European University Institute Library

A history of African motherhood, the case of Uganda, 700-1900, Rhiannon Stephens

eng

index present

non fiction

A history of African motherhood

electronic resource

dictionaries

858601691

Rhiannon Stephens

African studies, 127Cambridge Social Sciences eBooks

the case of Uganda, 700-1900

This history of African motherhood over the longue durée demonstrates that it was, ideologically and practically, central to social, economic, cultural and political life. The book explores how people in the North Nyanzan societies of Uganda used an ideology of motherhood to shape their communities. More than biology, motherhood created essential social and political connections that cut across patrilineal and cultural-linguistic divides. The importance of motherhood as an ideology and a social institution meant that in chiefdoms and kingdoms queen mothers were powerful officials who legitimated the power of kings. This was the case in Buganda, the many kingdoms of Busoga, and the polities of Bugwere. By taking a long-term perspective from c.700 to 1900 CE and using an interdisciplinary approach - drawing on historical linguistics, comparative ethnography, and oral traditions and literature, as well as archival sources - this book shows the durability, mutability and complexity of ideologies of motherhood in this region.--, Provided by publisher

Writing precolonial African history: words and other historical fragments -- Motherhood in north Nyanza, eighth through the twelfth century -- Consolidation and adaptation: the politics of motherhood in early Buganda and south Kyoga, thirteenth through the fifteenth century -- Mothering the kingdoms: Buganda, Busoga and east Kyoga, sixteenth through the eighteenth century -- Contesting the authority of mothers in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries