on marital practices, law, and interracial relationships bring greater understanding to African lives under French colonial rule. Using sources that bring African voices and perspectives to light, the life stories of individuals suggest how Africans experienced urban life in the early twentieth century, and how their choices and decisions shaped t