Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/1959.11/52920
Title: The 'liberatory value of indigenous institutions'?i: Cultural practice as resistance in the British Colony of Kenya
Contributor(s): Kenny, Christina  (author)orcid 
Publication Date: 2014-02
Open Access: Yes
Handle Link: https://hdl.handle.net/1959.11/52920
Open Access Link: https://web.archive.org/web/20170214203300/http://afsaap.org.au/conference/conference-2013/Open Access Link
Abstract: 

The bodies of indigenous women and girls in Kenya during the colonial period were contested sites of cultural identity and expression for both indigenous communities and their colonisers. The ritual and the results of Kenyan women's body modification have served as markers of difference, not only between Kenyans and colonists but also across indigenous Kenyan cultures. Indigenous women's agency is often elided in discussion of their bodies - lost in a tendency to use the contest for control over women's bodies to explore the dynamics and pressures of the colonial encounter. This approach necessarily aggregates women's experience to build a picture of their collective experience, and to track the rise of popular resistance movements through women's actions. Discussing women's collective action is useful in understanding the larger narrative of indigenous resistance to colonial oppression, and significant historical work has been done on the centrality of women's bodies in the struggle against colonial rule in Kenya (Thomas 2003; Kanogo 2005). However, this work does not often examine the embodied experiences of these women.

Publication Type: Conference Publication
Conference Details: AFSAAP 2013: 36th African Studies Association of Australasia and the Pacific Conference, Perth, Australia, 27th - 29th November, 2013
Source of Publication: African Renaissance and Australia: 36th AFSAAP conference proceedings, p. 1-10
Publisher: African Studies Association of Australasia and the Pacific (AFSAAP)
Place of Publication: Perth, Australia
Fields of Research (FoR) 2020: 470213 Postcolonial studies
440806 Gender and politics
480702 Constitutional law
Socio-Economic Objective (SEO) 2020: 230202 Electoral systems
230203 Political systems
280123 Expanding knowledge in human society
Peer Reviewed: Yes
HERDC Category Description: E1 Refereed Scholarly Conference Publication
Publisher/associated links: https://web.archive.org/web/20170214203300/http://afsaap.org.au/conference/conference-2013/
Appears in Collections:Conference Publication
School of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences

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