African Women's History

Abstract

TO THOSE WHO WRITE American and European history, women's history still appears a relatively undeveloped field, withbut the depth of historiography and interpretation found in older areas of study. In a field as new and undeveloped as African history, however, the history of women is still in its infancy.1 The historiography of European and American women is beginning to be shaped by competing, synthetic schools of thought-for example, around the examination of nineteenth-century domestic feminists. Not enough is known about African women to permit such a level of debate at present. Whereas European and American history books now devote some attention to women-albeit token in some casesAfrican histories scarcely mention them. Most scholarly publishing houses carry at least a few titles in European or American women's history; there are virtually none for African women. One can count on one hand the book-length historical studies of African women; most of the material is in article or manuscript form, and although some additional monographs exist in other disciplines, studies are rarely synthetic or even comparative within Africa. We do not know even the barest outlines of the experience of the vast majority of African women. Indeed, there are whole societies whose history remains to be written, let alone the history of women in particular. Thus, as is the case for African nations themselves, the historiography of African women is underdeveloped.