on Nov 20th, 2006Religion, Power, Older Women (and Lots of Feminist Rhetoric)
We’ve never heard of the Journal of Cross-Cultural Gerontology until spotting this article about how Samia women in Kenya are rejecting the idea of remarriage in order to halt male domination. So the next time you visit Africa, be sure to pick up a copy for that flight over. It’s always good to read up on the local culture so you can feel right at home in those heated discussions that occur inside your luxury tent on the Masai Mara plains.
Abstract:
In rural western Kenya, older Samia women, often victims of forced marriage in youth, are refusing traditional widow inheritance (remarriage) and renewed male domination after a husband’s death. They make their refusals in the strategic public discourse of funeral speeches.
The ability of older women to bring about change in female roles and power is related to their positions in extended families and support from lsquosavedrsquo Christians. Examination of Samia women’s everyday resistance to patriarchal power reveals the dynamics of gender relations within the overlapping power structures of kinship hierarchies, marriage, and religion (Christianity). It is also an example of religious renewal as a force in social change.
Praise the lord and say no to men: Older women empowering themselves in Samia, Kenya
Journal of Cross-Cultural Gerontology
Publisher Springer Netherlands
Issue Volume 7, Number 4 / October, 1992