Marriage in Maradi: Gender and Culture in a Hausa Society in Niger, 1900-1989

Review
...Cooper manages this entire intellectual journey with clear and exact prose. Upper division undergraduates and above.Choice

Book Description
Cloth Edition. Women's contradictory contributions to social and economic change in the twentieth century can be seen in their improvisations upon the seemingly fixed "traditions" surrounding marriage in Maradi.

About the Author
BARBARA COOPER studied African history, anthropology, and Hausa language at the African Studies Center of Boston University, where she received her Ph.D. in 1992. Her articles on Maradis history have appeared in Journal of African History, African Economic History, and Signs. She has taught at the University of Florida and Bryn Mawr College and is now an assistant professor at New York Universitys Gallatin School of Individualized Study. Her current research focuses upon Muslim womens negotiation of space and upon the history of a Protestant minority community in Maradi.


Buy from Amazon     Compare Prices

Explores how men and women have responded to changes in the sub-Sahara region during the 20th century by adapting, negotiating, and contesting their rights and duties in marriage. Finds an elaboration of marriage rites to enhance the status of brides as they replace the domestic labor lost with the decline of slavery; the reinterpretation of married women's rights to land, labor, and produce as men are drawn into production for the global market; the rise of urban seclusion and development of women's house trades in response to increased trade with the Islamic northern Nigeria just across the border; and verbal and visual debates about what constitutes a married women in light of state education and employment. Annotation c. by Book News, Inc., Portland, Or.


Buy from Barnes & Noble     Compare Prices