Cross-cultural surveys indicate that 50 to 60 per cent of societies initiate girls, compared to 30 to 40 per cent that initiate boys (quoted in Geisler 1997:125). A certain connection between matriliny and women’s initiation as cultural practice seems a possibility, as Audrey Richards (1982:160, 172, 185) noted, although the correlation is certainly not a […]

representations of efundula have been invoked by different sections of the Owam — bo population in attempts to affirm claims to hegemonic defining power over lo­cal and national, gendered public culture.[18] Numerous recent studies, such as Cooper and Stoler (1997), have shown that colonialism was not a stable model, but subject to multiple internal tensions. […]

ual and reproductive health.[17] I argue that divergent discourses on the gendered sexualities of the indigenous population were thus central to the most basic ten­sion of empire, namely that the Otherness of colonized persons was neither in­herent nor stable; their difference had to be continuously redefined and main­tained. As Ann Stoler and Frederick Cooper have […]

Following Richard Werbner and Terence Ranger’s argument that we need to look to the longue duree in the study of the dynamic complexity of postcolonial African societies (Werbner and Ranger 1996), I suggest that studies of the gendered con­structions of culture and sexuality in postcolonial, and this includes postapart­heid, southern Africa require an approach that […]

It came as a surprise, therefore, when in early 1996 the national television channel screened a half-hour programme on a recently held efundula} The TV programme (Carstens 1996) recorded the preparation of the ceremony, the per­formance of dances, songs and specific ritual practices, as well as interviews with some initiates and the ritual leader, an […]

Heike Becker[13] Introduction In the early 1990s I, together with colleagues, carried out research into ‘custom­ary’ marriage in Owambo, northern Namibia.[14] In the course of the research, we were told by a large number of local residents that getting married was primarily a matter of Christian rites. However, many also spoke freely about ‘customary’ as­pects […]

The contrast between on one hand these kinds of stories from various parts of Africa, of female genitals seen as sources of power, fear and awe, and on the other hand present-day conceptions of female genital organs as invisible and unmen­tionable (cf. Machera’s chapter) is striking. A speculation regarding the impor­tance of missionary interventions in […]

Historical evidence exists regarding African women’s militant action against colo­nial oppression and patriarchal power (cf. Kolawole, this volume) as well as against sexual insults from men. Based on data from Cameroon in the 1950s, Shirley Ardener (1975) has described how women collectively would confront a male offender, singing abusive songs accompanied by obscene gestures. Machera […]

project, which is the focus of their critical analysis: male circumcision as AIDS prevention. Jungar and Oinas show a) that the scientific evidence backing the connection between male circumcision and HIV/AIDS prevention is shaky, to say the least, and b) that, in fact, if taken seriously this ‘prevention strategy’ would have very negative consequences for […]

One drawback, of course, of ‘polyandrous motherhood’ is the mounting risks of AIDS. Women’s sexual transactions and attempts at strategic allocation of their reproductive power are performed in contexts of high level risks and uncertain­ties, as vividly illustrated in Haram’s chapter; risks which are exacerbated by the scaringly rapid spread of HIV/AIDS. The epidemic furthermore […]