1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910454114403321

Autore

Mutongi Kenda

Titolo

Worries of the heart [[electronic resource] ] : widows, family, and community in Kenya / / Kenda Mutongi

Pubbl/distr/stampa

Chicago, : University of Chicago Press, c2007

ISBN

1-281-96600-2

0-226-55422-8

9786611966003

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (274 p.)

Disciplina

306.88/30967628

Soggetti

Widows - Kenya - Maragoli - Social conditions

Women - Kenya - Maragoli - Social conditions

Families - Kenya - Maragoli

Electronic books.

Kenya Colonial influence

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Note generali

Description based upon print version of record.

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Nota di contenuto

Everyday life -- Western Kenya, 1880-1902 -- Feeble little lads looking for food -- "What harm can an old dry bone do?" -- Lessons in practical Christianity -- Living "in line" -- The impact of gold mining -- Land conflicts in the 1930s -- Family life -- Educating "progressive" sons -- The burden of "progressive" sons -- Cash, cows, and bridewealth -- Domestic education at the girls boarding school -- Moral panic -- Wife beating -- Postcolonial promises -- Citizenship and land rights in postcolonial Kenya -- Rural widows, city widows, and the fight for inheritance.

Sommario/riassunto

Growing up in the Maragoli community in Kenya, Kenda Mutongi encountered a perplexing contradiction. While the young teachers at her village school railed against colonialism, many of her elders, including her widowed mother, praised their former British masters. In this moving book, Mutongi explores how both the challenges and contradictions of colonial rule and the frustrations and failures of independence shaped the lives of Maragoli widows and their complex relations with each other, their families, and the larger community.



Throughout the twentieth century...