Lynn M. Thomas, Politics of the Womb: Women, Reproduction, and the State in Kenya.

Schatz, Enid

Lynn M. Thomas, Politics of the Womb: Women, Reproduction, and the State in Kenya (Berkeley, Los Angeles and London: University of California Press 2003)

POLITICS OF THE WOMB presents a unique and convincing narrative of an "uneven entanglement" of indigenous and colonial concerns regarding sexuality and reproduction in 20th-century Kenya. Employing the womb, figuratively and literally, Thomas discusses the role of women's bodies and sexuality in colonial and post-colonial political and social discourse. Departing from conventional emphases on the breakdown of tradition or colonial indoctrination, Thomas uses a wealth of primary sources (interviews, court and missionary documents, and private papers) to persuasively argue that the history of reproduction in the Meru area of Kenya is layered with contestation, negotiation, and collaboration. She demonstrates that colonial actors had no choice but to take into account "local interests," and that these interests were far from uniform. Rather they were configured by gender, generation, and wealth-power dynamics. The book sets out to make three contributions to African historiography, showing how the politics of the womb: 1) can not be disentangled from attempts to gain material resources and fulfill moral ambitions; 2) reorganized traditional gender, generation, and kinship hierarchies and helped create new hierarchies of racial difference and "civilized" status, and 3) connected intimate issues to public debates in such a way that these micro-level processes areas important to understanding African history as trade, imperialism, and international aid. (4)

Thomas' expressive prose and well-presented documentation bring to life the ways in which white male colonial power and emerging black post-colonial politics felt the need to control women and their bodies in order to formalize their power bases. In each period, however, the path was contested by others who had an interest in maintaining or establishing control over young women's sexuality. Local actors struggled with the colonial system and with each other in order to maintain authority over young women's sexuality and reproductive capabilities. Thomas reveals power contests within the Meru community between young and old, men and women, between those vying for upward mobility and those who were seen as trying to hold them back or get a free ride; post-colonial debates also expose controversy connected to young women's sexuality--preserving the "African way" of life versus moving Kenya into the "civilized" and "modern" world. Young and older women often took aggressive positions to retain and garner power, showing that historically they were not without agency, and did not shy away from resisting men's attempts to supplant their power or control their bodies. The politics of the womb in 20th-century Kenya is a visible story of struggle and negotiation, rather than one of simple control and domination by those, whether white or black, men or women, with the power of the government behind them.

Thomas gives many examples of colonial and local jockeying for control over young woman's sexuality. In the 1920s and 30s pro-natalist colonial policies attempted to stimulate population growth by reducing premarital non-procreative sexual relations. They sought to do this by redefining the age and stage at which a woman was marriageable. After meeting significant local resistance to prohibiting female initiation and circumcision, colonial actors reformulated their approach and collaborated with local male elders to lower the age of initiation. Thus, together, they were able to reduce the time during which a girl might be sexually active but not yet a candidate for marriage. As male elders working with the colonial government restructured the initiation process, they acquired control over areas that had previously been the domain of female elders--determining the timing for young girls' initiation and entrante into the world of reproductive sexuality. Thomas' narrative elucidates how these changes and challenges were neither uncontested nor smoothly implemented.

The "politics of the womb" continued to order hierarchies in the post-colonial period. Thomas examines the ways in which single mothers, no longer a unique urban phenomenon, challenged "traditional" notions of errant sexuality, as well as "proper channels" for transferring wealth and reaping the rewards of fertility. A short-lived bill in the 1950s-60s allowed young unmarried women to sue their children's fathers for support. This broke from customary law, which gave the power to sue to the father of a pregnant unmarried girl. According to customary law, the father would sue a young man for compensation for "ruining his daughter" and collect the money himself; the new bill allowed the young woman to sue and keep the money herself, enabling her to support herself and her child without having to marry in the future. Attempts to repeal the bill entailed arguments juxtaposing modern with traditional, and accusing women of betraying African culture and misusing funds meant for their children. The debates here, as with colonial disputes reconstructed in Thomas' narrative, and future deliberations over abortion and contraception, need to be understood in the light of the power attained by controlling the reproductive capabilities of young women.

Thomas argues persuasively that the Meru community perceived the nature of young women's sexuality as precarious. Rules and supervision were necessary protectors for their sexuality and reproductive capacity. Without these in place, young girls were easily corruptible. Who controlled young women's sexuality and how it was formulated, however, was far from static. As with discourses of sexuality in many settings, despite the fact that men clearly played a role in the "corruption" of young women, rarely did Thomas uncover instances where men's sexuality was scrutinized or challenged. One of the few areas in which I felt unsatisfied as a reader, was in understanding in what ways men's sexuality was changed, challenged, and reformulated during the colonial and post-colonial period. Perhaps it was not as important to control young men's sexuality, but the substantial transformation of young women's sexuality must have impacted male sexuality in ways left unexplored by Thomas.

In her concluding chapter, Thomas touches upon how the entangled history of reproduction has influenced current issues like HIV/AIDS and the movement to end Female Genital Mutilation (FGM). This book brings into new light the ways in which the West discusses African "indigenous" sexual practices fueling the HIV/AIDS scourge. The strength of Thomas' "uneven entanglement" argument should be taken into account in the context of current HIV/AIDS research. Neither a complete breakdown of traditional practices, nor a replacement with Western notions of sexuality are to "blame" for the epidemic. Understanding the interaction of the two, however, and capturing the continuous construction and reconstruction of sexuality and reproduction during the pre-colonial, colonial, and post-colonial periods throughout Africa can lead to richer insights into contemporary notions of sexuality and power. Given the gendered nature of the epidemic, researchers cannot ignore the entangled nature of the histories of men's and women's sexuality. Nor should researchers separate the history of sexuality from that of reproductive capabilities and consequences. With such a lens, a clearer portrait of the construction of the current perilous HIV/AIDS environment in Eastern and Southern Africa will emerge. It is incumbent on HIV/AIDS researchers to follow Thomas' lead and expose narratives of "uneven entanglements" and "politics of the womb."

Enid Schatz

University of the Witwatersrand,

Johannesburg and University of

Colorado, Boulder