Gender and Cultural Studies in Africa and the Diaspora: Changing Yorùbá Ideals of Power, Procreation, and Identity in the Age of Modernity

Oyěwùmí, Oyèrónkẹ́

In this book, Oyěwùmí extends her path-breaking thesis that in Yorùbá society, construction of gender is a colonial development since the culture exhibited no gender divisions in its original form. Taking seriously indigenous modes and categories of knowledge, she applies her finding of a non-gendered ontology to the social institutions of Ifá, motherhood, marriage, family and naming practices. Oyěwùmí insists that contemporary assertions of male dominance must be understood, in part, as the work of local intellectuals who took marching orders from Euro/American mentors and colleagues. In exposing the depth of the coloniality of power, Oyěwùmí challenges us to look at the worlds we inhabit, anew.

Details

Published by: Palgrave Macmillan

Publication Date: 2015-12-09

Format: Paperback

ISBN-13: 9781349580514

DOI: 10.1057/9781137521255

Dimensions: 216cm x140cm

Pages: 262