Concubines and Power

Heidi J. Nast is professor of international studies at DePaul University, Chicago. She coedited and contributed to the volumes Places through the Body and Thresholds in Feminist Geography.

"This is an important and useful little book that should be of interest to scholars in many fields, both for the data contained in it and for its theoretical analysis."-Africa: Journal of the International African Institute"Heidi Nast’s book recovers and reconstitutes this world. It is an imaginative and innovative contribution to cultural geography."-Cultural Geographies"Heidi Nast’s Concubines and Power demystifies the exotic, offering an analytical view of concubines’s roles in the communal context of the royal palace in Kano, Nigeria."-African Studies Review"Concubines and Power is a valuable addition to gendered histories of Nigeria and a product of both excellent scholarship and collaborative ethnographic research. It is a fascinating book that will be of interest to historical and feminist geographers as well as Africanists, historians, archaeologists and anthropologists."-Singapore Journal of Tropical Geography"This product of over ten years of research has resulted in a work that is original and profound. This competent study is rich in ethnography, offering new data on slavery, gender, the management of the Kano palace, grain treasuries, and the role of Islam. Highly recommended."-Choice"Concubines and Power is an important rethinking of the role of royal concubinage in the historic city-state of Kano in northern Nigeria. At a time when human geography seems to be yet again reconsidering its approach to research, the empirically-rich interpretations found in Concubines and Power might serve as an innovative foundation for new qualitative studies of social phenomenon in the past and present."-The Professional Geographer"Concubines and Power offers a detailed sociospatial geographical history of the residences, activities, and value of concubines in the Kano palace. It brings together a wealth of information on the lives of women who populate the harem, the heart of the palace, and lends insight into how women contributed to Kano politics and culture during the past 500 years. It will surely inspire further research on Hausa women and their vital roles in the culture."-Journal of Interdisciplinary History"Heidi Nast’s Concubines and Power is an outstanding contribution and a remarkably radical departure from previous works on the royal emirate because is highlights the pivotal roles of these concubines in the staging of social, political, and economic power in the city despite their apparently marginal position."-African Affairs