Go to AfricaBib home

Go to AfricaBib home African Women Go to database home

bibliographic database
Line
Previous page New search

The free AfricaBib App for Android is available here

Periodical article Periodical article Leiden University catalogue Leiden University catalogue WorldCat catalogue WorldCat
Title:From 'Mariage a la mode' to Weddings at Town Hall: Marriage, Colonialism and Mixed-Race Society in Nineteenth-Century Senegal
Author:Jones, HilaryISNI
Year:2005
Periodical:International Journal of African Historical Studies
Volume:38
Issue:1
Pages:27-48
Language:English
Geographic terms:Senegal
France
Subjects:Creoles
colonialism
marriage
racially mixed persons
History and Exploration
Ethnic and Race Relations
Women's Issues
Law, Human Rights and Violence
Peoples of Africa (Ethnic Groups)
Historical/Biographical
Cultural Roles
Marital Relations and Nuptiality
Law, Legal Issues, and Human Rights
External link:https://www.jstor.org/stable/40036462
Abstract:In the late 17th and 18th centuries, African and Afro-European women called 'signares' entered into temporary marital unions with European merchants and officials stationed on the island of Saint Louis (Senegal). This marriage practice was known in French as 'mariage à la mode du pays'. By the establishment of Third Republic France in 1870, Senegal's 'mulatto' or 'métis' population no longer followed the marital practices of their foremothers but rather insisted on marital unions sanctioned by the Catholic Church and considered legal according to French civil law. How and why did men and women of mixed racial ancestry coming of age in late 19th-century Senegal develop new marriage strategies? Analysis of private family genealogies, the civil registry for marriages and births, and marriage and baptism records from the Saint Louis Parish provide a window into the interior lives of men and women of mixed racial ancestry in colonial Senegal. The examination of these family histories shows that Senegal's mixed-race population used the institution of marriage to consolidate their wealth, acquire symbolic capital, and shore up their position as citizens of the Republic as opposed to subjects of colonial Senegal. Notes, ref. [ASC Leiden abstract]
Views
Cover