Engaging modernity : Muslim women and the politics of agency in postcolonial Niger / Ousseina D. Alidou.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Alidou, Ousseina.

Series:

Women in Africa and the diaspora

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Muslim women--Niger.

Muslim women.

Muslim women--Education--Niger.

Women--Political activity--Niger.

Women.

Women--Political activity.

Sex role.

Social conditions.

Women and war.

Women in Islam.

Muslim women--Education.

Niger.

Women in Islam--Niger.

Women and war--Niger.

Women--Niger--Social conditions--21st century.

Sex role--Niger.

Physical Description:

xxi, 235 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm.

Place of Publication:

Madison : University of Wisconsin Press, [2005]

Summary:

Engaging Modernity is Ousseina D. Alidou's compelling portrait of Muslim women in Niger as they confront the challenges and opportunities of the late twentieth century. Contrary to Western stereotypes of passive subordination, these women are taking control of their own lives and resisting domination from indigenous traditions, westernization, and Islam alike. Whether establishing alternative literacy campaigns, participating in family planning activities, or working to mediate peace agreements at the national and international levels, they often appropriate, reconfigure, and remobilize characteristics assigned by indigenous tradition as "male." Seizing the space opened by the early 1990s democratization movement, Muslim women are carving an active, influential, but often-overlooked role for themselves during a time of great change.

Based on thorough scholarly research and extensive fieldwork-including a wealth of interviews-Alidou's work offers insights into the meaning of modernity for Muslim women in Niger. Mixing biography with sociological data, social theory and linguistic analysis, this is a multilayered vision of political Islam, education, popular culture, and war and its aftermath. A gripping look at one of the Muslim world's most powerful untold stories.

Contents:

Background to the Study 3

Beyond Ethnicity: Brassage Sahelien 8

Niger: Postcolonial Developments 11

The Period of the 1990s 11

Enactment of Identity in the Urban Landscape 14

From Makaranta/Madarasa Literacy to the Quest for Material Basis of Empowerment 17

The Place of Biography 21

Part 1 Women, Education, and Epistemological Traditions

Chapter 1 When Kuble (Seclusion) Literacy Invades the Electronic Space: Malama A'ishatu Hamani Zarmakoy Dancandu and the Politics of Knowledge 33

Gendered Spaces: Between Indigenous Tradition and French Colonialism 36

Poetry, Piety, and Identity 43

Transitional "Digraphia": From Hausa Ajami to Arabic Script 52

Malama A'ishatu: Between Womanhood and Motherhood 54

Chapter 2 Women and the Political Economy of Education 57

Women, Orality, and Literacies in Precolonial Niger 62

Women's Other Educational Skills in the Precolonial Era 65

Education and the French "Civilizing" Mission: Gender Implications 68

Women in Education in the Aftermath of Independence 71

Constraints on Women's Education in Postcolonial Niger 73

Women in Islamic Schools 75

Grassroots Women's Responses to the Educational Crisis 78

Part 2 Women, Folklore, and Performative Identities

Chapter 3 Politics, Popular Culture, and Women Performing Artists: A Biographical Inquiry in a Francophone-Islamic Context 87

Habsu Garba and Hybridity: A Critical Discourse Analysis 88

Habsu Garba and Educational Brassage 94

Habsu Garba: Between Modern Education and Indigenous Traditions 96

Brassage and the Urban Landscape 98

In Search of Professional Fulfillment 99

The Becoming of a Performing Artist and Its Cultural Problematics 101

Griotte(s) of Tradition and Modernity: The Struggle for Space 105

Functional Art: Between Orality and Literacy 106

The Tension between Performance and Politics 114

Between Political Patronage and Political Representation 115

When Fieldwork Connects the Present with the Past 119

Chapter 4 Cinderella Goes to the Sahel 129

Islam, Folklore, Gender, and Modernity 132

The Story of the Orphan Girl Who Married the Prince of Masar 133

Analysis of the Tale 138

Part 3 Women and Overt Political Contestation

Chapter 5 Islamisms, the Media, and Women's Public Discursive Practices 149

Democratization and the Rise of Political Islam in Niger 150

Democracy, Islam, the Media, and Women's Activism 156

Plural Islamisms and the Hijab Discourse 159

Women's Islamic Literacy and the Public Display of Knowledge 162

Women, Islamisms, the Family Code, and the Media in Niger 164

UN Family Planning Campaign and Muslim Women's Activism in the Media 168

Chapter 6 Through the Eyes of Agaisha: Womanhood, Gender Politics, and the Tuareg Armed Rebellion 172

Historical Background 172

The Political Context of the Uprising 172

Brassage Sahelien: Women Dispel the Myth of Ethnic Purity 176

Tuareg Women Entrapped by Identity Ties 180

Sisterhood during War 184

Appendix A Abdoul Salam's Dance Song Tigyedimma: Transregional and Transethnic Sahelian Brassage 199

Appendix B Biographical Sketch of Dr. Malama Zeinab Sidi Baba Haidara 205.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 211-223) and index.

ISBN:

0299212106

OCLC:

58386441