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Journal articles on the topic 'African traditional marriage'
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1
Oladosu-Uthman, Habibat. "“THIS MAN IS MY WIFE”: THE SAME-SEX MARRIAGE PROHIBITION ACT OF 2014 IN NIGERIA." Journal of Law and Religion 36, no. 1 (April 2021): 92–104. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/jlr.2020.53.
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AbstractThe increased visibility of same-sex relationships and the call for same-sex marriages have been particular challenges to the traditional marriage system in Africa in the contemporary period. While some critics have argued, erroneously, that same-sex relationships were completely unknown to the African continent until the advent of Western modernity, others have suggested that the practices speak to a greater malaise confronting African societies. Nigeria is not an exception in this case. In light of these trends, this article examines the Same-Sex Marriage Prohibition Act, which was promulgated by the Nigerian government in 2014 and has since led to infractions upon the human rights of citizens in same-sex relationships. The article examines these developments around same-sex relationships in the context of wider social and economic challenges to the traditional marriage institution in Nigeria.
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Mwaba, Kelvin. "Attitudes and beliefs about homosexuality and same-sex marriage among a sample of South African students." Social Behavior and Personality: an international journal 37, no. 6 (July 1, 2009): 801–4. http://dx.doi.org/10.2224/sbp.2009.37.6.801.
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With the enactment of the Civil Unions Bill in 2006, South Africa became the fifth country in the world, and the first in Africa, to legalize same-sex marriage. While supporters of the bill hailed the decision as signaling the end of discrimination against homosexual couples, critics slammed it as undermining traditional marriage between a man and woman. The attitudes and beliefs of a sample of South African students regarding homosexuality and same-sex marriage were investigated. A survey was conducted among a sample of 150 undergraduate students at a predominantly black university in the Western Cape. Results showed that 71% viewed same-sex marriages as strange and supported religious groups opposed to such marriages. Close to 40% supported discrimination against homosexuals with 46% indicating that they should be denied the right to adopt children. It is concluded that, despite having legal protection, public acceptance of homosexuals and same-sex marriage may be quite limited in South Africa.
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Masango, MJ. "Die konsep, rituele en proses van Afrika-huwelike." Verbum et Ecclesia 27, no. 1 (November 17, 2006): 226–36. http://dx.doi.org/10.4102/ve.v27i1.144.
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In many African tribes, sexual relations are legitimate only within the context of marriage. Moreover, all marriages are preceded by extensive preparations involving, inter alia, education (given by the elders of the community) and various religious rites de passage, e.g. circumcision. Boys and girls undergo separate initiations and several types of marriage (monogamy, polygamy, exogamy) prevail within traditional cultures. In this article, the author discusses elements of the variety of betrothal rites prevalent among African tribes as well as a number of global challenges affecting African marriage customs which have managed to hold their own despite the onslaught of westernisation and (post-) modernity.
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Olugbenga, Dasaolu Babajide. "On Efficient Causation for Homosexual Behaviours among Traditional Africans: An Exploration of the Traditional Yoruba Model." Bangladesh Journal of Bioethics 9, no. 2 (April 25, 2019): 26–37. http://dx.doi.org/10.3329/bioethics.v9i2.41187.
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In the face of the recent backlashes against homosexual persons in Africa, on the ground that the phenomenon is un-African and/or threat to procreation and marital values, it is pertinent to review the discourse in the light of how ancient Africans perceived the reality. This is imperative given the lack of consensus on the part of scientists to disinter a conclusive finding on what causes homosexual behaviours among humans. In this research, I employ traditional Yorùbá philosophy to provide a plausible justification for homosexuality among the people. In the face of this justification via Yorùbá folklore, I find that there is no documented evidence among the ancient Yorùbá that is suggestive of discrimination and stigmatization of homosexuals and inter-sex persons. As homosexual persons were respected but not criminalized, this study recommends the regurgitation of this outlook in the contemporaneous dealings with homosexual persons, beginning with the repealing of the Same-Sex Marriage Prohibition Act of 2014 in Nigeria, which is inconsistent with African values and outlooks on the subject.
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Yarbrough, Michael W. "Very Long Engagements: The Persistent Authority of Bridewealth in a Post-Apartheid South African Community." Law & Social Inquiry 43, no. 03 (2018): 647–77. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/lsi.12275.
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This article examines the persistent authority of lobola, the customary practice for forming marriages in many South African communities. South African marriage rates have sharply fallen, and many blame this on economic challenges completing lobola. Using in-depth, qualitative research from a village in KwaZulu-Natal, where lobola demands are the country's highest and marriage rates its lowest, I argue that lobola's authority survives because lay actors have innovated new approaches for pursuing emerging desires for marriage via lobola. I argue that dyadic narratives of marriage increasingly circulate alongside “traditional” extended-family narratives, especially among the young women who strongly support lobola while yearning for gender-egalitarian marriages. My argument synthesizes actor-oriented analyses of legal pluralism with Ewick and Silbey's theorization of lay actors’ role in producing legality to illuminate how lay actors contribute not only to the form and content of different legal systems, but also to the reach of their authority.
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Bonthuys, Elsje. "A Duty of Support for All South African Unmarried Intimate Partners Part I." Potchefstroom Electronic Law Journal 21 (October 30, 2018): 1–32. http://dx.doi.org/10.17159/1727-3781/2018/v21i0a4410.
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The democratic Constitutional dispensation has led to the gradual extension of spousal duties of support to unmarried couples who hitherto could not legally claim support from their partners or from third parties who had unlawfully caused the death of their partners. The new recipients of rights to support can be divided into three groups: wives in Muslim religious marriages, partners in same-sex intimate relationships and unmarried opposite sex cohabitants whose relationships closely resemble civil marriage in both form and function. However, certain distinctive features of customary marriage, the continuing consequences of apartheid policies for African families and certain distinctive patrilineal features of traditional African families have largely excluded African women – who constitute the largest and most economically vulnerable group of women – from the benefits of these developments. Part one of this two-part article analyses the trajectory of the developing right to support intimate partnerships which appears to be based either on marriage (in the case of Muslim marriages) or similarity to marriage, including monogamy and permanent co-residence in the case of same-sex and opposite sex partners. This leaves no room to extend rights to unmarried intimate partners whose relationships do not fit the template of civil marriage, and, in particular, excludes many disadvantaged African women from obtaining legal rights to support from their relationships.
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EFFIONG, Linus O. "Rethinking Marriage Preparation Through Traditional African Cultural Education Process." INTAMS review 14, no. 1 (July 31, 2008): 88–111. http://dx.doi.org/10.2143/int.14.1.2031558.
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Rotich, Cathleen Chepkorir, and Richard Starcher. "Traditional Marriage Education among the Kipsigis of Kenya with Application to Local Church Ministry in Urban Africa." Mission Studies 33, no. 1 (March 2, 2016): 49–65. http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/15733831-12341433.
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The Church in urban Africa is seeing an increase in marriages and homes experiencing disruption due to divorce. In a bid to forward discussion on marriage issues, the church has developed material on premarital education. However, much of this material has been adapted from the West. The contribution of an African system to education remains largely unexplored. The purpose of this study is to explore the Kipsigis community’s marriage preparation customs with a view to recommend ways they might inform a local church’s efforts to develop a more culturally relevant curriculum that includes points of integration. While reintroducing principles on marital instruction from a traditional African culture is an unlikely panacea to marriage and family dysfunction in a contemporary context, the study suggests that from an early age, within the context of God’s community, children, youth and adults might learn and value the place of family life. Data collected from in-depth, semi-structured interviews with seven participants in the Kericho District were analyzed using grounded theory procedures of open, axial and selective coding. The study uncovered a cycle of influencers and educators, with the core being family and widening to mentors and the community at large. The context of learning was imbedded in everyday life and moved from unstructured to focused learning as children entered adolescence. The article concludes by suggesting four transferable points of application for integrating principles from traditional culture’s practices: 1) intentional community, 2) intergeneration interaction, 3) integrated learning, and 4) carefully chosen mentors.
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Ikeke, Mark Omorovie. "The Unethical Nature of Abuse of Childless Women in African Traditional Thought/Practice." East African Journal of Traditions, Culture and Religion 3, no. 1 (March 19, 2021): 12–22. http://dx.doi.org/10.37284/eajtcr.3.1.299.
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One of the major challenges confronting marriages and families in African from the past to the present is the issue of barrenness or childlessness. Childlessness was often blamed on the woman, even though at times it may arise from the medical conditions of a man. African traditional culture had great value for children and childless marriage was seen as cursed and the woman in particular was even labelled a “man” or a witch. The woman is often verbally abused, and physical violence was meted on her. The marriage is often made unbearable and uncomfortable for the woman by the man or the in-laws of the woman. In some exceptional cases, the man and his relatives were understanding and coped with the situation or the man was allowed to marry another woman, while bearing with the childless woman. In order to cope with the challenge of childlessness women even encouraged their husbands to marry another woman (women). This paper written from critical philosophical analysis and hermeneutics argues that this abuse of childless women is unethical/immoral. The paper will draw upon instances from both written and oral literature to bring light on this belief and practice. No woman or man gives children. Even though a woman may have conditions that may impede the birth of children, it is rare to see a woman causing her own childlessness. These cultural practices that still influence the attitude and (mal) treatment of women need to be denounced and abrogated. The paper finds and concludes there is a need to end these unethical treatments of childless women.
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Goodseed, Ochulor Nwaugo. "Language and Power: A Critical Discourse Analysis of Wole Soyinka’s The Lion and the Jewel." Journal of English Language and Literature 10, no. 1 (August 31, 2018): 982–88. http://dx.doi.org/10.17722/jell.v10i1.383.
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The play, The Lion and the Jewel by Soyinka has been projected variously as a triumph of African culture over the Western culture. This is because it is a post-colonial write-up that came almost after the end of the struggles that got Nigeria its independence. There have been different approaches to the study of this text with respect to the struggles between the two traditions as represented by Lakunle (the Western tradition) and Baroka (the African tradition). However, this paper takes a different dimension. Its concern is to investigate, using Fairclough’s tools of Critical Discourse Analysis, some of the ideologies and power relations embedded in some discourses in the text which reveal, in the same context, that Yoruba (African) traditional marriage ideology of bride price oppresses and marginalizes women whereas Western marriage ideology empowers and helps women to discover their self-worth. In addition too, the play reveals that chauvinism in African man cannot be completely eroded no matter the level of Western education acquired. In other words, there were still other levels of imperialism within the so called “independent world” of the traditional Yoruba and at large, Africa.
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Sheik, Nafisa Essop. "African Marriage Regulation and the Remaking of Gendered Authority in Colonial Natal, 1843–1875." African Studies Review 57, no. 2 (August 18, 2014): 73–92. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/asr.2014.48.
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Abstract:This article examines the gendered relationships of authority that are at the heart of the processes of customary marriage in South Africa, as well as the ways in which colonial political intervention worked to effect social change in nineteenth-century colonial Natal. This analysis reinforces the established historiographical understanding that instigating generational shifts in authority was important to Natal Native Policy, unlike customary regulation elsewhere in colonial Africa in which colonial law worked to shore up the authority of senior men. However, it seeks to underline that while negotiations of colonial power began to shift authority from older to younger men by manipulating Native marriage, and in particular the practice of lobola, the effects of such policies produced profound shifts in the experience and articulation of gendered relationships of marriage and colonial authority. The imbrication of changes in gender and generational norms ultimately reveals the contradictions in both colonial claims of liberal gender reform and African claims that colonial policy provoked the usurpation of male traditional authority.
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Mulaudzi, PA. "Cultural perceptions and linguistic terminology regarding traditional marriage within indigenous South African communities." South African Journal of African Languages 33, no. 2 (September 2013): 153–58. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/02572117.2013.871456.
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van der Walt, Bennie J. "CULTURE, WORLDVIEW AND RELIGION." Philosophia Reformata 66, no. 1 (December 2, 2001): 23–38. http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/22116117-90000210.
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Why is a Reformational philosophy needed in Africa? It is necessary, because something is missing in African Christianity. Most Western missionaries taught Africans a “broken” or dualistic worldview. This caused a divorce between traditional culture and their new Christian religion. The Christian faith was perceived as something remote, only concerned with a distant past (the Bible) and a far-away future (heaven). It could not become a reality in their everyday lives. It could not develop into an all-encompassing worldview and lifestyle. Because Reformational philosophy advocates the Biblical, holistic approach of a comprehensive worldview, it is welcomed on our continent. It contains a healing and liberating message to our bleeding and lost continent. What Africans, however, neither want nor can afford, is an ivory tower philosophy, playing intellectual games; a philosophy which does not do or change anything. They want a philosophy which is a “marriage” between abstract ideas and the facts on the ground. They need a Christian philosophy with compassion that may even contribute to the alleviation of their poverty!
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Agege, Emmanuel A. "Early or Forced Marriage and the Roles of Primary Healthcare." Clinical Medical Reviews and Reports 2, no. 6 (September 9, 2020): 01–07. http://dx.doi.org/10.31579/2690-8794/036.
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Early marriage is the marriage done before or during adolescence, about 60% to 70% girls are forced to married early ages in several African and Asian countries. Even their basic human rights are not provided to them; these resulted several psychological and physiological health problems. The purpose of this paper is to narratively review the health problems/issues inherent in forced marriage and enunciate the roles of the public health care in ameliorating them. There was review of the health effects of early marriage grouped into psychological, pathophysiological, antenatal malaria and socio-cultural injustice, recommendations on how the public health-care roles can be useful tools to combating these unhealthy practices fostered by obsolete traditional beliefs and gross ignorance from both the victims and their parents. From the review of the previous studies, though no previous study has been documented in my locations for the study, there were great negative impactful health effects of early marriage on women, it was also obvious that the public health care providers can be vital in controlling or reducing these age-long anomalies. The grave dangers of early marriage on women were elucidated, its prevalence, the adverse consequences on the women as obviously observed were critically examined with enthusiasm and concerns. Therefore, the recommendations as per the roles of primary healthcare which includes teaching, surveillance, screening etc., in mitigating should be seriously adopted to curb the trend.
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Nuworsu, Anastasia, Grace Diabah, and Evershed Kwasi Amuzu. "“Look me, hwε ha, ofainε kwεmɔ biε aha mi fioo!!”: Codeswitching at inter-ethnic traditional marriage ceremonies in southern Ghana." Multilingua 38, no. 3 (May 27, 2019): 283–311. http://dx.doi.org/10.1515/multi-2017-0097.
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AbstractThis paper investigates the use of codeswitching at traditional inter-ethnic marriage ceremonies in the southern part of Ghana. The study site is Accra, the multilingual capital of Ghana which is located in the south of the country, and was selected due to the high frequency of inter-ethnic marriage ceremonies which take place there. The data analysed were audio-visual recordings of interactions at such ceremonies, collected, by (Nuworsu, Anastasia 2015: Language use in inter-ethnic marriage ceremonies in Greater Accra. MPhil. thesis, Department of Linguistics, University of Ghana, Legon.). They were complemented with observations made at the event grounds, as well as follow up interviews with key actors during and after the events. The theoretical framework employed is based on a combination of Giles’ Communication Accommodation Theory, Hymes’s Ethnography of Communication and Myers-Scotton‘s Markedness Model. It is found that bilinguals who speak on behalf of families participating in the ceremonies often use codeswitching in innovative ways to convey various social messages. Significant uses were: (i) speakers use codeswitching to converge toward the speech of their in-laws in a bid to decrease the social and linguistic distance between the two families and (ii) they use it as a divergence strategy to, for instance, increase the social and linguistic distance between them when they wish to accentuate an ideological, or any other, difference between them. Overall, the study contributes towards insights about inter-group language practices in multilingual African settings, especially in urban areas.
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Aderinto, Saheed. "MODERNIZING LOVE: GENDER, ROMANTIC PASSION AND YOUTH LITERARY CULTURE IN COLONIAL NIGERIA." Africa 85, no. 3 (July 9, 2015): 478–500. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s0001972015000236.
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ABSTRACTThis article concerns literary culture and the representation of romantic love in colonial Nigeria's print media. It examines how Nigerians, during the first half of the twentieth century, began redefining love, as both a biocultural and a historical construction, through what I call the modernization of African romantic passion. Through letters to editors and articles, print media showed that love, like education, politics and other institutions of colonial power, could be modernized to reflect Nigerians' quest to embrace ‘civilization’ and Western modernity. Modern romantic love did not just replace the precolonial or ‘traditional’ norms; rather, selective appropriation of precolonial gender and romantic norms created a hybrid that was neither African nor totally Western. While much has been written on African textual and print culture, gender, marriage and sexuality under colonial rule, the subject of romantic passion has received limited attention. Those few published works on the subject overlook it as a significant element of modernization that was championed by Africans who sought new avenues to express their emotion for the consumption of the reading public. This article attempts to retrieve the literary culture of colonial Nigerian youth by weaving textual analyses of representations of love into the wider socio-cultural transformation under alien rule.
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Bouah, Nicole, and Julia Sloth-Nielsen. "Towards Comprehensive Guidance for States in the African Region to respond to Children’s Rights in Emergencies, Disasters and Pandemics." International Journal of Children’s Rights 29, no. 2 (June 15, 2021): 447–74. http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/15718182-29020002.
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Abstract The covid-19 pandemic spread has it impacted health systems, economies and communities across the African continent. It has also exacerbated risks already faced by children: limiting access to education, reducing protection from sexual and gender-based violence, harmful traditional and cultural practices including child, early or forced marriage (cefm), female genital-mutilation (fgm); and further limiting access to reproductive services and food insecurity. This article illustrates that because demonstrably different considerations arise by comparison to children’s experiences in the global north, it would be a valuable contribution for the African Committee of Experts on the Rights and Welfare of the Child to develop a General Comment on state responses to upholding children’s rights in the context of epidemics, pandemics and emergencies, tailored to the specificities of the region.
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Prathesha, J. Jency, and DR R. Margaret Joy Priscilla. "Live to Win: A Study on women’s voice in Second Class Citizen by Buchi Emecheta." SMART MOVES JOURNAL IJELLH 7, no. 2 (February 10, 2019): 7. http://dx.doi.org/10.24113/ijellh.v7i2.6872.
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This paper explores the power of women’s voice in Nigeria in Second Class Citizen by Buchi Emecheta. Emecheta focuses on education as the most essential tool for female empowerment. Her work portrays the experiences of African womanhood in bold andinsubordinate. In this work the writer traces her life through the character Adah. Adah realizes marriage as a means to escape from the traditional bond. This study explained the journey from Ibuza to London. In London they are looking for the first class job. They are treated as the second class citizen among them. The Protagonist fought with the society to gain her identity among the first class citizen. This paper highlights the powerful fight in Society Adah wages to bear herself as a child, teenager, daughter, wife and mother.
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Mwambene, Lea. "What is the future of polygyny (polygamy) in Africa?" Potchefstroom Electronic Law Journal / Potchefstroomse Elektroniese Regsblad 20 (November 9, 2017): 1. http://dx.doi.org/10.17159/1727-3781/2017/v20i0a1357.
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The traditional practice of polygyny, whereby only a man is allowed to marry more than one wife in a customary marriage, has long been perceived to be an offender of women's rights. Recent family law reforms on the African continent show that the focus has been on promoting and protecting the rights of women as defined in international human rights law, as well as on respecting the practice of polygyny. These legislative reforms in jurisdictions such as Kenya, Mozambique and South Africa show that the approach to regulating polygyny has been either to legalise, abolish, or regulate the practice. In view of the focus in these reforms on both women's rights and respect for the practice of polygyny, this paper examines the different approaches of the selected countries to regulating the practice. In particular, this paper investigates how these countries are striking a balance between polygyny and the protection of women's rights. It will also highlight the difficulties that law reformers face in regulating the practice in such a way as to protect women's rights, as well as the gaps in the law reforms that need to be addressed.
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Abdullah, Md Abu Shahid. "Healing Trauma and Reasserting Identity through Remembrance in Joanne Fedler’s The Dreamcloth." Prague Journal of English Studies 6, no. 1 (July 26, 2017): 79–92. http://dx.doi.org/10.1515/pjes-2017-0005.
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Abstract The aim of this article is to analyse the role of memory in generating, transmitting and coming to terms with trauma, and the importance of exploring history, and talking about and sharing traumatic events in the process of healing in Joan Fedler’s The Dreamcloth (2005). In the novel, Maya’s memories of her unrequited lesbian relationship with her beloved Rochel, oppression by the traditional structures of her family and Jewish community, her forced marriage with Yankel, and her being raped by him are responsible for her trauma on a personal level, whereas her forced relocation to South Africa in order to flee from the Holocaust is responsible for her trauma on a communal level. Mia, the protagonist and the grand-daughter of Maya, suffers from the transgenerational trauma of her grandmother, is haunted by her ghost, and also symbolically represents the traumatized Jewish community. She cannot relate to her own Jewish South African identity and thus tries to avoid being reminded of her historical background. Mia recovers from her trauma by exploring her history, solving the riddles of the past and sharing the traumatic memories of the past.
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Abdul, Zanyar Kareem. "BRIDE VALUE: A FEMINIST READING OF BUCHI EMECHETA’S THE BRIDE PRICE." Language Literacy: Journal of Linguistics, Literature, and Language Teaching 3, no. 2 (December 19, 2019): 201–6. http://dx.doi.org/10.30743/ll.v3i2.1993.
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The Bride Price is one of the most influential modern novels authored by Buchi Emecheta through which the voice of a female character is expressed. The study has two points of discussion: the first deals with patriarchal society in which women suffer and become the only victims, and the second does with African culture from which Emecheta criticizes severely. Men have all the powers in controlling the whole family. The traditional society of Africa follows their culture as it is especially in paying the bride from the groom’s family. The paper aims at both men and women to keep this belief for the rest of their life no matter how modern the society has become. To some extent, the idea of “double colonization” proposed by Peterson and Rutherford (1986) will be identified in the paper and further explanation will be given. The paper also is an attempt to analyze the reflection of the African system related to marriage in the novel; as similar idea can be found in Iraqi Kurdistan that would be counted as the main objective behind writing the current paper. Furthermore, it shows some cultural similarities between both countries. By applying “double colonization” theory, the researcher confirms that Emecheta’s female characters suffer a traumatic experience in which they are controlled by two colonizers: the power of males and the reality of colonization. The researcher tries to send his messages through this paper out to avoid such conflicts and spread self and cultural awareness among the society.
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Kiyawa, Haruna Alkasim. "Female Readers as Literary Critics: Reading Experiences of Kano Market Romance Fiction." International Journal of English and Comparative Literary Studies 2, no. 1 (January 26, 2021): 34–45. http://dx.doi.org/10.47631/ijecls.v2i1.199.
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This paper aims to explore the female readers reading experiences, views and feelings of Hausa romance novels found in most of the northern part of Nigeria. This article also examines some criticism and accusations against the readership and content of the Hausa romance genre. The study applied the Transactional Reader-Response Theory of Rosenblatt’s (1978) as guide by selecting 7 female readers within the age ranges between 22-26 years from 2 book clubs to participate in the study. The findings revealed that all the readers individually were able to reveal their varied responses, beliefs, and experiences on the value of the romance novels which challenged the assertion made by the literary critics and traditional society that the books have no relevance in their life activities which supported their arguments and personal interpretive reading stance towards the Hausa romance genre. The finding yielded four themes were emerging: (a) promoting literacy development; (b) resistance to the traditional marriage system in society; (d) enlightening females on social inequality. These findings provided empirical support for the application of the Transactional Reader-Response Theory of Rosenblatt (1978) outside classroom contexts to understand the role of African romance novels towards female social transformation.
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Hopwood, Julian. "Women’s Land Claims in the Acholi Region of Northern Uganda: What Can Be Learned from What Is Contested." International Journal on Minority and Group Rights 22, no. 3 (July 17, 2015): 387–409. http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/15718115-02203005.
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Women are often understood to be highly marginalised in typical African customary land regimes. The research presented in this article found that in the Acholi region of northern Uganda this is not the case. The crisis of land conflict that followed the twenty-year lra insurgency and mass rural displacement has seemingly passed, notwithstanding a minimal contribution from the formal justice, law and order sector: local state actors as well as clan elders are mediating and adjudicating disputes on the basis of custom. However some social institutions, in particular traditional marriage, have been deeply affected by displacement and the consequent poverty. In this context, custom appears to be becoming more responsive to the needs of women, including those who are divorced or separated. While women’s customary land claims are often challenged, they appear to be generally respected and supported by communities and those with responsibilities for settling disputes.
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Bihariová, Emília. "Is Leather Skirt Designed by Urameselgwa a Symbol of Datooga’s Identity?" Ethnologia Actualis 19, no. 1 (June 1, 2019): 14–35. http://dx.doi.org/10.2478/eas-2019-0008.
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Abstract The paper focuses on the context of a traditional women’s wearing component – a leather skirt – on the example of the contemporary semi-nomadic Datooga1 and ideas, imaginations, and myths which this product of material culture represents. Analysis of the researched material composed from the statements of the daily users (married women) as well as the members of the society on example of the Datooga people (Buradiga subgroup) in a particular locality of Igunga district in Tanzania will demonstrate why the leather skirt, linked and designed by women’s deity Urameselgwa, is considered not only as a sign of marriage from the external perspective through outsider’s eyes, but mostly as an identification factor and strong cultural symbol through the Buradiga’s perception. The author explains how Urameselgwa is presented in the daily routine of the Buradiga’ women and which kind of privilege, so unique among East African pastoralists, is given to them by the wearing of the leather skirt transmitted from one generation to the other.
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Teiko, Nii Okain. "Changing Conceptions of Masculinity in the Marital Landscape of Africa." Matatu 49, no. 2 (December 20, 2017): 329–57. http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/18757421-04902006.
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Abstract Recent critical studies of men have focused on multiple masculinities and the need for a change in theorizing the hegemonic constructions of gender. This growing body of scholarship has influenced literary studies, particularly in the readings of male characters as presented in literary works. The portraiture of the male characters in Aidoo’s Changes and Emecheta’s The Joys of Motherhood has attracted the attention of critics who examine the conflicted hegemonic constructions of masculinity mediated by the powerful forces of colonialism and modernity. These critics contest the patriarchal privileges of masculinity and redefine the gender constructions of both sexes to reflect current studies which focus on the plurality, fluidity, and complexities of masculine roles. This paper argues that Aidoo and Emecheta’s novels depict a hybridism of masculinities, in the context of marriage, in which both the male and the female characters strive to maintain a balance between their traditional African roles as husbands/wives, fathers/mothers and maintain an imitated eurocentric display of love and affection in enacting their roles in the marital enterprise.
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Yekeen, Bello. "An Assessment of English Language Influence on Anglophone Countries’ Cultures." Journal of Education and Culture Studies 1, no. 1 (April 1, 2017): 1. http://dx.doi.org/10.22158/jecs.v1n1p1.
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<p><em>The focus of this paper is to assess the influence of English language on Anglophone countries’ cultures. The advent of missionaries’ activities in the Anglophone countries through the medium of English language vis-à-vis its power and influence were highlighted to signify that the power and influence exerted by this language (English) over shadowed the African traditional beliefs such as in religion, education, marriage system, among others. A 10 item researcher-designed questionnaire based on 4Likert scale type of Strongly Agree, Agree, Disagree and Strongly Disagree was dispensed on 180 respondents from three geo-political zones of Nigeria. However, only 176 respondents made their questionnaire available that was computed for this study. The instrument was revalidated thus producing a reliability index of 0.61. The finding revealed that highest percentage of the respondents strongly agreed that the Englishman’s language has greatly influenced African cultures, especially that of Nigeria both positively and negatively. As a result of this, it was concluded that of all the heritages left behind in the British colonies by the British colonial overlords, probably, none is more important than the English language, and that is why it is indeed very likely that for some time to come, English will remain a vital access to global advances which is very essential for gaining access to science and technology, and that it is possible that the Anglophone countries could grind to a halt should the use of English language be outlawed for say five minutes. Based on the findings and the conclusion, it is therefore recommended that Africans, especially Nigeria cannot be an island to itself, and if it must have any global outlook it must embrace foreign influence and culture so that Africans as a whole and indeed Nigerians would fit into any global condition regardless of their cultural background.</em><em></em></p>
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Kuper, Adam. "The ‘House’ and Zulu Political Structure in the Nineteenth Century." Journal of African History 34, no. 3 (November 1993): 469–87. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s0021853700033764.
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The rise of the Zulu power in the early nineteenth century has conventionally been treated as the outstanding example of a contemporary southern African process of ‘state-formation’, which was associated with revolutionary social changes. This paper advances an alternative view, that there were strong continuities with established forms of chieftaincy in the region, and in particular that the Zulu political system was based on a traditional, pan-Nguni homestead form of organization.The Zulu homestead was divided into right and left sections, each with its own identity and destiny. This opposition was mapped into the layout of ordinary homesteads and royal settlements. It was carried through into the organization of regiments. The homestead and its segments provided both the geographical and the structural nodes of the society. The developmental cycle of the homestead ideally followed a set pattern, creating a fresh alignment of units in each generation. The points of segmentation were provided by the ‘houses’, constituted for each major wife and her designated heir. Each of these houses represented the impact, within the homestead, of relationships sealed by marriage with outside groups, whose leaders threw their weight behind particular factions in the political processes within the family.
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Machingura, Francis. "The Significance of Glossolalia in the Apostolic Faith Mission, Zimbabwe." Studies in World Christianity 17, no. 1 (April 2011): 12–29. http://dx.doi.org/10.3366/swc.2011.0003.
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This study seeks to look at the meaning and significance of Glossolalia 1 in the Apostolic Faith Mission in Zimbabwe. 2 This paper has also been influenced by debates surrounding speaking in tongues in most of the Pentecostal churches in general and the Apostolic Faith Mission in Zimbabwe in particular. It was the Apostolic Faith Mission (AFM) that brought Pentecostalism to Zimbabwe. 3 The paper situates the phenomenon of glossolalia in the Zimbabwean socio-economic, spiritual, and cultural understanding. The Pentecostal teachings on the meaning and significance of speaking in tongues have caused a stir in psychological, linguistics, sociological, anthropological, ethnographical, philological, cultural, and philosophical debates. Yet those in the Apostolic Faith Mission in Zimbabwe argue that their concept of glossolalia is biblically rooted. Surprisingly non-glossolalist Christians also use the Bible to dismiss the pneumatic claims by Pentecostals. The emphasis on speaking in tongues in the AFM has rendered Zimbabwean ‘mainline’ churches like Anglicans, Catholics and Methodists as meaningless. This is the same with African Indigenous Churches which have also been painted with ‘fault-lines’, giving an upper hand to AFM in adding up to its ballooning number of followers. This is as a result of their restorationist perspective influenced by the history of the Pentecostal Churches that views all non-Pentecostal churches as having fallen from God's intentions through compromise and sin. The AFM just like other Pentecostal churches in Zimbabwe exhibit an aggressive assault and intolerance toward certain aspects of the African culture, which they label as tradition, 4 for example, traditional customs, like paying homage to ancestral spirits (Kurova Guva or bringing back the spirit of the dead ceremony), and marriage customs (polygamy, kusungira or sanctification of the first born ritual). The movement has managed to rid itself of the dominance of the male adults and the floodgates were opened to young men and women, who are the victims of traditional patriarchy. Besides glossolalia being one of the pillars of AFM doctrines, the following also bear some importance: personal testimonies, tithing, church weddings, signs/miracles, evangelism and prosperity theology.
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Dries, Hugo. "De Partnerkeuze in Modern Afrika." Afrika Focus 1, no. 1-2 (January 12, 1985): 89–121. http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/2031356x-0010102007.
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Partnerchoice in modern Africa Partner choice in Africa was investigated in a modernization study. The research sample consisted of 275 adult males from the Zaïrean province of Shaba (university students, clerks, workmen and illiterate rurals). The sample was split up into two subgroups : the “moderns” and the “traditional”. Our main research instrument was a series of 14 pictures, inspired on the Thematic Apperception Technique. Traditionally, it was the father, or the family, who arranged marriage for the son. Modern young Africans more and more want to choose their partner on their own. This modern attitude leads to a number of conflict situations, because, on the one hand, Africans want to realise their partner choice by themselves, but on the other hand, they do not like to endanger their relationships with the family.
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AL-ARRAYED, SHAIKHA, and HANAN HAMAMY. "THE CHANGING PROFILE OF CONSANGUINITY RATES IN BAHRAIN, 1990–2009." Journal of Biosocial Science 44, no. 3 (November 29, 2011): 313–19. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s0021932011000666.
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SummaryConsanguineous marriage is traditional and respected in most communities of North Africa, the Middle East and West Asia, including Bahrain, with intra-familial unions accounting for 20–50+% of all marriages. Significant secular changes in consanguinity rates have been reported in recent decades in different populations. Among parents of 14,237 newborns in Bahrain in 2008–2009, the total consanguinity and first cousin marriage rates over a period of four months in 2008 were 10.9% and 6.9% respectively, while during all of 2009 the rates were 11.4% and 6.8% respectively. The study confirms that over a ten-year period first cousin marriage rates in Bahrain have declined from 24% to nearly 7%. Although advice against cousin marriages was not attempted at any stage in the comprehensive community genetics programmes in Bahrain, increasing the literacy of the public and of the health care providers on prevention strategies for genetic diseases could have contributed to this decline in consanguinity rate in Bahrain.
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Elijah, Baloyi Magezi. "Sex as an expression of hospitality - Theological investigation amongst some Africans." Koers - Bulletin for Christian Scholarship 81, no. 2 (October 31, 2016): 10–17. http://dx.doi.org/10.19108/koers.81.2.2248.
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Besides the fact that sexual relationships have been understood and misunderstood in different ways, the possibility of sexual abuse remains a big issue amongst African South Africans. It has been sexual relationships, amongst other factors, that have been widely used by one gender to dominate the other. Sometimes this happens because women, because of their defencelessness, are perceived to enjoy the kind of sexual abuse they are subjected to. It is from this kind of attitude that some people, particularly men, come to the conclusion that sexual intercourse is another form of hospitality that can be offered to women. This kind of thinking has been fuelled by the traditional rejection of singlehood or widowhood and other related situations that women find themselves in. It is for this reason that polygamy, levirate marriage and cohabitation have crept into the minds of some men. This paper will attempt to unveil how thinking of sexual intercourse as extending a form of hospitality has encouraged the domination and abuse of women in the African context. The study will also unveil how the gift of sex has been misunderstood and misinterpreted in order to subject women to sexual violence and harassment. Afgesien van die feit dat seksuele verhoudinge op verskillende wyses verstaan en misverstaan is, bly die moontlikheid van seksuele misbruik ‘n groot probleem onder Suid-Afrikaanse Afrikane. Dit was nog altyd seksuele verhoudinge, sowel as ander faktore, wat wyd deur een geslag gebruik is om die ander geslag te domineer. Soms gebeur dit omdat gedink word dat vroue, as gevolg van hulle weerloosheid, die soort seksuele misbruik waaraan hulle blootgestel word geniet. Voortvloeiend hieruit ontstaan die houding dat sommige mense, veral mans, tot die gevolgtrekking kom dat seksuele gemeenskap ‘n vorm van gasvryheid is wat vroue behoort te geniet. Hierdie soort denke word aangehelp deur die tradisionele verwerping van enkellopende vroue en weduwees en ander soortgelyke situasies waarin vroue hulleself bevind. Dit is om hierdie rede dat poligamie, swaershuwelike en saambly sommige mans se denke insluip. Hierdie artikel sal poog om aan te toon hoe ‘n denkbeeld van seksuele omgang as ‘n vorm van gasvryheid die dominasie en mishandeling van vroue in die Afrika-konteks versterk is. Die studie sal ook aantoon hoe die “geskenk” van seksuele omgang vroue meer blootstel aan seksuele geweld en mishandeling.
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Issahaku, Paul Alhassan. "Policy suggestions for combating domestic violence in West Africa." International Journal of Sociology and Social Policy 36, no. 1/2 (March 14, 2016): 66–85. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/ijssp-03-2015-0033.
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Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to assess West African countries’ approach to address the issue of domestic violence (DV) in order to identify limitations and suggest policy measures. The paper situates DV in West Africa in the context of international literature and examines the question: what are the limitations of approaches to combating DV in West Africa and what is the way forward? The paper focusses on Ghana as a case example of efforts at addressing DV in West Africa. This is because Ghana is a pioneer among the very few West African countries that have developed a legislative cum policy framework to combat DV. A critical review of Ghana’s approach provides useful lessons for the way forward on policy against DV in the West Africa subregion. Design/methodology/approach – The methodology adopted consists of a survey of existing literature – theoretical and empirical – on DV in the international and Ghanaian contexts, a critical reflection on Ghana’s DV law, and synthesis of the emerging knowledge combined with familiarity with the context to make policy suggestions. A general review of literature on DV provides background understanding of the phenomenon globally and in the context of West Africa. Then an examination of Ghana’s law against DV helps to identify the limitations of the legislative approach. Finally, the paper makes suggestions on how to combat DV in West Africa at large. Findings – There is a high prevalence of DV in West Africa, particularly violence against women, although men also experience it. Some countries in the subregion, Ghana being an example, have adopted a legislative approach to deal with the problem. This approach criminalizes DV and requires victims or witnesses to report to the police. Perpetrators may be arrested and arraigned before a court and, if found culpable, fined or imprisoned while victims are promised protection and subsistence. The legislative approach is reactionary and cold, requiring reporting of violence even though this is not culturally expedient. The approach also frustrates victims who are willing to report by being cumbersome and costly. Finally, the approach is not built on any notable theory of DV. Research limitations/implications – The findings reported in this paper are based on secondary information. As a result, the analysis and conclusions are limited to what could be drawn from the documents reviewed and the experience of the author. Practical implications – The paper suggests specific measures for combating DV in West Africa. These include setting up a national taskforce on DV to coordinate actions and activities toward ending violence, using traditional, and religious leadership structures to campaign against DV, designing mentoring groups for men and women who are preparing to get into marriage, using social workers instead of the police to support victims of violence, institutionalizing assessment and care for DV victims at the hospital, and setting up funding for DV research. These measures could go a long way in combating DV in West Africa. Originality/value – This critical assessment of the legislative approach to combating DV in West Africa is about the first of its kind and therefore makes an original contribution to the literature. Also, the specific measures suggested in the paper are rare in reviews of its kind and therefore offers something of great value to policy makers and professionals in West Africa.
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Sonnekus, JC. "Huweliksluiting én aanneming van kinders kragtens kulturele gebruike in stryd met die reg behoort kragteloos te wees – sed, ex Africa semper aliquid novi." Tydskrif vir die Suid-Afrikaanse Reg 2021, no. 2 (2021): 211–39. http://dx.doi.org/10.47348/tsar/2021/i2a1.
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Section 211(3) of the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, 1996 provides that no recognition of customary norms may be upheld if such norms are in conflict with either the constitution or any other law that deals specifically with customary law: “The courts must apply customary law when that law is applicable, subject to the Constitution and any legislation that specifically deals with customary law.” The current Recognition of Customary Marriages Act 120 of 1998 deals explicitly with the recognition of customary marriages which are concluded in accordance with customary law (s 1). Customary law is defined as the “customs and usages traditionally observed among the indigenous African peoples of South Africa and which form part of the culture of those peoples”. It follows from a further reading of section 1 that a customary marriage is reserved for those indigenous African peoples who observe such customs and usages. It is provided in section 10(4) that “[d]espite subsection (1), no spouse of a marriage entered into under the Marriage Act, 1961, is, during the subsistence of such marriage, competent to enter into any other marriage”. This must be read with the definitions contained in section 1: “‘customary law’ means the customs and usages traditionally observed among the indigenous African peoples of South Africa and which form part of the culture of those peoples; ‘customary marriage’ means a marriage concluded in accordance with customary law”. Without the requisite legal competency, no legal subject can enter into any relationship to which the law may attach any consequences. Nobody can enter into a customary marriage if any of the presumed future spouses is already in a civil marriage according to the Marriage Act 25 of 1961, not even if the two parties are married to each other. According to the custom of various indigenous nations, if a man enters into a valid customary marriage with a woman who had never been married before but who is the mother of children born out of wedlock (spurii), the metaphor applies that he “who takes the cow also acquires the calf”. He will as part and parcel of the lobola ceremony be seen as the adopting stepfather of his wife’s children, with all the accompanying consequences. He will automatically be responsible for the future maintenance of those children as his adoptive children and they will acquire all rights and privileges that are bestowed on a child, including the right to inheritance and the right to his family name. As a consequence of this new relationship, all legal ties with the biological father of the adopted child are severed and the biological father will no longer be responsible for the maintenance of his offspring. In January 2019 an erstwhile law professor from UNISA who still retained his German citizenship, was gravely ill and cared for on life-support at a hospital in the Pretoria district. While in hospital, he tied the marriage knot with Miss Vilakazi, a Zulu woman with whom he had been in a relationship for the past five years. Miss Vilakazi was a spinster, but she had a Zulu daughter who was born out of wedlock more than eight years previously out of a relationship with an erstwhile Zulu lover. This child had been in the care of her maternal grandmother in Natal and, according to Zulu customary norms, was considered part of the house of her maternal grandfather, Vilakazi. She consequently carried the name Vilakazi as her registered surname on her official birth certificate. The marriage, which was conducted on 29 January 2019 in the hospital in Pretoria, was concluded with adherence to all the requirements of Act 25 of 1961. The civil marriage was duly registered as such. The late professor passed away in the hospital barely three weeks later on 19 February 2019. Less than 24 hours before the demise of the professor a purported customary marriage was concluded, apparently on behalf of the professor with the recently married Mrs Schulze by proxy by a friend of his in the Newcastle district in Natal after having paid R60 000 as ilobolo. The ceremony was concluded with the ceremonial slaughtering of the prescribed goat. However, during this ceremony the groom was not present but on life support in a Pretoria hospital and not necessarily compos mentis – the court was told that he was represented by a friend. Zulu customary law, however, does not recognise a marriage concluded by proxy with a substitude bridegroom as was known in Roman-Dutch law as “a wedding with the glove”. Neither the Marriage Act nor the Recognition of Customary Marriages Act, however, recognises a second marriage after the conclusion of a civil marriage by any of the purported newly weds – even if both “spouses” had been present in person. The mother of the late Professor Schulze, after his demise in South Africa, amended her last will in Germany and appointed her lifelong partner as sole beneficiary of her significant estate. She passed away in Germany in October 2019. In November 2019 the recently married Mrs Schulze, on behalf of her minor daughter, successfully approached the high court in Pietermaritzburg, where Zaca AJ issued an order compelling the South African department of home affairs to issue the daughter with a new birth certificate that reflects the late Professor Schulze as her father. Notwithstanding the unease of the officials at home affairs with this court order, the minister of home affairs, Mr Motsoaledi, personally intervened in August 2020 and the new birth certificate was issued as requested. Relying on this newly issued birth certificate, the applicant claims an amount of not less than R8 million in Germany from the estate of the late mother of Professor Schulze. For this purpose, the applicant relies on a principle in German law, the Pflichtteilsanspruch, according to which any descendant of the deceased has a right to a prescribed portion, a so-called legitimate portion of the estate, if not mentioned or sufficiently bestowed in the last will. This raises a number of seriously flawed legal arguments that are analysed in this article. It is submitted that the perceived lobola marriage ceremony conducted on behalf of the late professor on 18 February 2019 in Newcastle, less than 24 hours before his demise, is void because of the explicit constitutional provision and the relevant section 10(4) of the Recognition of Customary Marriages Act 120 of 1998, which excludes any competency to enter into a customary marriage if any of the parties involved is already married. At the date of the perceived lobola ceremony, Mrs Schulze had already been civilly married to Professor Schulze for more than three weeks and thus both spouses lacked the necessary competency to enter into a valid customary marriage. Whether a valid customary marriage could have been concluded at all with a man who did not live according to the customs and usages of the Zulu, is also highly questionable. Because the perceived lobola marriage is a nullity, no legal consequences can flow from this nullity and the so-called customary adoption of the daughter (“the calf with the cow”) is a nullity too. At no stage was any of the requirements for a valid adoption as governed by the Children’s Act 38 of 2005 adhered to. The minister of home affairs should have immediately given notice of appeal after the unconvincing judgment of Zaca AJ was handed down in January 2020. As the responsible minister, he should guard the upholding of the constitution and the applicable legal provisions unambiguously contained in the relevant section 10(4) of Act 120 of 1998. It is a pity that the so-called adherence to the principles of the “rule of law” is not even paid lip service in this case. Bennett, as a renowned expert on customary law, correctly pointed out that the legal orders are not unconnected. It may never be assumed that the people concerned are unaware of how to manipulate the resources offered them by legal pluralism (A Sourcebook of African Customary Law for Southern Africa (1991) 50).
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Sandberg, Haim, and Adam Hofri-Winogradow. "Arab Israeli women's renunciation of their inheritance shares: a challenge for Israel's courts." International Journal of Law in Context 8, no. 2 (April 30, 2012): 253–67. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s1744552312000079.
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AbstractThe practice of Arab women voluntarily renouncing their shares in the family inheritance is well known, having been noticed in several Mediterranean and African countries, including Israel and the West Bank. This practice seems grossly inegalitarian, reflecting many Muslim women's social and economic inferiority and their dependent status. Some Islamic feminists argue that the practice contradicts not only the letter of the sharia, which guarantees women shares in the family inheritance, but also fundamental Islamic principles. Conservatives, however, see the practice as cohering with the spirit of Islam (though not with the letter of sharia), as a voluntary choice by many Muslim women to let their brothers or husbands fulfil their traditional role of providing for their sisters or wives. International institutions concerned with enhancing gender equality have taken the latter view seriously enough to refrain from judging the practice negatively. Our article highlights the Israeli civil courts' diverse responses to the practice: some judges criticise it while others choose a policy of non-interference. The article further discusses the practice and Israeli civil courts' responses in the comparative perspective of Jewish women's practice of renouncing their property and other rights on divorce. Some Jewish husbands make such renunciation a condition of their dissolving the marriage. Israeli civil courts often see such renunciation as an effect of extortion and permit women to rescind it once divorced. We thus conclude with a plea to the civil courts to encourage gender equality among the Arab population to the same extent, at least, to which they promote it among Israel's Jews.
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Barasa, Violet Nasambu. "Culture as an Impediment to Socio-Economic Development in Henry Ole Kulet’s Blossoms of the Savannah." International Journal of Literature, Language and Linguistics 4, no. 1 (August 21, 2021): 42–52. http://dx.doi.org/10.52589/ijlll-riyjll5c.
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This paper examines how Maasai traditional cultural practices and beliefs in Ole Kulet‘s novel Blossoms of the Savannah hinder socio-economic development. The cultural practices that incumber socio-economic progress has implication on both the immediate Maasai community (as illustrated through Nasila village) and the society at large. In most societies in Africa, traditional and cultural practices inform and influence the daily experiences and behavior of its people. Early marriages and female genital mutilation are practiced in a number of communities across the African continent in countries such as Kenya, Tanzania, Ethiopia, Guinea among others. One of this communities is the Maasai community in Kenya which is the physical setting of Blossoms of the savannah. Some traditional practices among the Maasai are detrimental as is evident in the long-term impact on the psychological, physical and the general wellbeing of its members. This paper focuses on the intertwinement of early marriages, female genital mutilation (FGM), and patriarchy and how they impact the socio-economic development in the society. Early marriages and female genital mutilation practices are socio-economically retrogressive in a 21st century society. These traditional practices and customs have roots in the social, cultural, economic, historical and political discourse encapsulated within the patriarchal structures and realized through gender inequality. This paper therefore focuses on how the traditional practices impede the realization of development in the Maasai community as advanced in Blossoms of the Savannah.
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Muriaas, Ragnhild Louise, Liv Tønnessen, and Vibeke Wang. "Counter-Mobilization against Child Marriage Reform in Africa." Political Studies 66, no. 4 (December 1, 2017): 851–68. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0032321717742859.
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Legislating a minimum age of marriage at 18 has stirred counter-mobilization in some, but not all, countries where religious or traditional institutions enjoy constitutional authority. To explore differences between states regarding likelihood of counter-mobilization, we investigate two cases in Africa. In Sudan, a government-led child marriage reform initiative has sparked counter-mobilization by conservative religious actors, while a similar initiative in Zambia has not caused visible counter-mobilization among traditional groups and has gained the support of many chiefs. With the literature on doctrinal gender status issues as theoretical background, we argue that the nature of law—codified versus living—is a factor in these distinct trajectories. We further identify variations in two mechanisms, legal power structure (centralized vs decentralized) and type of political battle (interpretation vs administration), that link nature of law to variation in the likelihood of counter-mobilization.
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Makaudze, Godwin. "WOMEN, WEALTH GENERATION AND PROPERTY OWNERSHIP IN TRADITIONAL SHONA CULTURE IN ZIMBABWE." Latin American Report 30, no. 2 (July 20, 2016): 18–29. http://dx.doi.org/10.25159/0256-6060/1237.
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Feminist scholarship is awash with literature that strives to vindicate its position that women in general have never enjoyed status and platforms equal to those of their male counterparts in the social, economic, religious and political spheres in life. The literature bemoans the invisibility of women in matters to do with economics and property ownership. The literature further posits that women neither wielded any power nor had any platforms for the generation and accumulation of wealth or the ownership of property. Leaning on Africana Womanist theory, this paper contends that such a perception is the antithesis of what actually takes place in the Shona milieu where, traditionally, women have, not just platforms to generate and accrue personal wealth, but have also authority over the use and disposal of such wealth. Avenues for the generation and accumulation of wealth and other property by Shona women range from marriage negotiations, the institution of marriage itself as well as the family, working using one’s hands and commanding positions of leadership.
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Venter, Francois. "Editorial." Potchefstroom Electronic Law Journal/Potchefstroomse Elektroniese Regsblad 15, no. 1 (May 22, 2017): 1. http://dx.doi.org/10.17159/1727-3781/2012/v15i1a2471.
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This issue contains various contributions on the themes of traditional African culture, the law relating to children and juveniles, the state's social responsibilities, labour law and one on legal education.In August 2011 Advocate Joyce Maluleke, Director in the Gender Directorate of the South African Department of Justice and Constitutional Development addressed the Annual General Conference of the South African Chapter of the International Association of Women Judges held in Potchefstroom on the dangers of harmful traditional practices such as early and forced marriages, virginity testing, widow's rituals, levirate and sororate unions, female genital mutilation, breast sweeping/ironing, the primogeniture rule, practices such as 'cleansing' after male circumcision, and witch-hunting. Although she considers respect for tradition, culture and customs to be part of the South African identity, she argues that cultural practices should be rooted in respect for human rights, democracy and equality. We publish her paper here as an oratio.
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Buran, Gonca, and Hilmiye Aksu. "Child age marriages and the effects on women's health: Literature review Çocuk yaştaki evlilikler ve kadın sağlığına etkileri: Literatür incelemesi." Journal of Human Sciences 15, no. 2 (June 30, 2018): 1327. http://dx.doi.org/10.14687/jhs.v15i2.5316.
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Early marriage is a violation of human rights outside of the free will, which restricts many rights and freedoms of girls under 18 years of age. Cultural norms, traditional masculine society structure, poverty and wars are effective, and there is a question that remains unresolved despite the legitimacy. It is more prevalent in backward poor countries and developing societies. The country in the first place in the world is Central Africa and more than half (58%) of these women have to marry children. In Turkey, the rate is 5.2% of the total marriages in 2015. The most common province is Kars.When the literature is examined, the causes of early marriage are gender discrimination, low socioeconomic status, cultural factors, traditional assumptions and religious beliefs, male domination and patriarchal society.Children with global problems are threatening women's health. These children who are not ready for sexual life are vulnerable to inadequacy in family planning, unwanted pregnancy, excessive number of births, premature births, mother and infant deaths. In addition, early marriages also contain risks that adversely affect women's health, such as sexual violence, sexual health problems, sexually transmitted infections and cervical cancer. The fact that these marriages are not legal makes it difficult to diagnose the risks that children may encounter and to provide nursing and counseling services by nurses.It is suggested that nurses should take an active role in raising awareness of traditional families and their children, to organize training programs and to build interdisciplinary business associations to raise social awareness. Extended English summary is in the end of Full Text PDF (TURKISH) file.ÖzetErken yaş evlilik, 18 yaş altı kızların birçok hak ve özgürlüğünü kısıtlayan, özgür iradeleri dışında gerçekleşen insan hakları ihlalidir. Kültürel normlar, geleneksel eril toplum yapısı, yoksulluk ve savaşların etkin olduğu, yasalara rağmen çözümsüz kalan bir sorundur. Geri kalmış yoksul ülkelerde ve gelişmekte olan toplumlarda daha yaygın görülmektedir. Dünyada ilk sırada yer alan ülke Orta Afrika'dır ve buradaki kadınların yarısından fazlası (%58) çocuk yaşta evlenmek zorunda kalmaktadır. Türkiye’de ise toplam resmi evlilikler içindeki oranı 2015 yılında %5.2’dir. En yaygın olan il Kars’tır.Literatür incelendiğinde erken yaş evlilik nedenleri, tolumsal cinsiyet ayrımcılığı, düşük sosyo ekonomik durum, kültürel etmenler, geleneksel kabuller, dini inançlar, erkek egemenliği ve ataerkil toplum yapısıdır.Global sorun olan çocuk yaştaki evlilikler kadın sağlığını tehdit etmektedir. Cinsel yaşama hazır olmayan bu çocuklar, aile planlamasında yetersizlik, istenmeyen gebelik, fazla sayıda doğum, erken doğum, anne ve bebek ölümlerine karşı savunmasız kalmaktadırlar. Ayrıca erken yaş evlilikler cinsel şiddet, cinsel sağlık sorunları, cinsel yolla bulaşan enfeksiyonlar ve serviks kanseri gibi kadın sağlığını olumsuz etkileyen riskleri de barındırmaktadır. Bu evliliklerin yasal olmaması çocukların karşılaşabilecekleri risklerin tanılanmasını, hemşire ve ebeler tarafından bakım ve danışmanlık hizmeti vermelerini güçleştirmektedir.Hemşirelerin toplumsal farkındalığın arttırılması konusunda geleneksel aileler ve çocuklarını bilinçlendirmede etkin rol almaları, eğitim programları düzenlemeleri ve disiplinler arası iş birliği yapmaları önerilebilir.
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Haqqani, Shehnaz. "The Perplexity of a Muslim Woman." American Journal of Islam and Society 35, no. 2 (April 1, 2018): 78–80. http://dx.doi.org/10.35632/ajis.v35i2.831.
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Olfa Youssef ’s The Perplexity of a Muslim Woman: Over Inheritance, Marriage,and Homosexuality addresses some of the practical and conceptualinconsistences in traditional, male-centric interpretations of inheritance,marriage, and homosexuality. Youssef analyzes relevant questions, assumptions,and sub-themes on each topic in separate chapters. A brief introductionchallenges common claims treated as truths. The conclusion emphasizesthat to uncritically follow past scholars’ views is idolatry and that noone, no matter how knowledgeable, possesses an absolute reading of theQur’an. The book closes with an appendix on relevant Qur’anic verses andan appendix on relevant hadiths and historical accounts.The preface describes the origins of the translation project, offers an intellectualbiography of Olfa Youssef, and discusses the reception of Youssefand her ideas across North Africa. It also situates Youssef ’s scholarshipbetween the postcolonial milieu of North Africa and patriarchal interpretationsof Islam. Recognizing the political role of translation, Lamia Benyoussefhopes that through the translation she can show Muslim women asagents of change, contributing to the religious and other discourses takingplace about them ...
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Haffejee, Sadiyya, Astrid Treffry-Goatley, Lisa Wiebesiek, and Nkonzo Mkhize. "Negotiating Girl-led Advocacy." Girlhood Studies 13, no. 2 (June 1, 2020): 18–34. http://dx.doi.org/10.3167/ghs.2020.130204.
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Increasingly, researchers and policymakers recognize the ability of girls to effect social change in their daily lives. Scholars working across diverse settings also acknowledge the key influence of individual, family, and societal structures on such activism. Drawing on our work with girls in a participatory visual research project in a rural community in South Africa, we consider examples of partnership and collaboration between the adult research team and the young participants. We highlight their agency in mobilizing adults to partner and support community and policy change to address traditional practices of early and forced marriage in this setting. We conclude that collaborative engagement with adults as partners can support activism and advocacy led by girls in contexts of traditional leadership.
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Hersch, Charles B. "Jazz and the Boundaries of Race." Perspectives on Politics 10, no. 3 (August 16, 2012): 701–8. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s153759271200120x.
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What does racial identity mean in twenty-first-century America? Some say we live in a “postracial” world, and increasing numbers of Americans have multiethnic backgrounds. We academics recognize that race is a social construction, yet Americans remain attached to traditional racial categories. In 2008, approximately 15% of all marriages in the United States were interracial, and beginning with the 2000 census, Americans have been allowed to check more than one racial category. Yet 97% of Americans in 2010 reported only one race. We are proud of electing our first “black president” even though his mother was white and he grew up barely knowing his African father.
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Hossain, Md Amir. "Doris Lessing’s Fiction as Feminist Projections." International Journal of English and Cultural Studies 1, no. 1 (March 6, 2018): 23. http://dx.doi.org/10.11114/ijecs.v1i1.3081.
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Doris Lessing, an unrivaled novelist in the literary genres around the globe, portrays the fundamental problems of women as well as social system of her times. Lessing searches for new models to communicate the experiences of a blocked woman writer, who spends her early life in Africa, becomes an active and a disappointed communist, who is a politically committed writer, a mother, a wife, or a mistress sometimes a woman. With her very keen and subtle attitude, Lessing wants to present women’s psychological conflicts between marriage and love; motherhood and profession, unfairness of the double standard; alienation of a single career woman; hollowness of marriage in the traditional order and society. Lessing portrays her women in various social problems and with various perspectives of male against female. She tries to awaken women community to protest against the patriarchy through her feminist writings. For this purpose, this research paper would like to examine the psychological conflicts and traumatic experiences of powerful heroines, including- Anna Wulf of The Golden Notebook, Mary Turner of The Grass Is Singing, and Clefts of The Cleft.
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Schiltz, Marc. "A YORUBA TALE OF MARRIAGE, MAGIC, MISOGYNY AND LOVE." Journal of Religion in Africa 32, no. 3 (2002): 335–65. http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/157006602760599944.
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AbstractIn this paper I approach the efflorescence of witchcraft-sorcery concerns in post-colonial Africa through the personal experiences of Délé, a Nigerian friend and research assistant. At one level, the witchcraft-sorcery incidents offer illustrations of the rural-urban conflict situations that the Comaroffs and other Africanists have written about in recent years. Yet at another level I read Délé's texts for what they are, the chronicles of a real-life drama in which he plays the tragic hero's role. As a storyteller, Délé recalls events in which the actors' virtues, vices, and emotions constantly mirror our own experiences of what people can turn out to be as they progress through life. In Délé's case I perceive such a progression in his shift from a virtue-centred Catholic upbringing in rural Ìséyìn to a more prayer/power-centred aládúrà-Pentecostalism in Lagos, when recently the spectres of mágùn sorcery and witchcraft began to close in on his marriage, livelihood and health. Délé's tale compels me, as a friend and correspondent with a different view of the world, to reconsider the morally universalising aspects of what it entails to be human. I attempt this from the triple perspective of Délé's ancestral roots in traditional Yoruba religion, his attraction towards aládúrà-Pentecostalism in a failed nation-state, and his nostalgia for the missionary Catholicism through which our friendship first developed.
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Mehra, Bharat, Paul A. Lemieux, and Keri Stophel. "An Exploratory Journey of Cultural Visual Literacy of “Non-Conforming” Gender Representations from Pre-Colonial Sub- Saharan Africa." Open Information Science 3, no. 1 (January 1, 2019): 1–21. http://dx.doi.org/10.1515/opis-2019-0001.
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Abstract This article is an exploratory journey of cultural visual literacy of “non-conforming” gender representations from pre-colonial Sub-Saharan Africa. It provides select research-based visual evidence of “non-conforming” genders and sexual orientations in traditional cultures of Sub-Saharan Africa as represented in its popular press, scholarly literature, and government and United Nations publications, amongst other sources. These have been selectively described in the context of key cultural themes that include (alphabetically listed): art, folklore, gender behavior, language, marriage, religion, and, sexual activity. The article provides a glimpse of data that were collected during a collaborative project selected by the University of Tennessee’s Howard H. Baker Jr. Center for Public Policy to partner in the U.S. Department of State’s Diplomacy Lab program of engaged scholarship involving two information science graduate students and a faculty member. A few insights from the exploratory journey of the cultural visual literacy of “non-conforming” gender representations are also reported.
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Белова, Анна Валерьевна, and Константин Алексеевич Петров. "THE PROBLEM OF SOCIAL DEPRIVATION OF WOMEN IN THE SOCIETIES OF POST-COLONIAL SUBSAHARIAN AFRICA." Вестник Тверского государственного университета. Серия: История, no. 2(58) (August 16, 2021): 88–102. http://dx.doi.org/10.26456/vthistory/2021.2.088-102.
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Статья посвящена анализу проблемы социальной депривации женщин в обществах постколониальной Тропической Африки. Автор сконцентрировал внимание на изучении важнейших социальных институтов, которые являются определяющими для женской повседневности в субсахарском регионе, - семье, образовании и здравоохранении. В статье выявлены ключевые аспекты депривации: минимальный возраст вступления в брак, главенство в семье, статус женщины, родительские права и обязанности, доступ к образованию, причины отсева девочек из школ, доступ к репродуктивной медицине. Автор приходит к выводу, что главным фактором депривации на постколониальном этапе развития субсахарских обществ остаются обычаи и традиционные практики, способствующие сохранению стереотипов фемининности и формированию типичных гендерных сценариев. The article is an analysis of the problem of social deprivation of women in the societies of postcolonial Tropical Africa. The author focused on the study of the most important social institutions that are decisive for women's everyday life in the Sub-Saharan region - family, education and health care. The author identifies the key aspects of deprivation: the minimum age at marriage, domination in the family, the status of women, parental rights and responsibilities, access to education, reasons for girls dropping out of school, access to reproductive medicine. The author concludes that the main factor of deprivation at the postcolonial stage of development of sub-Saharan societies remains customs and traditional practices that contribute to the preservation of stereotypes of femininity and the formation of typical gender scenarios.
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Shetler, Jan Bender. "Historical Memory and Expanding Social Networks of Mennonite Mission School Women, Mara Region, Tanzania, 1938 to the Present." Studies in World Christianity 18, no. 1 (April 2012): 63–81. http://dx.doi.org/10.3366/swc.2012.0006.
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Because of their structural position as boundary crossers in virilocal marriages, women in the Mara Region of Tanzania have used historical memory to construct social networks across ethnic boundaries for their own and their community's security. During the colonial era these networks were severely restricted, leading to increasingly difficult lives for women. One group of women who found creative ways to reconstruct these far-reaching networks was church women who went to mission boarding schools. Girls left their homes and made connections to a new family in the church that supported them as they moved into new interethnic communities. They began telling their own life histories in the form of the spiritual testimony, shaped by the practice of confession in the East African Revival beginning in 1942. These narratives of resistance to traditional practices like female circumcision inspired others and created a sense of individual agency. Although these stories seem to represent a rejection, even demonisation, of the past, they carry on work entrusted to these women by their grandmothers, of using storytelling, even within a new narrative genre and in a radically new context, to make connections and build community across ethnic boundaries.
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Boni, Stefano. "Twentieth-Century Transformations in Notions of Gender, Parenthood, and Marriage in Southern Ghana: A Critique of the Hypothesis of “Retrograde Steps” for Akan Women." History in Africa 28 (2001): 15–41. http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/3172205.
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In the course of the 1970s, one of the principal focuses of the emerging feminist anthropology was the reassessment of issues of gender inequality. Drawing their inspiration from Marxist theory going back to Engels, some works historicized female oppression and analyzed its political and economic determinants. To demonstrate that gender inequality was the product of specific historical formations, the observable gender relations were, at times, opposed to a prior egalitarian social order in which value differentiation was not attached to the gendered labor division (e.g., Leacock 1981). The approach was criticized by those who believed that female subordination characterized present and past societies on which solid documentary evidence was available (e.g., Rosaldo 1974). The idea that gender realtions in some non-western societies were marked by parity prior to the degradation produced by colonization was not abandoned, however, and influenced neighboring disciplines.Recent studies concerned with the transformations of gender relations in sub-Saharan Africa over the twentieth century tend to stress the decline in social and economic position of women. Ethnographic, economic, and historical studies state that the traditional value attached to being female is threatened by the economic and political developments of the last century. Women are said increasingly to lose their previous independence, to have to cater for children and elderly by themselves, and to lose ground in productive activities (Robertson and Berger 1986; Mikell 1997a; Baerends 1998).
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Odimegwu, Clifford, Oluwaseyi Dolapo Somefun, and Joshua Akinyemi. "Gender Differences in the Effect of Family Structure on Educational Outcomes Among Nigerian Youth." SAGE Open 7, no. 4 (October 2017): 215824401773994. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/2158244017739948.
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Due to globalization, sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) is experiencing some changes in her traditional family patterns. A large body of research has examined the relationship between family structure and youth developmental outcomes and few studies have reported the gender differentials in the effect of changing family structure on these outcomes. In an increasingly knowledge-based globalized world, educational achievement is critical for the development of youth. This exploratory study examines the gender differences in the effect of family structure on educational outcomes of youth in Nigeria. We used the 2010 Nigeria General Household Survey which is available through Integrated Public Use Microdata Series (IPUMS)–International, consisting of 14,178 males and 13,858 females. Family structure was a significant predictor of youth educational outcomes, and there were significant gender differentials. There was a negative relationship between living with neither parent and ever enrolling among males and females, but the effect was much stronger for females. Interventions should focus on improving existing resources and place youth who are living with neither parents and are unmarried in stable and friendly environments through mentorship programs and community caregiver support. Programs should also engage community leaders continuously about the consequences of early marriages among female youth.
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Price, Neil. "The changing value of children among the Kikuyu of Central Province, Kenya." Africa 66, no. 3 (July 1996): 411–36. http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/1160960.
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Within demography, high fertility in sub-Saharan Africa was considered until recently to reflect a demand for children firmly rooted in indigenous social institutions, which were resistant to external forces of change. On the basis of findings from recent Demographic and Health Surveys, Caldwell et al. (1992) suggest that many of the institutional supports for high fertility in sub-Saharan Africa—such as lineage-based descent systems, polygyny, bridewealth, extended kinship structures, child fostering, and communal land tenure—are being eroded. This article considers changes in the value of children among the Kikuyu of Central Province, Kenya, and the extent to which the social institutions which have traditionally supported high fertility have persisted. Fieldwork undertaken in two ethnically homogenous communities, one rural and one peri-urban, reveals significant variation in the fertility motives and value of children in the two communities. In the rural community many of the indigenous social supports for high fertility, although modified, cohere. In the context of economic insecurity and lack of access to land (especially for women without sons), manipulation of customary kinship and marriage practices (supported by the persistence of many indigenous religious beliefs and ideologies about fertility) has become strategically important for realising fertility desires. There is, however, unmet demand for modern contraception, due largely to lack of access to and the poor quality of family planning services. In contrast, in the peri-urban community, where access to family planning services is relatively good, there has been effective legitimation of fertility regulation and the use of modern contraception is widespread. There is markedly less economic insecurity: wage labour opportunities are available, and some women have successfully challenged male control over land. Consequently, there is reduced demand for children, although a number of the indigenous cultural supports for high : fertility retain residual importance.