Voices of African Women is a collection of essays by accomplished women's rights lawyers from Ghana, Uganda, and Tanzania. In the last decade, women's human rights have been the focus of significant attention at the international level. There remains, however, a dearth of information concerning the application and relevance of international norms at grassroots levels within Africa. There are few works about women's human rights within Africa that are actually written by African women lawyers and human rights activists. This book offers a glimpse into the lives of women in Ghana, Uganda, and Tanzania; it describes -- in their own words -- the challenges these activists face in implementing international human rights norms at the local and national levels. "The contributors are a unique set of talented analysts... Introductions for each chapter are by Johanna Bond, whose precise summaries and analyses of the topics systematize what would otherwise be repetitive evidence found in similar circumstances in these African countries. Summing Up: Recommended." -- CHOICE Magazine, November 2005 "The book is well worth space on...professionals' bookshelves." -- African Studies Association, 2006 "The book is useful and essential reading for anyone interested in women's rights in Africa. This has to be the most detailed and up-to-date book on women's rights in this region." -- Modern African Studies

A Voice from the South was published in 1892 by Anna Julia Cooper, an educator who was one of the first two African-American women to be awarded a master’s degree. Since then it has been recognized as one of the first works of Black feminist theory. Setting forth a perspective that would be described as “intersectional” in contemporary terms, Cooper explores her own lived experience as an educated African-American woman, and advocates for the education of African-American women as a necessary means of achieving racial equality. However, her marked emphasis on women’s roles in the household has been critiqued by later theorists as a concession to the 19th century “cult of domesticity”—or, alternatively, a strategic engagement with the dominant cultural view towards women in her time. A Voice from the South continues to be read and analyzed today for its pioneering role in African-American female scholarship. This book is part of the Standard Ebooks project, which produces free public domain ebooks.

By gathering Somali oral texts, sayings, and songs of the period 1899 the author has examined in what way women and gender relations in Somali society has been presented in the past and how concepts as 'tradition', authentic cultural heritage and identity affect women and gender relations nowadays.

African Women Writing Resistance is the first transnational anthology to focus on women’s strategies of resistance to the challenges they face in Africa today. The anthology brings together personal narratives, testimony, interviews, short stories, poetry, performance scripts, folktales, and lyrics. Thematically organized, it presents women’s writing on such issues as intertribal and interethnic conflicts, the degradation of the environment, polygamy, domestic abuse, the controversial traditional practice of female genital cutting, Sharia law, intergenerational tensions, and emigration and exile. Contributors include internationally recognized authors and activists such as Wangari Maathai and Nawal El Saadawi, as well as a host of vibrant new voices from all over the African continent and from the African diaspora. Interdisciplinary in scope, this collection provides an excellent introduction to contemporary African women’s literature and highlights social issues that are particular to Africa but are also of worldwide concern. It is an essential reference for students of African studies, world literature, anthropology, cultural studies, postcolonial studies, and women’s studies. A Choice Outstanding Academic Book Outstanding Book, selected by the Public Library Association Best Books for High Schools, Best Books for Special Interests, and Best Books for Professional Use, selected by the American Association of School Libraries

An intimate collection of African American women's voices on their lives in prison The rate of women entering prison has increased nearly 400 percent since 1980, with African American women constituting the largest percentage of this population. However, despite their extremely disproportional representation in correctional institutions, little attention has been paid to their experiences within the criminal justice system. Inner Lives provides readers the rare opportunity to intimately connect with African American women prisoners. By presenting the women's stories in their own voices, Paula C. Johnson captures the reality of those who are in the system, and those who are working to help them. Johnson offers a nuanced and compelling portrait of this fastest-growing prison population by blending legal history, ethnography, sociology, and criminology. These striking and vivid narratives are accompanied by equally compelling arguments by Johnson on how to reform our nation's laws and social policies, in order to eradicate existing inequalities. Her thorough and insightful analysis of the historical and legal background of contemporary criminal law doctrine, sentencing theories, and correctional policies sets the stage for understanding the current system.

Adeola James interviews fifteen African women writers, including new voices alongside the well-known; she asks them about outside influences and local traditions, about women's issues and the language question. The answers are often frank and to the point. The interviews are illustrated with photos of the authors.