Het verhaal van deze auteur werd oorspronkelijk samengesteld door een antropoloog. Na haar overlijden werd het manuscript voltooid en aangevuld met een inleiding die het verhaal in de juiste historische en sociale context plaatst.
Adherents to the zar cult in northern Sudan encounter spirits that are parallels of historically relevant figures in the known human world. Based on nearly two years of ethnographic fieldwork in a Muslim village this study offers a multidimensional interpretation of the zar.
Focusing on the period between 1920 and 1946, the book delves into the clash of cultures between British colonial officers and Sudanese Muslims, particularly regarding the contentious issue of female circumcision. Janice Boddy utilizes colonial documents and popular culture to provide ethnographic insights, while also highlighting women's roles in zâr spirit possession rituals as a form of resistance and cultural expression. This exploration reveals the complexities of colonialism and the nuanced experiences of women in Sudan.
This is the extraordinary first-person account of a young woman's coming of age in Somalia and her struggles against the obligations and strictures of family and society. By the time she is nine, Aman has undergone a ritual circumcision ceremony; at eleven, her innocent romance with a white boy leads to a murder; at thirteen she is given away in an arranged marriage to a stranger. Aman eventually runs away to Mogadishu, where her beauty and rebellious spirit leads her to the decadent demimonde of white colonialists. Hers is a world in which women are both chattel and freewheeling entrepreneurs, subject to the caprices of male relatives, yet keenly aware of the loopholes that lead to freedom. Aman is an astonishing history, opening a window onto traditional Somali life and the universal quest for female self-awareness.