Street Hawking or Street Walking in Dahomey

Debates about Girls’ Sexual Assaults in Colonial Tribunals, 1924–41

Bibliographic Data

ID8977153
AuthorsJessica Reuther (0000-0002-4202-2334, Ball State University, corresponding author)
Year2022
Volume63
Issue3
Pages368-383
Publication date2022-11-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueThe Journal of African History (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0021-8537 • E-ISSN: 1469-5138
PublisherCambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1017/s0021853722000561
OpenAlexW4308028298
LanguageEN
References cited23

Between the judicial reorganizations of 1924 and 1941, the colonial tribunals in Dahomey heard more than two hundred cases of rape. Teenage or younger girls engaged in street hawking were the most common victims of rape who reported their assaults to these tribunals. Many of the cases stand out because market women played the dominant role in transforming girl hawkers’ experiences of sexual assault into formal grievances. The history of sexual assault in colonial Africa has largely focused on how ‘customary’ and colonial courts have or have not punished the crime of rape. This approach privileges masculine authorities’ views of sex, consent, and gender violence. This article focuses on the investigative processes in cases of sexual assault. In doing so, two gendered histories emerge: firstly, a history of elder female caregiving to girls suffering the aftereffects of sexual assaults and, secondly, a history of the vulnerability of hawkers to quotidian sexual violence

Colonialism · Computer security · Criminology · Girl · Hawking · Medical emergency · Poison control · Political science · Sexual assault · Sexual violence · Sociology · Suicide prevention · Vulnerability (computing · African history and culture studies · African Sexualities and LGBTQ+ Issues · Gender Studies · Gender, Security, and Conflict · History · Law · Medicine · Psychology

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