African Women: Early History to the 21st Century [Hardcover]

African women's history is a topic as vast as the continent itself, embracing an array of societies in over fifty countries with different geographies, social customs, religions, and historical situations. InAfrican Women: Early History to the 21st Century,Kathleen Sheldon masterfully delivers a comprehensive study of this expansive story from before the time of records to the present day. She provides rich background on descent systems and the roles of women in matrilineal and patrilineal systems. Sheldon's work profiles elite women, as well as those in leadership roles, traders and market women, religious women, slave women, women in resistance movements, and women in politics and development. The rich case studies and biographies in this thorough survey establish a grand narrative about women's roles in the history of Africa.

Kathleen Sheldon is an independent scholar who has a research affiliation with the Center for the Study of Women at the University of California, Los Angeles. She is author ofPounders of Grain: A History of Women, Work, and Politics in Mozambiqueand theHistorical Dictionary of Women in Sub-Saharan Africa.

The author's book adds an impressive contribution and paints a comprehensive picture about the role of ordinary African women in the African history and development. The book is a valuable addition to several fields including gender, political studies, and history studies.

This comprehensive work on African women decisively adds to the understanding of the subject. . . . Highly recommended.

This is an essential book that will enrich undergraduate classroom discussions and, hopefully, bring more attention to the rich and creative scholarship produced by scholars of gender and women's studies.

This book should be regarded as a magisterial achievement, and will no doubt find a well-deserved place on a whole host of undergraduate reading lists.

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