Conjugal Rights. Rachel Jean-Baptiste
Читать онлайн книгу.
Introduction Narrating a History of Domestic Life, Sexuality, Being, and Feeling in Urban Africa
Part I FROM ATLANTIC OCEAN TRADING POST TO COLONIAL CAPITAL CITY, 1849–1929
Chapter 1 Sexual Economy in the Era of Trade and Politics: The Founding of Libreville, 1849–1910
Chapter 2 Planning, Protest, and Prostitution: Libreville in the Era of Timber, 1910–1929
Part II LIBREVILLE’S GROWTH, 1930–1960
Chapter 3 Migration and Governance: The Expansion of Libreville
Chapter 4 The Bridewealth Economy: Money and Relationships of Affinity
Chapter 5 Jurisprudence: Marriage and Divorce Law
Chapter 6 “Faire Bon Ami” (To Be Good Friends): Sex, Pleasure, and Punishment
Chapter 7 “A Black Girl Should Not Be with a White Man”: Interracial Sex, African Women, and Respectability
Conclusion
Notes
Bibliography
Index
Illustrations
MAPS
1 .1 Mpongwé Settlement in the Gabon Estuary, Mid-Nineteenth Century
2 .1 Administrative Division of Gabon, 1916
3 .1 Libreville’s African Neighborhoods, ca. 1957
FIGURES
2 .1 Population of the City of Libreville, 1912–1929
3 .1 Population of the City of Libreville, 1931–1938
3 .2 Population of the Subdivision of Libreville, 1931–1938
3 .3 Population of the City of Libreville, 1939–1960
3 .4 Population of the Subdivision of Libreville, 1939–1955
3 .5 Marital Status by Ethnicity and Gender of Inhabitants of the Subdivision of Libreville, 1944
4 .1 Fang Bridewealth in Years of Timber Laborer Salary
4 .2 Median Fang Bridewealth in Years of Timber Laborer Salary
4 .3 Marriage Loans from the De Gaulle Marriage Loan Fund
5 .1 Colonial Native Court System, 1927–1939
5 .2 Categories of Legal Complaints in Divorce Disputes
6 .1 Polygamous and Monogamous Marriage Rates, Subdivision of Libreville, 1944
PHOTOGRAPHS
2 .1 Village of Louis, ca. 1900
2 .2 Maritime Boulevard, ca. 1927
2 .3 Bastille Day celebration, 1929
3 .1 House on stilts, ca. 1950s
6 .1 Simone Agnoret Iwenga St. Denis, husband, and child, ca. 1950s
6 .2 A man and his copine, ca. 1950s
7 .1 Mpongwé women and French military personnel, ca. 1950s
7 .2 A métis woman and child, ca. 1950s
Acknowledgments
I received tremendous financial, intellectual, and emotional support from varied institutions and people in completing this book. Fellowships from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the Department of Education’s Foreign Language and Area Studies Program, and the Fulbright Program supported fieldwork and writing of the dissertation from which this book sprang. The Mellon Mays Fellowship Program has funded varied stages of research, writing, and a sabbatical year. An Individual Development Award Grant from the United University Professions at the State University of New York at Albany funded follow-up research in Gabon and Senegal. The University of Chicago’s Social Science Division provided a year of leave and funding for further research trips to France and to Italy. The office of the Dean of Social Sciences provided funding for the stage of final production.
While a graduate student at Stanford, I was fortunate to be part of a dynamic community of faculty and peers. The indefatigable Richard Roberts has been a generous adviser and mentor for more than a decade. The late Kennel Jackson conveyed his love of African cultural and art history. Mary Louise Roberts taught me to not be afraid of theory, and Estelle Freedman taught me to think critically about how gender matters. Fellow graduate students Shelley Lee, Carol Pal, Lise Sedrez, and Matthew Booker read nearly every word of every chapter and continue to provide a sustained friendship. I have also benefited from commentary by Kim Warren, Cecilia Tsu, Shana Bernstein, Shira Robinson, and Amy Robinson, as well as Emily Burrill, Benjamin Lawrence, and Rachel Petrocelli. Abosede George has provided invaluable feedback along the entire road from dissertation to book.
At the University of Chicago, I found myself amid a remarkable intellectual community of scholars. I thank Adrienne Brown, Tianna Paschel, Micere Keels, and Gina Samuels for reading several chapters in a critical moment of transition and for their friendship that knew no bounds. Leora Auslander’s keen discernment propelled me in new directions, as did the insights on the changing meanings of race provided by Julie Saville, Kathy Cohen, and Daniel Desormaux. Linda Zerilli and affiliated faculty and students of the Center for the Study of Gender and Sexuality commented on several chapters. Ralph Austen, Jennifer Cole, Jean Comaroff, John Comaroff, Keisha Fikes, Cécile Fromont, Emily Osborn, Francois Richard, and graduate students who participated in the African Studies Workshop formed a tremendous gathering of Africanists. Research assistants Deirdre Lyons, Brittany McGee, and Jennifer Amos tracked down numerous leads. I learned much from undergraduate and graduate students in the classroom.
Many individuals beyond these institutions generously gave of their