Gendering the African Diaspora

Judith A. Byfield is Associate Professor in the Africana Studies and Research Center at Cornell University and author of The Bluest Hands: A Social and Economic History of Women Dyers in Abeokuta (Nigeria), 1890–1940.LaRay Denzer is Visiting Scholar in the Department of History at Santa Clara University. She is author (with Jane I. Guyer and Adigun A. B. Agbaje) of Money Struggles and City Life: Devaluation in Ibadan and Other Urban Centers in Southern Nigeria, 1986–1996.Anthea Morrison is Senior Lecturer and Head of the Department of Literatures in English, University of the West Indies, Mona Campus (Jamaica).

"[T]his is a strong and enjoyable contribution to deepen our understanding of complex gendered processes, serving as an antidote to studies of diaspora that 'obscure ideas of class and nation [and] gender as well' . . . and an antidote to accounts which present women too readily as victims."—Leeds African Studies Bulletin"In foregrounding women's changing forms of engagement during their border-crossing encounters, we also gain important knowledge about both changing gender ideologies and changing politics, policies, and political movements across the African diaspora at given historical periods. This is a critically important and interesting addition not only to diaspora studies, but also to our general knowledge about gender roles in the Caribbean and hinterland Nigeria."—Constance Sutton, New York University"This collection . . . strengthens the significance of understanding the African diaspora across time, and provides a model for studying other diasporas as well."—Constance Sutton, New York University

• PrefaceA Note on the Structure of the VolumeIntroductionPart 1. Africa in the Caribbean Imagination1. Of Laughter and Kola Nuts; or, What Does Africa Have to Do with the African Diaspora? / Faith Lois Smith2. From Africa to "The Islands": New World Voyages in the Fiction of Maryse Condé and Paule Marshall / Anthea MorrisonPart 2. Race, Gender, and Agency in the Shadow of Slavery3. Mary Rose: "White" African Jamaican Woman? Race and Gender in Eighteenth-Century Jamaica / Linda L. Sturtz4. Trading Places: Market Negotiations in Wonderful Adventures of Mrs. Seacole in Many Lands / Antonia MacDonald-Smythe5. Blacks in the White Imagination: Race in the Investigation of Rape on Nineteenth-Century Emigrant Ships to the Colonial Caribbean / Verene A. Shepherd6. Maria Jones of Africa, St. Vincent, and Trinidad / Brinsley Samaroo7. Slavery, Marriage, and Gender Relations in Eastern Yorubaland, 1875–1920 / Olatunji Ojo8. On Equal/Unequal Footing with Men: Diaspora Linkages and Issues of Gender and Education Policy in Barbados, 1875–1945 / Janice MayersPart 3. Building Diaspora in the Web of Empire9. Amy Ashwood Garvey and the Nigerian Progress Union / Hakim Adi10. "Crack Kernels, Crack Hitler": Export Production Drive and Igbo Women during the Second World War / Gloria Chuku11. Intersections: Nigerian Episodes in the Careers of Three West Indian Women / LaRay Denzer12. Immigrant Voices in Cyberspace: Spinning Continental and Diasporan Africans into the World Wide Web / Mojúbàolú Olúfúnké OkomeNotes on ContributorsIndex