Women's Voices, Women's Power: Dialogues of Resistance from East Africa

Brenda Reed is the curriculum and reference services librarian in the
Education Library, Queen’s University.

Women’s Voices, Women’s Power is a scholarly book that examines the
social, economic, and political position of women in the rural Maragoli
Division of Western Province, Kenya. The author’s central argument is
that these women “use their apparent agreement with patriarchal
ideology to accrue power.” In researching the book, Abwunza, a
professor in the Department of Sociology and Anthropology at Wilfrid
Laurier University, spent time in Maragoli—an impoverished and crowded
area of Kenya—in 1987, 1988, 1992, and 1994. She interviewed “410
women along with varying numbers of members of their families” and
constructed from their words a fascinating description of their daily
life.

Abwunza’s detailed explanations of the customs and traditions
connected to marriage, birth, and death, together with her explanations
of how women provide for their families, offer the necessary background
for her arguments about the effect of a patriarchy on the lives of
everyone in the community. The book includes an introductory history of
the Avalogoli, a description of women’s work, an investigation of the
connection between posterity and progress, and a consideration of the
potential decline of the patriarchal structure that currently exists in
Maragoli. Abwunza also discusses the role of both men and women in
overcoming the overpopulation problem, and the significant role of
women’s groups—formal and informal—as channels of communication.

This book will be of interest to a broad community of readers,
particularly those interested in African, cultural, and gender issues.
Endnotes, a list of works cited, a glossary, maps, and an index are
included. Recommended for academic libraries.