Our New Husbands Are Here: Households, Gender, and Politics in

Our New Husbands Are Here: Households, Gender, and Politics in a West African State from the Slave Trade to Colonial Rule (New African Histories)

In Our New Husbands Are Here, Emily Lynn Osborn investigates a central puzzle of power and politics in West African history: Why do women figure frequently in the political narratives of the precolonial period, and then vanish altogether with colonization? Osborn addresses this question by exploring the relationship of the household to the state. By analyzing the history of statecraft in the interior savannas of West Africa (in present-day Guinea-Conakry), Osborn shows that the household, and women within it, played a critical role in the pacifist Islamic state of Kankan-BatÃ©, enabling it to endure the predations of the transatlantic slave trade and become a major trading center in the nineteenth century. But French colonization introduced a radical new method of statecraft to the region, one that separated the household from the state and depoliticized womenâ€™s domestic roles. This book will be of interest to scholars of politics, gender, the household, slavery, and Islam in African history.
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Country USA
Brand Ohio University Press
Manufacturer Ohio University Press
Binding Paperback
ItemPartNumber illustrations, maps
Model illustrations, maps
UnitCount 1
EANs 9780821419830
ReleaseDate 0000-00-00

Our New Husbands Are Here: Households, Gender, and Politics in a West African State from the Slave Trade to Colonial Rule (New African Histories)