Pounders of Grain: A History of Women, Work, and Politics in Mozambique [Paperback]

Kathleen Sheldon (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0325071012 | ISBN-13: 978-0325071015 | Publication Date: June 30, 2002

This history of women in Mozambique moves from a description of various mid-19th century rural societies to an examination of the impact of structural adjustment and processes of democratization at the end of the 20th century. A discussion of matrilineal and patrilineal kinship systems introduces the history and includes women's contributions to the social and economic lives of their communities. The experiences of women in Portuguese colonialism are then explored with a focus on changes to the work environment and the advent of mission education. Women's involvement in the struggle for liberation and independence is highlighted by specific policies that improved women's lives. Examinations of the 1980s and 1990s follow, including a look at the devastating war with Renamo, and a consideration of the legacy of structural adjustment programs on women's work and politics.

This book is inclusive of all regions in Mozambique and emphasizes the centrality of women's choices and decisions in the development of Mozambican society. Sheldon demonstrates that without the inclusion of women, the history of Mozambique remains incomplete. This is the only history-to-date of women in Mozambique, and one of the few country-specific histories of women in Africa.

Editorial Reviews

Review

This is an excellent book. One of the strengths of this book is its clear explanation of relevant economic phases of colonial settlement, while keeping the main focus on Mozambican women's history. --Journal of African History (2004)

Sheldon has given us a well-researched book of great breadth; it would make an ideal college textbook. --Journal of Southern African History (2004)

Kathleen Sheldon has succeeded in writing a fascinating introduction to the theme of women, work, and politics in [Mozambique]. --African Studies Review (2003)

“This comprehensive history of women in Mozambique from the late 19th century to the present is thoroughly researched, logically organized, and clearly written. In her search for African women's perspectives, independent scholar Sheldon makes innovative use of songs, proverbs, folk tales, naming practices, and oral interviews. Distinguishing among a wide variety of ethnic groups, she investigates women's experiences prior to colonization; the impact of colonialism on women's work, status, and living conditions; the nature of women's involvement in the anticolonial struggle; and women's role in the development of an independent, socialist nation. Finally, Sheldon assesses the effect of socialist reforms on women's lives, the changing nature of women's work, and the devastating impact of war, privatization, and IMF-imposed structural adjustment programs. Despite the hardships imposed on them, she argues, Mozambican women's productive and reproductive work has been critical to shaping their own identities and to the development of Mozambican society as a whole. A significant contribution to southern African historiography and women's studies more generally, this book is highly recommended for college and university libraries, graduate students, and other scholars.”–Choice

About the Author

Kathleen E. Sheldon is an independent historian, affiliated as a research scholar with the University of California, Los Angeles, Center for the Study of Women. She has taught and published on a variety of issues related to history and politics in Mozambique and to African women's history.

Product Details

• Paperback: 344 pages
• Publisher: Heinemann (June 30, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0325071012
• ISBN-13: 978-0325071015
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.1 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,036,606 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #25 in Books > History > Africa > Mozambique

More About the Author

Kathleen Sheldon is a Research Scholar at the Center for the Study of Women at the University of California, Los Angeles. She received her Masters in African Studies and her Ph.D. in History at UCLA. From 1982-1984 she and her family lived in Mozambique, and she has returned several times in more recent years.

She is part of a team of editors for a listserv on Portuguese-speaking Africa, h-luso-africa, found at www.h-net.org/~lusoafri. She was an associate editor for the New Encyclopedia of Africa (2007), and has contributed to numerous other reference works.

She has published many articles as well as the books listed here, primarily on African women and on Mozambique. Her chapter, "Writing about Women: Approaches to a Gendered Perspective in African History," can be found in Writing African History, ed. John Edward Philips, 465-489 (Rochester, N.Y.: University of Rochester Press, 2005).

Recent journal articles include the following:
"Cape Verdean and Mozambican Women's Literature: Liberating the National and Seizing the Intimate," with Isabel Fêo P.B. Rodrigues, African Studies Review 53, 3 (December 2010): 77-99.

"'No more cookies or cake now, "C'est la guerre"': An American Nurse in Turkey, 1919 to 1920," Social Sciences and Missions 23, 1 (2010): 94-123.

"Creating an Archive of Working Women's Oral Histories in Beira, Mozambique," in Contesting Archives: Finding Women in the Sources, edited by Nupur Chaudhuri, Sherry J. Katz, and Mary Elizabeth Perry, 192-210 (University of Illinois Press, 2010).