Negotiating Identities in Contemporary Africa: Gender, Religion, and Ethno-cultural Identities explores the changing dynamics of identities in Africa, with a focus on gender, ethno-cultural, and religious identity. Toyin Falola and Emmanuel M. Mbah argue that because identity defines who we are as individuals or groups, studies on African identities must focus on understanding the changing dynamics in the socio-economic and political spheres in the continent. These chapters cover subjects such as women's career identity, gender roles and knowledge, childlessness, ethnocentrism and democracy, cultural identity through theater, Black identity in the diaspora, and diasporic consciousness. Using existing scholarship, the chapters in this edited volume challenge our understanding of what identity entails and provide new discussions on the hitherto politicized historiography of some identities in Africa.
Toyin Falola is the Jacob and Francis Sanger Mossiker Chair in the Humanities Department at the University of Texas at Austin. Emmanuel M. Mbah is professor of history and Deputy Chair of the History Department at the City University of New York, College of Staten Island.
Acknowledgments Introduction: Negotiating Identities in Contemporary Africa: Gender, Religion, and Ethno-cultural Identities by Emmanuel M. Mbah and Toyin Falola Chapter 1: Sowing in the Wind: Girls' Education in Kenya's Bungoma County by Namulundah Florence Chapter 2: Gendered Political Institutions and Women's Career Identity Construction by Wakil Ajibola Asekun Chapter 3: To Have or Not to Have: An African Perspective on Childlessness by Namulundah Florence Chapter 4: Gender and Initiation Rites in Ejagham Land of Cameroon by Victor Ntui Atom Chapter 5: Restoring Gender Knowledge in Kenya's Mau Mau War: New Methods and Perspectives by Mickie Mwanzia Koster Chapter 6: Gender Inequality in the Peace Building Process during the Anglophone Crisis in Cameroon by Primus Fonkeng Chapter 7: From Hapless Victims to Helpful Collaborators? The Contradictions of Boko Haram Female Suicide Bombers (FSBs) in Nigeria, 2009-2019 by Femi Adegbulu Chapter 8: A Comparative Study of the Influence of Modernization on Traditional Gender Roles of Men and Women in Lagos and Ogun States, Nigeria by Tolu Ogunleye Chapter 9: Ethnocentrism, Democratization and Nation Building in Africa: The Nigerian Experience by Steve A Iyayi Chapter 10: Identity Dynamics in the Southern Tier of the Cameroon-Nigeria Frontier by Victor Ntui Atom Chapter 11: Redefining Cultural Identity in Nigeria through Dramatic and Theatrical Arts by Adedoyin Aguoru Chapter 12: "I never knew I was a Negro until I came to America." Black Identity, Diasporic Consciousness, and Nigerian Ambivalence to Pan-Africanism by Ajibola A. Abdulrahman Chapter 13: Sidis in India, and of India, too? An Exploratory Study into the Identity of the African Diaspora in the Western Indian State of Gujarat by Pradeep Mallik Appendix A: 2016 Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education Results of Select Bungoma County Boys' Secondary/High Schools Appendix B: 2016 Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education Results of Select Bungoma County Girls' Secondary/High Schools Appendix C: 2016 Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education Results of Select Bungoma County Mixed Secondary/High Schools in Bungoma County Appendix D: 2016 Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education Results of the Two National Schools in Bungoma County. Appendix E: 2016 Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education results of Extra-County High Schools in Bungoma County. Appendix F: 2017 Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education Results of Bumula Constituency, Secondary/High Schools in Bungoma County About the Editors and Contributors
This book is a bold and illuminating discussion on forms of identities in Africa. Gender, religion, and ethno-cultural affiliations are often used to identify an African, which makes the book relevant to academic studies. The strength of the book is in coverage of themes; the variety of interesting, well-researched, and well-analyzed topics, written by experts and experienced African scholars. The editors did an excellent job in structuring the book to make it readable, especially for undergraduate and graduate students of global identities and the African diaspora. -- Julius O. Adekunle, Monmouth University
