Land in transition: from social reproduction of labour power to social reproduction of power
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Date
2021
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Journal of Contemporary African Studies
Abstract
Ifi Amadiume’s seminal work, Male Daughters, Female Husbands
developed significant insights into the relationship between
gender, wealth and power, and anticipated the centrality of
gendered labour processes in the survival of the family/
household by highlighting the articulation between reproductive
labour and the productive economy. In this epoch when various
postcolonial states are grappling anew with land and agrarian
questions, Amadiume’s detailed study of the decommodification
of land is especially salient for feminist inquiry as she has already
drawn attention to the ways in which land functions
generationally in the reproduction of authority, ritual,
governance, kinship and power. This paper proposes a similar
move beyond the present discourses which emphasise women’s
roles in the social reproduction of labour power, asking how a
critical reading of Amadiume might help us understand the
significance of social reproduction in relation to land as a
contemporary realm of feminist power and struggles.
Description
Keywords
Power, Land, Social reproduction, Labour, Customary
Citation
Lyn Ossome (2021) Land in transition: from social reproduction of labour power to social reproduction of power, Journal of Contemporary African Studies, 39:4, 550-564, DOI: 10.1080/02589001.2021.1895431