Marriage in Kumasi, Ghana: Locally Emergent Practices in the Colonial/Modern Gender System

Abstract

In this article, I use ethnographic and historical evidence to consider marriage as a particular locus of what Maria Lugones has called “the colonial/modern gender system.” By bringing specific research on marriage among the matrilineal Asante of Kumasi, Ghana, together with a consideration of global ideals of marriage and gender, I argue that marriage and the family are key sites through which the subjugation of women in Africa can be understood, but that this requires local and historical contextualization. To do this, I trace the emergence and current local expression of “companionate marriage,” an ideal of marriage that is associated with romantic love and personal choice, and that is often seen as a gender‐progressive marriage ideal. In Kumasi, “companionate” ideals began to emerge during the colonial period, not as an empowering force, but in complicated interactions with other gendered changes that limited wives' claims to husbands' reciprocal support and isolated women from their matrilineal kin. Today, customary marriage is often considered harmful to women and distinct from other forms of marriage; however, I show that such assumptions impose categorial differences where none may exist, and occlude the complexities of women's lives and struggles.

Toward a Decolonial Feminist Anticapitalism: María Lugones, Sylvia Wynter, and Sayak Valencia

“…2Again, though not an exhaustive list, a cursory glance at contemporary literature on the CMGS reveals that capitalism does not even appear in many academic pieces mobilizing the framework. See, for example, Giraldo 2016; Nave 2017. Although Boris Bertolt writes about capitalism in his article on the CMGS, he does not recognize Lugones's work to be anticapitalist, instead drawing on other authors like Mignolo, Quijano, and Fanon to furnish this part of the argument (Bertolt 2018).…”

‘I Do Not Want Her to be Doing Anything Stressful’: Men’s Involvement in Domestic Work During Pregnancy in Ghana

“…Although the ‘male breadwinner’ and ‘female domestic-caregiver’ discourse is still dominant in Ghana, research has documented that gender relations in the household have to some extent been amended in practice (Boni, 2002; Clark, 1999; Nave, 2017). As long as 20 years ago, Gracia Clark (1999) and Stefano Boni (2002) showed how women negotiated the performance of household duties, like cooking, in exchange for the provision of economic resources for the family.…”