Description
In this latest book by the award-winning author of the hugely influential Male Daughters, Female Husbands, Ifi Amadiume propels gender relations beyond dichotomies and discriminations, and towards a power-sharing argument in discourse, contestation and resistance. Representing the culmination of over 40 years of ground-breaking work on notions of matriarchy at the intersection of the Igbo-African universe and the Western capitalist reality, Amadiume sets forth a blueprint for a bold new matriarchitarianism, critiquing all forms of social injustice with a shared matriarchal-relational humanism. In each chapter of the book, Amadiume applies these principles to a dazzling array of subjects: from religious leadership, kinship and family relations, to sexuality, creative writing and matters of conscience in race, class and gender. African Possibilities explodes our notions of matriarchy into original and compelling arguments, and offers a radical alternative approach to the world's entrenched injustices.
Ifi Amadiume offers a blueprint for a bold new matriarchitarianism, critiquing all forms of social injustice with a shared matriarchal-relational humanism.
About the Author
Ifi Amadiume is a tenured full Professor at Dartmouth College, USA, where she has taught both in the Department of Religion and the African and African American Studies Program. She has taught courses cross-listed in many departments and programs such as Women and Gender Studies Program, and the Anthropology Department. She is also a writer and an award-winning poet of many books. Amadiume is the author of several books and articles, including the influential Male Daughters, Female Husbands (Zed Books, 1988, new edition 2015) that won the Choice Outstanding Academic Book of the Year award in 1989 and one of Africa's Best 100 Books of the 20th century award.
Reviews
Contrary to feminist theories that presuppose an almighty patriarchy that is hegemonic globally, Ifi Amadiume has been theorizing, over and over again, the reality that white supremacist imperialist patriarchy never succeeded in wiping out indigenous knowledge systems and women's agency in toto. Rather, wherever there is patriachiality, careful research methodologies are bound to reveal oppositional matriachiality and vice versa. Drawing from her background in the cultural studies of religion, the inspirational poet-activist intellectual reminds us in African Possibilities that the world would be a more humane place when the marginalization of the immense contributions from poor women and Africans is ended to make way for the democratization and decolonization of economic, political, educational, technological, family, and spiritual institutional leadership in the interest of all. * Onwubiko Agozino, Professor, Virginia Tech, USA *
In this triumphant return, Professor Ifi Amadiume, the foremost scholar of matriarchy in West Africa, further develops the concept of matriarchitarianism, introduced in her influential work, Male Daughters, Female Husbands: Gender and Sex in an African Society (1987). Rooted in the works of contemporary colleagues in and of the African continent, students of empire and liberation will find African Possibilities to be foundational to the establishment and growth of inclusive epistemologies by African scholars, that imagines a just future for Africa and the world. * Assata Zerai, University of New Mexico, USA *
Book Information
ISBN 9781350333802
Author Ifi Amadiume
Format Hardback
Page Count 248
Imprint Zed Books Ltd
Publisher Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
Ifi Amadiume offers a blueprint for a bold new matriarchitarianism, critiquing all forms of social injustice with a shared matriarchal-relational humanism.
About the Author
Ifi Amadiume is a tenured full Professor at Dartmouth College, USA, where she has taught both in the Department of Religion and the African and African American Studies Program. She has taught courses cross-listed in many departments and programs such as Women and Gender Studies Program, and the Anthropology Department. She is also a writer and an award-winning poet of many books. Amadiume is the author of several books and articles, including the influential Male Daughters, Female Husbands (Zed Books, 1988, new edition 2015) that won the Choice Outstanding Academic Book of the Year award in 1989 and one of Africa's Best 100 Books of the 20th century award.
Reviews
Contrary to feminist theories that presuppose an almighty patriarchy that is hegemonic globally, Ifi Amadiume has been theorizing, over and over again, the reality that white supremacist imperialist patriarchy never succeeded in wiping out indigenous knowledge systems and women's agency in toto. Rather, wherever there is patriachiality, careful research methodologies are bound to reveal oppositional matriachiality and vice versa. Drawing from her background in the cultural studies of religion, the inspirational poet-activist intellectual reminds us in African Possibilities that the world would be a more humane place when the marginalization of the immense contributions from poor women and Africans is ended to make way for the democratization and decolonization of economic, political, educational, technological, family, and spiritual institutional leadership in the interest of all. * Onwubiko Agozino, Professor, Virginia Tech, USA *
In this triumphant return, Professor Ifi Amadiume, the foremost scholar of matriarchy in West Africa, further develops the concept of matriarchitarianism, introduced in her influential work, Male Daughters, Female Husbands: Gender and Sex in an African Society (1987). Rooted in the works of contemporary colleagues in and of the African continent, students of empire and liberation will find African Possibilities to be foundational to the establishment and growth of inclusive epistemologies by African scholars, that imagines a just future for Africa and the world. * Assata Zerai, University of New Mexico, USA *
Book Information
ISBN 9781350333802
Author Ifi Amadiume
Format Hardback
Page Count 248
Imprint Zed Books Ltd
Publisher Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
