Description
Book SynopsisThe politics of motherhood in the Yoruba diaspora
Trade ReviewSemley provides historical depth and historiographical sophistication to this study of Yoruba women in West Africa and the Atlantic World.
* International Journal of African Historical Studies *
'Mother Is Gold, Father Is Glass' is a wonderful contribution to the literature on gender, African women, French colonialism, and the African diaspora.December 2012
* H-Africa *
[T]his is an engaging and informative book for scholars interested in African history and gender.
* African Studies Quarterly *
Lorelle Semley's engaging study of the historical and symbolic power of motherhood (and fatherhood) in Ketu, a Yoruba town in the Republic of Benin, makes an important contribution to the study of gender and power in the Atlantic world.africa 2013
* Africa *
Semley's work is a welcome addition to a growing literature on gender and the European encounter with African societies. September 2011
* Choice *
By excavating [the] ambiguous, shifting space between the rhetoric of Yoruba women's power as queens and mothers, and the realities of women's vulnerability and subordination as wives and slaves, Semley's Mother Is Gold, Father Is Glass makes an original and important contribution to women's history generally and to Yoruba history specifically.54.2 July 2013
* Journal of African History *
Table of ContentsPreface. "You Must Be From Here": An Intellectual and Personal Journey
Acknowledgments
Note on Orthography and Language
Prologue. "Mother is gold, father is glass": Power and Vulnerability in Atlantic Africa
1. Founding Fathers and Metaphorical Mothers: History, Myth, and the Making of a Kingdom
2. How Kings Lost Their Mothers: Politics of the Atlantic Slave Trade
3. Giving Away Kétu's Secret: Wives on the Eve of War
4. "Where women really matter": The "Queens" of Kétu and the Challenge to French Imperialism
5. "Without family . . . there is no true colonization": Perspectives on Marriage
6. "The Opening of the Eyes": The Politics of Manhood on the Eve of Independence
7. Mothers and Fathers of an Atlantic World
Epilogue. A Rebirth of "Public Mothers" and Kings
Essay on Sources and Methodology
Notes
Bibliography
Index
