?The Politics of the Womb?: Kenyan Debates over the Affiliation Act

Abstract

This article examines reproductive struggles and debates in late colonial and early post-colonial Kenya by reconstructing the history of the short-lived Affiliation Act a law that granted all single women the right to sue the fathers of their children for paternity support. In 1959 the colonial government enacted this racially inclusive law in a bid to address the social problem of illegitimacy through familial channels and to demonstrate the governments commitment to a non-racial future. The passage of the Affiliation Act and womens subsequent use of it generated intense debates over the relative powers of men and women and the value of the modern and traditional in post-colonial Kenya. Through denouncing and engaging the Affiliation Act Kenyans argued over who should control womens sexuality and who should bear the responsibility for and reap the rewards of their fertility. They also contested the vision of gender relations that should be embodied in African nationalism and should be promoted by the new Kenyan nation. This article demonstrates how material struggles stemming from pregnancy and surrounding child rearing--the politics of the womb--have been important to the elaboration of gender and political relations in post-colonial Africa. (authors)