Land and food, women and power, in nineteenth century Kikuyu

Clark, Carolyn M.

doi:10.2307/1158428

Cited by 35 publications

(10 citation statements)

References 6 publications

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“…However, in pre-colonial Kipsigis society the gender division of labour made men and women mutually dependent regarding the exchange of products, labour and other services. Women's role in production and control over grain yielded them a measure of control over their husbands and a means of influencing political processes in an otherwise male-dominated society (Okeyo, 1980;Clark 1980;Crehan, 1984Crehan, , 1985.…”

Section: Grain and Cattlementioning

confidence: 99%

Bigger than men? Gender relations and their changing meaning in Kipsigis society, Kenya

Bulow¹

1992

Africa

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This article examines why Kipsigis women today appear strong and determined although colonisation and commoditisation have led to an increase in their subordination. Inspired by studies that link cultural ideas about gender with actual social relations, I investigate how Kipsigis ideas about female and male interact with production relations. I argue that gender relations and meanings attributed to gender have altered radically during this century, and that changed economic and political circumstances have led to new struggles over the meaning and interpretation of gender ideologies. The article demonstrates how Kipsigis women manage to negotiate control over household resources by referring to and manipulating customary ideas about status and rights within the house property complex practised in pre-colonial society.

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Section: Grain and Cattlementioning

confidence: 99%

Bigger than men? Gender relations and their changing meaning in Kipsigis society, Kenya

Bulow¹

1992

Africa

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“…Within certain limits, a woman had the right to dispose of the crops she g~ew (Kershaw 1976). The production of a large surplus would, in all likelihood, have resulted in a situation where women's autonomy in this area was the subject of dispute (Clark 1980). Men's ag~icultural production was related to goods of social and ritual value; they were responsible for livestock production and certain perennial crops such as sugarcane, yams, bananas, and tobacco (Kershaw 1976, r8o).…”

Section: Export I Food Crops and Control Over The Proceedsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Local Initiatives and National Policy: Gender and Agricultural Change in Murang'a District, Kenya

Mackenzie¹

1986

Canadian Journal of African Studies / Revue canadienne des étud

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Dans le contexte d'une region de petits fermiers dans laProvince Centrale au Kenya, de recentes initiatives locales sont discutees du point de vue de ]'evolution historique de la politique agricole nationale. L'argument est que les politiques visant au changement du regime fancier et a la promotion de recoltes d'exportation, comme le cafe, ant servia intensifier les contradictions dans l'environnement rural. Elles ant abouti a une plus grande stratification a la fois socioeconomique et basee sur la difference entre les sexes. Tout en se concentrant sur les relations de production basees sur la difference entre les sexes, des preuves sont presentees, a l'appui de ]'hypothese que les groupes [eminins actuels offrent aux femmes la solidarite qui leur permettra de s'adapter aux processus de changement rural qui a eu sur elles un effet tout a fait negatif. Preface: Wanjiru's Story 1There was a famine and the husband went to stay in his hut (thingira) and was eating his goats. He told his wife that they were no longer together: "You will eat your property and I mine!" The man would slaughter a goat and hang it in his hut. The woman thought she and the children would die, so she went to a swampy region and found nduma cia mwanake (arrowroots of young men) which she uprooted.She carried this with some firewood and went home. She cooked and ate one without giving any to the children. In the morning she found that she was quite fine and therefore that the arrowroots were not poisonous. She called her children and gave each of them an arrowroot. After they had eaten, nothing had happened to them. She was quite happy as she had found something to eat dur· ing that time. So every morning she went to uproot those arrowroots.Her husband was surprised; so one day he called her and asked her why she and the children were not growing thin whereas even those who were eating meat were growing thin. The woman told him that she collected arrowroots from the forest and ate them and that was why they were not getting hungry. Downloaded by [University of Exeter] at 05

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“…Two recent studies have contested these ahistorical construction s of the past. One argues that the changes in the slave and ivory trades in the nineteenth century affected circumcision, marriage, and reproductive patterns; another claims that "despite an ideology of male dominance pervasive in many kinship relations and areas characterized as the prestige economy, Kikuyu women emerge as actors with control over resources vital in a system in which relations of production enter into political strategies and are built into the social relations of power" (Ciancanelli 1980;Clark 1980). While a complete history of the changes in Kikuyu marriage patterns in the nineteenth century may be dif cult to reconstruct, there is substantial evidence for the twentieth century, including oral sources.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Generational Changes in Marriage Patterns in the Central Province of Kenya, 1930-1990

Hetherington¹

2001

afr asian stud

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It is the argument of this paper, which compares the experiences and attitudes of three generations of Kikuyu women in Kenya, that the practices of female circumcision and polygyny, the payment of bridewealth, and the age of rst marriage were all affected over the sixty year period of this study by a combination of changes in the material world and by the proselytization of Christian missionaries. Most of the women in the third generation, who were in their twenties in 1990, have abandoned female circumcision and all of them reject the idea of polygynous marriage. Most of them are attempting to construct a marriage arrangement that re ects their understanding of western Christian practice, but the marriage age is now much more uid and marriage itself much less certain.

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Land and food, women and power, in nineteenth century Kikuyu

Cited by 35 publications

References 6 publications

Bigger than men? Gender relations and their changing meaning in Kipsigis society, Kenya

Bigger than men? Gender relations and their changing meaning in Kipsigis society, Kenya

Local Initiatives and National Policy: Gender and Agricultural Change in Murang'a District, Kenya

Generational Changes in Marriage Patterns in the Central Province of Kenya, 1930-1990

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