Review "This work is a major contribution to the expanding new, groundbreaking field of African historical studies, which aims to bring to light the hitherto neglected precolonial social history of the continent. The author shows a full and finely tuned grasp of the techniques of linguistic historical reconstruction and a complete knowledge of - and an ability to effectively incorporate - the literature and the historical sources." Christopher Ehret, University of California, Los Angeles"This study provides a fascinating analysis of language regarding the nature of marriage and matrilateral relationships in patrilineal societies. It makes a convincing case for seeing marriage and motherhood as lying at the heart of alliance-building in precolonial Africa. This is the most readable and comprehensible text available based on African historical linguistics." Shane Doyle, University of Leeds Read more Book Description This is the first book-length treatment of the history of motherhood in precolonial Africa. This book takes a new approach to longue durée African history through a focus on a highly gendered social institution, and changes our understanding of social and political organization in a region depicted as intensely patriarchal. It argues that even for times when we cannot identify individual actors, we can still trace historical agency in the way people reformulated and mobilized ideologies of motherhood to sustain their communities. Read more About the Author Rhiannon Stephens is Assistant Professor of African History at Columbia University. Her work has been published in scholarly journals such as Past and Present and the Journal of African History. She received her PhD in history from Northwestern University. Read more
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