A major literary and scholarly work that transforms perceptions of West African women's history and culture.

This collection of papers-all but one previously unpublished-presents the results of recent field research in the disciplines of history, political science, anthropology, sociology, and economics. The chief emphasis here is on change: on viewing African women as agents of change from the first arrival of Europeans to the present; and on seeking to change the perspective from which African women have been studied in the past. The papers encompass settings as diverse as eighteenth-century Senegal and contemporary Mozambique. Politically and socially, too, the local settings are various, including an Igbo village, the marketplaces of Abidjan and Accra, a development scheme in rural Tanzania, the churches of Freetown, and the streets of Mombasa. The contributors are Iris Berger, James L. Brain, George E. Brooks, Jr., Margaret Jean Hay, Barbara C. Lewis, Leith Mullings, Kamene Okonjo, Claire Robertson, Filomina Chioma Steady, Margaret Strobel, and Judith VanAllen.

The "woman question", this book asserts, is a Western one, and not a proper lens for viewing African society. A work that rethinks gender as a Western contruction, The Invention of Women offers a new way of understanding both Yoruban and Western cultures. Oyewumi traces the misapplication of Western, body-oriented concepts of gender through the history of gender discourses in Yoruba studies. Her analysis shows the paradoxical nature of two fundamental assumptions of feminist theory: that gender is socially constructed in old Yoruba society, and that social organization was determined by relative age.

FOR SALE IN AFRICA ONLY An innovative and valuable resource for understanding women's roles in changing societies, this book brings together the history of Africa, the Atlantic and gender before the 20th century. It explores trade, slavery and migration in the context of the Euro-African encounter.

Explores the paradoxical image of African women as exceptionally oppressed, but also as strong, resourceful and rebellious.

Challenges the common stereotypes of African women as either victims or unrestrained resisters.

Third installment of major literary and scholarly project exposes East African women's history and culture.

What was it like to live as a queen in ancient Egypt, or as an Amazon warrior in western Africa? African Princess tells the stories of six remarkable royal women and the eras in which they lived, from 1473 B.C. to the present. Some lived in great luxury; others lived in exile as freedom fighters. The rise of the slave trade and the arrival of European colonists unsettled the entire continent and forced rulers to find ways to govern and protect their kingdoms. Consequently, many of these royal women ruled in extremely difficult times, marked by palace intrigue, foreign invasion, and harrowing adventure.

The contributors use a variety of theoretical approaches to analyze how women as a class have experienced specific twentieth-century revolutions. They identify the issues that prompted women to participate in the struggles, the roles they played, the contributions they made, and their hopes for better lives for themselves as women in the post-revolutionary society.