Pathos and power : interdisciplinary perspectives on widowhood in Africa, past and present / edited by Joanna Davidson and Benjamin N. Lawrance.

Format:

Book

Contributor:

Davidson, Joanna, 1969- editor, author.

Lawrance, Benjamin N. (Benjamin Nicholas), editor, author.

Series:

Research in international studies. Africa series ; no. 102.

Ohio University research in international studies. Africa series; no. 102

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Widowhood--Africa.

Widowhood.

Widows--Legal status, laws, etc--Africa.

Widows.

Physical Description:

xvi, 347 pages : illustrations, maps ; 22 cm.

Place of Publication:

Athens, Ohio : Ohio University Press, [2025]

Summary:

"The collected essays in Pathos and Power provide a critical exploration of widowhood in Africa through a series of historical and contemporary case studies. The book challenges a simplistic understanding of widowhood by highlighting how the experience varies according to age, class, race, religion, and geographic location. The contributors investigate how the category of widowhood can obscure or reveal various social dynamics while demonstrating the diversity of material, symbolic, and embodied circumstances faced by African widows. The volume considers the forces shaping the lives of widows by examining the structural and legal challenges they encounter, including discriminatory practices in social, economic, and political spheres. Through discussions of precolonial, colonial, and postcolonial contexts, it explores the intersections of custom, law, patriarchy, and feminism while delving into the potentially liberatory opportunities that widowhood sometimes presents. The book also raises broader questions about gender, personhood, marriage, autonomy, and national identity, emphasizing how widowhood informs key conceptual debates in African studies. Editors Joanna Davidson and Benjamin N. Lawrance bring together scholars across such fields as anthropology, gender studies, history, law, and political science. The authors employ a range of methodologies, including archival research, ethnography, and storytelling, to illuminate widowhood in new and innovative ways. The volume's rich empirical studies and theoretical insights offer a valuable resource for scholars seeking to understand widowhood and its broader implications in African societies"-- Provided by publisher.

Contents:

Foreword / Enid Schildkrout

Widowhood in Africa: A Re-Introduction / Benjamin N. Lawrance and Joanna Davidson

Part 1

Vestiges of Widowhood on Gorée Island and in Senegambia during the Atlantic Era / Sarah J. Zimmerman

Law and Widowhood in Nineteenth-Century Angola / Mariana P. Candido, Mariana Dias Paes, and Juelma Gomes de Matos Ngāla

Owning and Resisting : Widowhood in Nineteenth- and Early Twentieth-Century Mauritanian Islamic Texts / Abbass Braham

Widows, 'Ordinary' Men, and Levirate Disputes in the Early Colonial French Soudan, 1905-1913 / Wallace Teska and Richard L. Roberts

Part 2

Challenging Dependents/Dependence : Widows in Court in Postcolonial Ghana / Kate Skinner

'The City Makes and Unmakes Namwandus' : Anxieties of Widowhood in Late Twentieth-Century Kampala / Benjamin Twagira

Four Months and Ten Days : Widowhood and Womb Politics in the Nile Valley / Rogaia Mustafa Abusharaf and Ramadan El-Khouli

A Precious Story : Writing a Young Widow's Life from Postapartheid South Africa / Casey Golomski

Part 3

The Children's Fight : Widowhood, Kin-Work, and Dispossession in Rural Sierra Leone / Catherine E. Bolten

Simply Disliked by Her In-Laws : Litigating African Widowhood in Refuge and Exile / Benjamin N. Lawrance

'Widows of the State' : Sociopolitical Belonging among Nigerian Military Widows during the Boko Haram Conflict / Fisayo Ajala

Wombs and Tombs : Widows, Houses, Sex, and Death / Joanna Davidson

Afterword / Kenda Mutongi.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 297-328) and index.

ISBN:

9780821426432

0821426435

9780821426425

0821426427

OCLC:

1519347202