Power, Ontologies and Gendered Resistance in Rural Northwestern Ghana

Weapons of the Ninbala and Yeme

Bibliographic Data

ID2143252
AuthorsC A Akurugu (0000-0002-6595-0993, SD Dombo University of Business and Integrated Development Studies, Wa, Ghana), Cathrine Degnen (0000-0002-7893-8678, Newcastle University, Newcastle, UK, corresponding author)
Year2024
Volume89
Issue5
Pages767-785
Publication date2024-10-19
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueEthnos (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0014-1844 • E-ISSN: 1469-588X
PublisherInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/00141844.2022.2092172
OpenAlexW4283736730
LanguageEN
Citations received4
References cited34

This article examines diffuse and complex resistance practices that are exercised within the context of exogamous virilocal marriage and its constraints. In particular, we consider the deployment of songs and dissimulation as subversive strategies by women in a Dagaaba settlement in northwestern Ghana. We argue that, despite the constraints of marital violence and gendered subordination associated with exogamous marriage practices, and women's representation of themselves as ninbala - a weak person - and yeme - a slave - in public discourse, they exercise resistance and power. By paying critical attention to the ontological subtleties of power and the other-than-human entities shaping social life and the 'marriage space', our analysis offers prospects for thinking about gendered resistance in a manner that incorporates these agentive non-human beings as well as strategies that might otherwise go overlooked, such as choosing silence. Without this careful reading in notably constraining contexts, we risk misrecognising resistance or overemphasising subordination

Context (archaeology · Geography · Power (physics · Resistance (ecology · Silence · Sociology · Subordination (linguistics · African Sexualities and LGBTQ+ Issues · Anthropological Studies and Insights · Gender Studies · Sex work and related issues

Tools

Open DOIOpen Access