Kaler examines how "modern" contraceptive technologies, such as the pill and the Deop-Provera injection, were embroiled in gender and generation conflicts, and in the national liberation struggle, in Zimbabwe during the 1960s and 1970s. Based on extensive oral and archival research, the book shows the ways in which fertility and control over reproduction within marriage and the family influenced the development of the "imagined community" of the nascent Zimbabwean nation.
FREE Two-Day Shipping for Students. Learn more |
| |||||||||||||||
Book Description
Special Offers and Product Promotions
- Buy $50 in qualifying physical textbooks, get $5 in Amazon MP3 Credit. Here's how (restrictions apply)
Frequently Bought Together
Editorial Reviews
Book Description
Kaler examines how modern contraceptive technologies, such as the pill and the Deop-Provera injection, were embroiled in gender and generation conflicts in Zimbabwe during the 1960s and 1970s.
--This text refers to the Hardcover edition.About the Author
Amy Kaler is Assistant Professor in the Department of Sociology at University of Alberta.
Product Details
Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
|
More About the Author
Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.
Customer Reviews
|
Share your thoughts with other customers:
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Family planning with a racist tinge,
By
This review is from: Running After Pills: Politics, Gender, and Contraception in Colonial Zimbabwe (Social History of Africa Series) (Paperback)
Modern contraception is normally associated with an increase in women's freedom. Sexually, it put women on a par with men. But in Rhodesia, before majority rule in 1980, contraception triggered quite a different response amonst some of the Africans. Contraception, and indeed the entire rubric of family planning "was mass murder and genocide, a demographic attack on the African population", in one common view.Talk about cognitive dissonance! How could something generally looked upon favourably elsewhere take on this meaning? In much of her book, Kaler explains. The minority white government employed family planning workers, to separately serve whites and blacks. The workers themselves sincerely tried to help their clientele. But in the government, there was a vocal element urging family planning to be applied to blacks, to reduce their fertility vis-a-vis the whites. Needless to say, such urgings leaked out to the blacks, and were in turn used by revolutionaries as agitprop against Ian Smith's regime.
4.0 out of 5 stars
Rich with data; somewhat skewed,
By
Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)
This review is from: Running After Pills: Politics, Gender, and Contraception in Colonial Zimbabwe (Social History of Africa Series) (Paperback)
Running After Pills: Politics, Gender, and Contraception in Colonial Zimbabwe written by Amy Kaler is a very good read that gives an good snapshot of family planning during white majority rule in Zimbabwe from the mid 50's to the early 80's. Kaler uses interviews and verbatim text to present different sides to a very complicated issue. The majority of the material in the book comes from archival materials (e.g. speech transcripts, newspaper articles) and from qualitative interviews with family planning workers and "common" people that had experience with family planning during the time period. In my opinion the interviews are the strongest portions of the book, although she did have a tendency to be a bit redundant in her attempt to provide the reader with substantial proof that the interviewees were expressing concerns felt by a wide range of people. Using direct quotes from her subjects allowed the participants to have their voices very clearly heard throughout the book.
I found the most intriguing idea from the book is the idea that women's bodies became a hot spot of political and social discussion. Kaler does a good job in explaining the many groups that had some claim of interest or authority over a woman's decision of what to do with her body. The introduction starts out strongly presenting a clear case about how fertility control is much more than whether or not a woman has a baby, and the many layers of interest that are affected by a single decision. She develops a very articulate argument during the discussion on Shona marriages (Chapter 5) the many competing factions and factors that helped to reinforce the idea that women were not and should not be the only ones in control of the decision of whether or not to use contraceptives. This discussion also emphasizes the second most interesting point in the book, that of presenting black Zimbabwean women against the typical view of a weak, uneducated African woman with little to no power. Indeed Kaler provides a strong case that black Zimbabwean women were actively engaged in finding ways to subvert all of the forces that were trying to exert control over their bodies and engaging in family planning without others' knowledge. Her interviews show the many ways and rationale that women were able to move past the limits that their place in society seemingly cast them. This is a powerful point as it presents a contradictory case against the majority discourse that likes to cast African women as weak and helpless women that need to be saved by outside forces. Lastly one of the other most fascinating points in the book is the discussion around indigenous beliefs around biomedicine and physical biology of humans. This portion of the book imparts insightful knowledge that can be very important to researchers from all fields in understanding the ways that Western concepts are seen in other cultures. Often biology is not the only or most important factor, but the additional layer of social context in which these processes are understood are equally or even more significant. My major criticism is that I thought Kaler presented a heavily skewed view against the side of all white Zimbabweans; she only once seems to entertain the notion that maybe the guerrillas were not 100% positive in their struggle but does not spend a lot of time on it. From a historical perspective, and possibly because she did much of the research and writing in the 90's and published it in early 2000's she did not have to opportunity to see some of the public discourse around the political situation that is now being discussed about Zimbabwe and Mugabe. Obviously there were many injustices that went on during white rule in Zimbabwe, and there is much to be said about the many motives of the white regime including racist plans at political domination. So while Kaler may not have overstated the role of the white political elites, I do believe that she gives the situation an overinflated sense of importance within the book that takes away from what is good about the book. In her effort to "prove" malevalence on the part of the government I think she downplays the importance of family planning and contraceptive use, which is surely not her viewpoint. Additionally, as noted elsewhere in other reviews, there were several errors in reporting on interviews (String around the waist, public thing to see--bottom page 162 & bottom page 170, Granny gave medicine, but actually on the pill--top of page 172 & lower middle page 173). In scholarly work I think this takes away from the text in a tremendous way. If an author attributes a quote to two different people it may make you wonder what other errors he or she has made, and how careful of a record keeper the researcher is. Overall I think this book provides valuable inside and a refreshing perspective around the politics of family planning in white-ruled Zimbabwe. This book would be an excellent read for scholars wishing to get a better perspective on both family planning as well as the unconventional ways in which African women have exerted control over situations in their lives.
Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
|
|
What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?
Tags Customers Associate with This Product(What's this?)Click on a tag to find related items, discussions, and people.
|
Sell a Digital Version of This Book in the Kindle Store
If you are a publisher or author and hold the digital rights to a book, you can sell a digital version of it in our Kindle Store.
Learn more
Customer Discussions
|
This product's forum
Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
|
Related forums
|
