African Women and Children: Crisis and Response (review)

During the past two decades, scholarship on the status of women in sub-Saharan Africa has flourished, particularly as a result of the work of feminist social scientists. Rwomire’s volume on many of the contemporary issues faced by women and children in different regions of Africa is an important addition to this literature. Among recent studies of African women, it is distinctive as a collection written largely by African women and men on the continent and in this regard directs our attention toward some of the nuances of local cultures. More importantly, it offers many policy recommendations to improve the lives of African women and children facing poverty, discrimination, violations of their basic human rights, and limited access to power.

Readers of this collection are introduced to other studies written by Africanists on the continent through the secondary analysis of these works by contributors to this volume. In this sense, the book offers a refreshing, new lens through which scholars in the north can view the myriad problems affecting African women and children. This strength of the volume, however, also points to a weakness in some of the articles, which rely too extensively on “local” scholarship, sometimes dated. Some of the authors appear unaware of more recent publications in the field, which provide extensive analysis of major social problems that beset African women and children—problems such as poverty and domestic violence. This is understandable, given the economic crisis that engulfs most of Africa and the impact of this crisis on acquisitions by university and other libraries. In fact, most articles in the collection are not based on original scholarship, but are reviews of previous studies. There are some notable exceptions to this, namely, Magaisa’s work on prostitution in Zimbabwe; to a lesser extent, Boaten’s study of the trokosi system in Ghana; and Sa’ad’s article on human rights in Nigeria. Further, a sense of unevenness in the volume emanates from the more microlevel explanations (focusing on local cultures, for example) of the sources of contemporary social problems faced by women, as opposed to a more macro approach, such as that provided by feminist political economy, which examines the internal and external structural factors that block women’s advancement. Through a brief discussion of some of the articles in this collection, I shall examine some of these strengths and weaknesses.

Major attention in this volume is given to the impact of divorce and domestic violence on women and children. One of the most analytical and comprehensive articles in the book addresses the effects of divorce on children in southern Africa. Maundeni, noting the significant increase in domestic violence in the region, examines the impact of such violence and child abuse on children’s abilities and mental health in the aftermath of divorce. Unfortunately, she does not explore the many structural factors that are importantly related to the escalation of domestic violence and rape, such as the impact of economic crises and structural adjustment policies on gender relations in the household. These structural factors, combined with recent political transitions in nations such as Zimbabwe and South Africa, have sparked the beginnings of serious transformations in gender roles that have severely strained domestic relationships and led to an increase in violence against women (Green 1999; Osirim 2001). Maundeni discusses the problems surrounding child support payments after divorce largely within the context of courts based on statutory law. While she mentions the existence of customary law, she does not go far enough in recognizing that most divorces in the region occur in customary courts where women are significantly denied equal rights. The study, however, provides useful policy recommendations calling for more shelters and resources for abused children—benefits that will increasingly need to be provided by nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), given the current state of African economies.

Although child abuse is clearly an important topic in this collection, Romm and Rwomire’s work...