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Through reconstruction of oral testimony, folk stories and poetry, the true history of Hausa women and their reception of Islam's vision of Muslim in Western Africa have been uncovered. Mary Wren Bivins is the first author to locate and examine the oral texts of the 19th century Hausa women and challenge the written documentation of the Sokoto Caliphate. The personal narratives and folk stories reveal the importance of illiterate, non-elite women to the history of jihad and the assimilation of normative Islam in rural Hausaland. The captivating lives of the Hausa are captured, shedding light on their ordinary existence as wives, mothers, and providers for their family on the eve of European colonial conquest.

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This ground-breaking book examines the verbal art of women from three Sahelian societies. It relates West African women’s voices to a broader literary, political, and cultural context and succeeds in crossing traditional disciplinary boundaries. In her book, Sidikou argues that through verbal art women create a ritual space that serves as the locus of both their creativity and their efforts to negotiate power as well as to affirm their own selfhood. By offering a new way of approaching oral literature in West Africa, this study re-thinks verbal art by and about women. It also debunks assumptions about African women by suggesting a re-vision of what has been written about them.

This significant and unique study will have a tremendous impact on research and teaching in general and will make a strong contribution not only to African studies, but to cultural studies, feminism, theory, and education. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Phenomenal!!
To call this book groundbreaking is an understatement.This intriguing study reshapes many of the Western assumptions about African women with a truly unique and refreshing viewpoint.Anyone who is interested in African studies, women's studies, oral history, etc. would be doing themselves a great disservice to not have this book in their collection.This is the book that many scholars have been waiting for in that it is truly the premier source of information of its type on the market.You will not be disappointed! ... Read more

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Shell, the State and Underdevelopment of the Niger Delta of Nigeria: A Study in Environmental Degradation deals with the origins, nature and trend of capitalist development promoted by Shell Petroleum Development Company (Shell) and the Nigerian State in the Delta region. It is no longer in doubt after the Ogoni uprising that the activities of Shell, the largest oil transnational in Nigeria, which accounts for more than 50 percent of the country’s total oil production, are degrading the environment of its host communities in the Niger Delta. However, what has not been properly understood about how Shell has underdeveloped the Niger Delta and is still doing so, which this book explains, is both the process and structure of its pillage and the role of the state in all this. This book, therefore, provides an alternative and critical theoretical framework for analyzing in a holistic and dialectical manner, the underdevelopment of the environment and economy of the oil producing areas with particular emphasis on those where Shell operate. For, Shell’s operations are most spread across the Niger Delta than those of all the other oil companies combined, which explains in part why they are worst hit by oil pollution in the region. It also undertakes a critical analysis of how the environment and economies of oil producing communities are systematically and steadily damaged over the years by Shell and the state in comparison with the activities of other foreign oil companies like Chevron and Mobil. It looks into the forms and patterns of protest the inhabitants of the oil producing communities took to resist their underdevelopment, noting the persons and institutions that are involved, the interests they represent, their problems and prospects, and the responses from both Shell and the state.The book argues that the root cause of the environmental degradation of the oil producing areas in the Niger Delta is the mode of state-transnational capitalism in Nigeria’s oil industry. On account of its materialistic interest, the policies and actions of the Nigerian state vested the sole ownership of the land and the oil found therein on it thereby turning the inhabitants of the oil producing communities into squatters in their ancestral homes, and their environment treated as mine fields. This, Shell takes advantage of and operates with reckless abandon in the Niger Delta. This book is, therefore a compulsory text for scholars, policy makers, non-governmental organizations and international development agencies interested in turning the table of underdevelopment of the Niger Delta of Nigeria. It is also an indispensable book for the World Bank/IMF and other financial institutions mediating transnational capitalism in Nigeria’s oil and gas industry, particularly hydrocarbon exploitation in the Niger Delta. ... Read more

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This is the first book to be published by the Urhobo Historical Society, which was formed in 1999 to preserve and promote the history and culture of the Urhobo people of the Niger Delta region. The society is focusing on documentation, chronicling historical records and the writings of diverse historical experiences amongst the Urhobo, and disseminating information. A higher-minded aim of the society, which has gained recognition in intellectual and academic circles in Nigeria and the United States, is to counterbalance or challenge the imperial historiography that has characterised study of the region, and present a more truthful version of the history of the Niger Delta. ... Read more

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This series ofClassics in African Anthropology is primarily drawn from a distinct family of texts which dominated the academic analysis of society in mid-20th century Africa. The texts reproduced are significant yet often neglected, and have stood the test of time. This text, originally published in 1963, is an account of the rise of the slave and palm oil trading states in the Niger delta in the 18th and 19th centuries. North America: Transaction Books; Germany Lit Verlag. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

Rivers enlightenment
Mr Jones presents the Niger Delta of Nigeria in an unbiased statement of fact. Based on his analysis, it explains why the region today is experiencing development crisis.
By reading this book, individuals concerned with the Niger Delta and its people are able to understand why this crisis exists and possibly apply a better understanding to solving some of the social problems.

Excellent resource
One of the few trusted sources for information about creation and evolution of the Kalabari kingdom of southern Nigeria.

Outstanding Study
First published in 1963, this work is a classic in African studies.G. I. Jones examines the development of "canoe houses," trading companies that dominated much of life in the ports of Eastern Nigeria.Jones offers insight on the development of trading companies, the organization of the slave trade, and the nature of slavery itself in this region.

This work should prove interesting to those studying African-American history.Many people, especially Ibo (Igbo), came to America through these ports.See Philip D. Curtin, The Atlantic Slave Trade: A Census; Daniel C. Littlefield, Rice and Slaves: Ethnicity and the Slave Trade in Colonial South Carolina; and the relevant and fascinating essays in David Eltis, et al., Routes to Slavery.

For the development of similar canoe houses in another region of Africa, see Robert W. Harms, River of Wealth, River of Sorrow: The Central Zaire Basin in the Era of the Slave and Ivory Trade, 1500-1891.For the nature of slavery in different African societies, see the studies in Suzanne Miers and Igor Kopytoff, editors, Slavery in Africa. ... Read more