European University Institute Library

Marriage by force?, contestation over consent and coercion in Africa, edited by Annie Bunting, Benjamin N. Lawrance, and Richard L. Roberts

eng

Includes bibliographical references and index

index present

non fiction

Marriage by force?

electronic resource

bibliographydictionaries

951028527

edited by Annie Bunting, Benjamin N. Lawrance, and Richard L. Roberts

Ebsco eBook Collection

contestation over consent and coercion in Africa

With forced marriage, as with so many human rights issues, the sensationalized hides the mundane, and oversimplified popular discourses miss the range of experiences. In sub-Saharan Africa, the relationship between coercion and consent in marriage is a complex one that has changed over time and place, rendering impossible any single interpretation or explanation. The legal experts, anthropologists, historians, and development workers contributing to Marriage by Force? focus on the role that marriage plays in the mobilization of labor, the accumulation of wealth, and domination versus dependency. They also address the crucial slippage between marriages and other forms of gendered violence, bondage, slavery, and servile status. Only by examining variations in practices from a multitude of perspectives can we properly contextualize the problem and its consequences. And while early and forced marriages have been on the human rights agenda for decades, there is today an unprecedented level of international attention to the issue, thus making the coherent, multifaceted approach of Marriage by Force? even more necessary.--, Provided by Publisher

Introduction: something old, something new? Conceptualizing forced marriage in Africa / Annie Bunting, Benjamin N. Lawrance, and Richard L. Roberts -- Colonial struggles -- Constrained consent: women, marriage, and household instability in colonial French West Africa, 1905-60 / Richard L. Roberts -- Forced marriage, gender, and consent in Igboland, 1900-1936 / Olatunji Ojo -- Debating "early marriage" in colonial Kenya, 1920-50 / Brett L. Shadle -- Italian weddings and memory of trauma: colonial domestic policy in southern Somalia, 1910-41 / Francesca Declich -- Postindependence transformations -- Ukuthwala, forced marriage, and the idea of custom in South Africa's Eastern Cape / Elizabeth Thornberry -- Concubinage as forced marriage? Colonial jawari, contemporary hartaniyya, and marriage in Mauritania / E. Ann McDougall -- Challenges and constraints: forced marriage as a form of "traditional" practice in The Gambia / Bala Saho -- Resisting patriarchy, contesting homophobia: expert testimony and the construction of forced marriage in African asylum claims / Benjamin N. Lawrance and Charlotte Walker-Said -- Contemporary perspectives -- Consent, custom, and the law in debates around forced marriage at the special court for Sierra Leone / Mariane C. Ferme -- Between global standards and local realities: Shari'a and mass marriage programs in northern Nigeria / Judith-Ann Walker -- Dreams of my mother: good news on ending early marriage / Muadi Mukenge -- "To be taken as a wife is a form of death": the social, military, and humanitarian dynamics of forced marriage and girl soldiers in African conflicts, c. 1990-2010 / Stacey Hynd -- Afterword: historicizing social justice and the longue durée of forced marriage / Emily S. Burrill