Feminist Knowledge | Bibliography: African Women's Studies I
Religion and education are connected to state policy in Africa in very similar ways. Like sexuality and reproductive rights, the emphasis in studies of African women and religion has tended to fall on women as subjects of the power of religious fundamentalism and patriarchal beliefs. Not surprisingly, many prescriptive studies have been conducted on women and Islam, which has long been a maligned faith in Western media and intellectual commentary. A more balanced appraisal of Islam and women is Callaway and Creevey's The Heritage of Islam (1994).
Since Nawal el Saadawi's pioneering work, Islamic feminists have sought to show that it is possible to critique patriarchy and gender imbalances from an Islamic perspective. Scholars like Fatima Mernissi, Ayesha Imam and Margot Badran have persuasively demonstrated how many women resist patriarchy and gender imbalances without jettisoning Islam. Their work offers general implications for reassessing African women's strategies and politics. For example, arguments that veil-wearing need not automatically signal compliance with male domination read agency and choice into responses which many believe to be straightforwardly pre-feminist.
Another important strand in feminist studies of Islam probes the ambivalence and complexities of Muslim women's experiences. In Accommodating Protest, MacLeod (1991) considers how Muslim women in Cairo negotiate the contradictions of different oppressive forces, including neo-imperialism, domestic patriarchies and Islamic fundamentalism. Her emphasis is on women's agency and subjectivity, so that she avoids the prescriptivism often characterising appraisals of the impact of Islam on women.
Oduyoye and Kanyoro's collection of essays (1992) pioneers important study of women's complex relationships to Christianity. Considering the distinctive patterns of Christian conversion among women under colonialism, and the particular meanings of Christianity for women in transforming Africa, this study provides pivotal groundwork for a potentially rich field.
Studies
of women in education have been linked to studies of women and development or
the state, and the concentrated upsurge of research on education has been a
feature mainly of later years. A key theme in early research has been the limited
way in which the postcolonial extension of education benefited African women.
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Adams, M. and Kruppenbach, S. 1987. "Gender and Access in the African School." International Review of Education, 33, 4:437–453.
African Academy of Sciences. 1994. Building Technical Capacity and Gender Advocacy of Young Professional African Women. Nairobi: African Academy Science Publishers.
African Academy of Sciences. 1995. Directory of Researchers on Female Education. Nairobi: African Academy Science Publishers.
Agheyisi, R. U. 1985. "The Labour Market Implications of the Access of Women to Higher Education in Nigeria." Women in Nigeria Today. London: Zed Press.
Ahmed, L. 1992. Women and Gender in Islam. New Haven: Yale University Press.
Akle, Y. 1991. "The Religious Role of African Women", in Nieuwenhove, J. and Goldewijk, B., eds. Popular Religion, Liberation, and Contextual Theology: Paper From a Congress, January 3–7, 1990, Nijmegen, Netherlands. Kampen, Netherlands: Kok.
Amoah, E. and Oduyoye, M. 1988. "The Christ for African Women", in Fabella, V. and Oduyoye, M. eds. With Passion and Compassion: Third World Women Doing Theology: Reflections From the Women's Commission of the Ecumenical Association of Third World Theologians. Maryknoll, New York: Orbis Books.
Ampofo, R. 1988. "The Contribution of Women to Church Growth and Development in Africa." International Review of Mission, 87, 345:233-239.
Asogwa, C. 1992. "A Challenge to the Integrity of Creation: An African Woman's Perspective." Ecumenical Review, 44 July:339–344.
Assie-Lumumba, N. 1994. "Rural Students in Urban Settings in Africa: The Experience of Female Students in Secondary Schools", in Stromquist, N. P. ed. Education in Urban Areas: Cross-National Dimensions. Westport, Connecticut: Praeger Publishers.
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Badran, M. 1995. Feminists, Islam and Nation. Princeton NJ: Princeton University Press.
Bawuby, M. 1988. "Foundation Efforts for Women's Literacy in Africa, 1900–1980." Journal of the African Association for Literacy and Adult Education, 3, 1 June:22–25.
Boddy, J. 1989. Wombs and Alien Spirits: Women, Men and the Zar-Cult in Northern Sudan. Madison: Wisconsin University Press.
Bowie, F., Kirkwood, D. and Ardener, S. 1992. "Women and Missions Past and Present: Anthropological and Historical Perspectives." Providence, Rhode Island/Oxford: Berg Publishers.
Bula, O. 1992. "Women in Mission: Participating in Healing." International Review of Mission, 81, April:247–251.
Callaway, B. and Creevey, L. 1994. The Heritage of Islam: Women, Religion and Politics in West Africa. Boulder and London: Lynne Reinner.
Castaneda, T. 1987. "Negotiating Autonomy: African Women and Christianity", in Cooey, P., Farmer, S. and Ross, M. eds. Embodied Love: Sensuality and Relationship as Feminist Values. San Francisco: Harper and Row.
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Coulon, C. 1988. "Women Islam Baraka", in Cruise, D. and Coulon, C. eds. Charisma and Brotherhood in African Islam. Oxford: Clarendon Press. New York: Oxford University.
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Dorsey, B. J. et al. 1989. Factors Affecting Academic Careers for Women and the University of Zimbabwe. Harare: Human Resources Research Centre.
Edet, R. and Ekeya, B. 1988. "Church Women of Africa: A Theological Community", in Fabella, V. and Oduyoye, M. eds. With Passion and Compassion: Third World Women Doing Theology: Reflections From the Women's Commission of the Ecumenical Association of Third World Theologians. Maryknoll, New York: Orbis Books.
Ejizu, C. 1989. "African Christian Widows: An Agonistic Definition." Asia Journal of Theology, 3, 1, April:174–183.
Ekeye, B. 1986. "Women for How Long Not", in Pobee, J. and Wartenberg-Potter, B. eds. New Eyes for Reading: Biblical and Theological Reflections by Women From the Third World. Geneva: World Council of Churches.
El-Solh, C. and Mabro, J. Eds. 1994. Muslim Women's Choices: Religious Belief and Social Reality. Providence, Rhode Island: Berg.
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Fabella, V. and Oduyoye, M. 1988. "With Passion and Compassion: Third World Women Doing Theology: Reflections From the Women's Commission of the Ecumenical Association of Third World Theologians." Maryknoll, New York: Orbis Books.
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Gilkes, C. 1986. "The Roles of Church and Community Mothers: Ambivalent American Sexism or Fragmented African Familyhood." Journal of Feminist Studies. 2, 1, Spring:41–59.
Goodwin, J. 1994. Price of Honor: Muslim Women Lift the Veil of Silence on the Islamic World. Boston: Little, Brown.
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Kanioyoti, D. Ed. 1991. Women, Islam and the State. London: Macmillan.
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Kukah, M. H. 1985. “Women, the Family and Christianity: Old Testament, New Testament and Contemporary Concepts”, in Imam, A., Pittin, R. and Omole, H. 1985. Women and the Family in Nigeria. Dakar: CODESRIA.
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MacLeod, A. 1991. Accommodating Protest: Working Women, the New Veiling and Change in Cairo. NewYork: Columbia University Press.
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Mbiti, J. 1991. "Flowers in the Garden: The Role of Women in African Religion", in Olupona, J. ed. African Traditional Religions in Contemporary Society. New York: International Religious Foundation/Paragon House.
Mbon, F. 1987. "Women in African Traditional Religions", in King, U. ed. Women in the World's Religions, Past and Present. New York: Paragon House.
Mbugua, J. Ed. 1994. Our Time Has Come. Grand Rapids, Michigan/Carlisle, Great Britain: Baker Book House/Paternoster Press for the World Evangelical Fellowship.
Muchena, O. 1994. "The Need for Management Training and Policy Analysis for Women", in United Nations Development Fund for Women. Building Technical Capacity and Gender Advocacy of Young Professional Women in Africa. Nairobi: United Nations Development Fund for Women.
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Nasimiyu-Wasike, A. 1991. "Christology and an African Woman's Experience", in Schreiter, R. J. ed. Faces of Jesus in Africa. Maryknoll, New York: Orbis Books.
Nasimiyu-Wasike, A. 1993. "Prophetic Mission of the Church: Voices of African Women", in Nasimiyu-Wasike, A. and Waruta, D. W. eds. Mission in African Christianity: Critical Essays in Missionology. Nairobi: Uzima Press.
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Nwachuku, D. 1992. "Women in Africa in the Process of Adjustment and Change." Evangelical Review of Theology, 16 July:232–250.
Nwagwu, G. 1992. "Challenges Facing Women Religious in the Evangelization of Africa." AFER. 34 June:146–157.
Obura, A. Ed. 1986. "Learning the Gender Bias Early: A Critical Examination of Some Primary School Textbooks." Ceres, 19, 3:28–33.
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Oduyoye, M. and Kanyoro, M. 1990. Talitha Qumi!: Proceedings of the Convocation of African Women Theologians Trinity College Legon, Ghana, September 24–October 2. Ibadan: Daystar Press. Institute of African Women in Religion and Culture.
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Onunwa, U. 1988. "The Struggle for the Liberation of Women in the Third World Nation: The Ambiguity of the Role of the Church." Ufahamu, 17, 1:44–56.
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Onunwa, U. 1992. "Femininity in African Cosmology: Paradoxes and Ambiguities." Journal of Asian and African Studies, 44:131–143.
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