Luo women and economic change during the colonial period

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Book chapter

Title:	Luo women and economic change during the colonial period
Author:	Hay, M.J.
Book title:	Women in Africa: Studies in social and economic change
Year:	1976
Pages:	87-109
Language:	English
Geographic terms:	Kenya United Kingdom
Subjects:	Luo colonialism women
Abstract:	The long-term economic result of colonial rule in Western Kenya was the impoverishment of the African rural areas. At the same time that the British colonial officials were extracting capital and labour from the rural economy, they were insisting that African cultivators maintain their level of agricultural production. The real burden of coping with this nearly impossible situation fell on the women, who remainded at home while their husbands and sons sought outside employment. This paper examines the responses of a particular group of Luo women, the women of Kowe (an administrative sublocation about four square miles in size in Seme location, former Central Nyanza District) to the changes imposed by the colonial economy. It shows how through a process continuous of experimentation and innovation in agriculture and in trade, these women managed to meet the economic demands of the colonial economy. Notes, ref.