Borrow it
Coverart for item
The Resource Conjugal rights : marriage, sexuality, and urban life in colonial Libreville, Gabon, Rachel Jean-Baptiste

Conjugal rights : marriage, sexuality, and urban life in colonial Libreville, Gabon, Rachel Jean-Baptiste

Creator
Summary
Conjugal Rights is a history of the role of marriage and other arrangements between men and women in Libreville, Gabon, during the French colonial era, from the mid<U+0127> �nineteenth century through 1960. Conventional historiography has depicted women as few in number and of limited influence in African colonial towns, but this book demonstrates that a sexual economy of emotional, social, legal, and physical relationships between men and women indelibly shaped urban life. Bridewealth became a motor of African economic activity, as men and women promised, earned, borrowed, transferred, and absconded with money to facilitate interpersonal relationships. Colonial rule increased the fluidity of customary marriage law, as chiefs and colonial civil servants presided over multiple courts, and city residents strategically chose the legal arena in which to arbitrate a conjugal-sexual conflict. Sexual and domestic relationships with European men allowed some African women to achieve a greater degree of economic and social mobility. An eventual decline of marriage rates resulted in new sexual mores, as women and men sought to rebalance the roles of pleasure, respectability, and legality in having sex outside of kin-sanctioned marriage. Rachel Jean-Baptiste expands the discourse on sexuality in Africa and challenges conventional understandings of urban history beyond the study of the built environment. Marriage and sexual relations determined how people defined themselves as urbanites and shaped the shifting physical landscape of Libreville. Conjugal Rights takes a fresh look at questions of the historical construction of race and ethnicity. Despite the efforts of the French colonial government and society to enforce boundaries between black and white, interracial sexual and domestic relationships persisted. Black and métisse women gained economic and social capital from these relationships, allowing some measure of freedom in the colonial capital city.--
Language
eng
Work
Publication
Extent
xiii, 300 pages
Note
Based on the author's thesis (doctoral)--Stanford University, 2005
Contents
  • "Faire bon ami" (to be good friends) : sex, pleasure, and punishment
  • "A black girl should not be with a white man" : interracial sex, African women, and respectability
  • Introduction: narrating a history of domestic life, sexuality, and being in urban Africa
  • From Atlantic Ocean trading post to colonial outpost, 1849-1929
  • Marriage, trade, and the founding of Libreville, 1849-1910
  • Planning, protest, and prostitution : Libreville in the era of timber, 1910-1929
  • Libreville's growth, 1930-1960
  • Migration and governance : the expansion of Libreville
  • The bridewealth economy : money and relationships of affinity
  • Jurisprudence : marriage and divorce law
Isbn
9780821421208
Instance
Label
Conjugal rights : marriage, sexuality, and urban life in colonial Libreville, Gabon
Title
Conjugal rights
Title remainder
marriage, sexuality, and urban life in colonial Libreville, Gabon
Statement of responsibility
Rachel Jean-Baptiste
Creator
Subject
Language
eng
Summary
Conjugal Rights is a history of the role of marriage and other arrangements between men and women in Libreville, Gabon, during the French colonial era, from the mid<U+0127> �nineteenth century through 1960. Conventional historiography has depicted women as few in number and of limited influence in African colonial towns, but this book demonstrates that a sexual economy of emotional, social, legal, and physical relationships between men and women indelibly shaped urban life. Bridewealth became a motor of African economic activity, as men and women promised, earned, borrowed, transferred, and absconded with money to facilitate interpersonal relationships. Colonial rule increased the fluidity of customary marriage law, as chiefs and colonial civil servants presided over multiple courts, and city residents strategically chose the legal arena in which to arbitrate a conjugal-sexual conflict. Sexual and domestic relationships with European men allowed some African women to achieve a greater degree of economic and social mobility. An eventual decline of marriage rates resulted in new sexual mores, as women and men sought to rebalance the roles of pleasure, respectability, and legality in having sex outside of kin-sanctioned marriage. Rachel Jean-Baptiste expands the discourse on sexuality in Africa and challenges conventional understandings of urban history beyond the study of the built environment. Marriage and sexual relations determined how people defined themselves as urbanites and shaped the shifting physical landscape of Libreville. Conjugal Rights takes a fresh look at questions of the historical construction of race and ethnicity. Despite the efforts of the French colonial government and society to enforce boundaries between black and white, interracial sexual and domestic relationships persisted. Black and métisse women gained economic and social capital from these relationships, allowing some measure of freedom in the colonial capital city.--
Member of
Assigning source
Provided by Publisher
Cataloging source
IEN/DLC
http://library.link/vocab/creatorName
Jean-Baptiste, Rachel
Dewey number
306.8096721
Government publication
government publication of a state province territory dependency etc
Illustrations
  • illustrations
  • maps
Index
index present
Literary form
non fiction
Nature of contents
bibliography
Series statement
New African histories
http://library.link/vocab/subjectName
  • Marriage
  • Divorce
  • Sex
  • Customary law
  • Gabon
Label
Conjugal rights : marriage, sexuality, and urban life in colonial Libreville, Gabon, Rachel Jean-Baptiste
Instantiates
Publication
Note
Based on the author's thesis (doctoral)--Stanford University, 2005
Bibliography note
Includes bibliographical references (pages 275-289) and index
Carrier category
volume
Carrier category code
  • nc
Carrier MARC source
rdacarrier.
Content category
text
Content type code
  • txt
Content type MARC source
rdacontent.
Contents
  • "Faire bon ami" (to be good friends) : sex, pleasure, and punishment
  • "A black girl should not be with a white man" : interracial sex, African women, and respectability
  • Introduction: narrating a history of domestic life, sexuality, and being in urban Africa
  • From Atlantic Ocean trading post to colonial outpost, 1849-1929
  • Marriage, trade, and the founding of Libreville, 1849-1910
  • Planning, protest, and prostitution : Libreville in the era of timber, 1910-1929
  • Libreville's growth, 1930-1960
  • Migration and governance : the expansion of Libreville
  • The bridewealth economy : money and relationships of affinity
  • Jurisprudence : marriage and divorce law
Control code
FIEb17602385
Dimensions
24 cm.
Extent
xiii, 300 pages
Isbn
9780821421208
Media category
unmediated
Media MARC source
rdamedia.
Media type code
  • n
Other physical details
illustrations, maps
System control number
(OCoLC)878953439
Label
Conjugal rights : marriage, sexuality, and urban life in colonial Libreville, Gabon, Rachel Jean-Baptiste
Publication
Note
Based on the author's thesis (doctoral)--Stanford University, 2005
Bibliography note
Includes bibliographical references (pages 275-289) and index
Carrier category
volume
Carrier category code
  • nc
Carrier MARC source
rdacarrier.
Content category
text
Content type code
  • txt
Content type MARC source
rdacontent.
Contents
  • "Faire bon ami" (to be good friends) : sex, pleasure, and punishment
  • "A black girl should not be with a white man" : interracial sex, African women, and respectability
  • Introduction: narrating a history of domestic life, sexuality, and being in urban Africa
  • From Atlantic Ocean trading post to colonial outpost, 1849-1929
  • Marriage, trade, and the founding of Libreville, 1849-1910
  • Planning, protest, and prostitution : Libreville in the era of timber, 1910-1929
  • Libreville's growth, 1930-1960
  • Migration and governance : the expansion of Libreville
  • The bridewealth economy : money and relationships of affinity
  • Jurisprudence : marriage and divorce law
Control code
FIEb17602385
Dimensions
24 cm.
Extent
xiii, 300 pages
Isbn
9780821421208
Media category
unmediated
Media MARC source
rdamedia.
Media type code
  • n
Other physical details
illustrations, maps
System control number
(OCoLC)878953439

Subject

Member of

Library Locations

    • Badia FiesolanaBorrow it
      Via dei Roccettini 9, San Domenico di Fiesole, 50014, IT
      43.803074 11.283055

Library Links

Structured data from the Bibframe namespace is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License by European University Institute. Additional terms may apply to data associated with third party namespaces.
Processing Feedback ...