Male Daughters, Female Husbands: Gender and Sex in an African Society

Winner of the Choice Outstanding Academic Book of the Year 1989

In 1987, more than a decade before the dawn of queer theory, Ifi Amadiume wrote Male Daughters, Female Husbands to critical acclaim. Amadiume boldly argues that the notion of gender, as constructed in Western feminist discourse, did not exist in Africa before the colonial imposition of a dichotomous understanding of sexual difference.

Male Daughters, Female Husbands frees the subject position of 'husband' from its affiliation with men, and examines the structures in African society that enabled people to achieve power, showing that roles were not rigidly masculinized nor feminized.

At a time when gender and queer theory are viewed by some as being stuck in an identity-politics rut, this outstanding study not only warns against the danger of projecting a very specific, Western notion of difference onto other cultures, but calls us to question the very concept of gender itself.

This new Essential Amadiume edition features a new foreword by the author in which she reflects on the historical moment at which the book was written; its initial reception; and whether anything has changed since.