Women at work: for a comparative history of African female urban professions (Soudn, Tanzania and Ghana), 1919-1970

Introduction

WomAtWork represents the first comparative investigation into the history of female urban popular professions in three African countries – Ghana/Gold Coast, Sudan, and Tanganyika/Tanzania – over the course of fifty years (1919-1970). Not only is this topic under-studied in African history, but these professions (i.e. midwives, beauticians, wedding singers, market vendors, craftswomen) are also characterised by fascinating and unsettling aspects.

Characteristics of Professions

For example, notions such as a set price for a service and fixed working times or workplace did not apply to many of them.

Objectives of WomAtWork

WomAtWork aims to:

1. Discover the peculiarities of these labour patterns and see their historical transformations as a result of political changes and the introduction of new technologies and commodities.
2. Examine professional subjectivities, the work ethos, norms, and values of women at work.
3. Question the relationship between these professionals and their communities – including in light of the social stigma sometimes attached to them – as well as the nexus between these labourers and protest, charting when and why they laid down their tools.

Methodology

Based on an innovative methodology, this project seeks to overcome the invisibility of women in official archives by weaving together different threads of sources.

Sources and Archives

It begins inside those photographic archives connected with institutions that had conscious agendas of representation and routines of intense textual production (for example, missionary stations). In some cases, these visual and textual sources lead to networks or families of women professionals, whose oral history will be solicited.

Analysis of Press and Oral Accounts

Third, the project aims to analyse the vernacular press combined with oral accounts.

Conclusion

Through these objectives and methodologies, WomAtWork will be a participant in the mission of writing a more democratic, more inclusive history, one that firmly establishes the centrality of women’s labour in African history.