Ritualizing the Womb

Bala Saho is Associate Professor of History at the University of Oklahoma. He is author of Contours of Change: Muslim Courts, Women, and Islamic Society in Colonial Bathurst, the Gambia, 1905–1965.

• Introduction: History, Meaning and Purpose of Kañelaŋyaa1. Kañelaŋyaa, Motherhood, and the Peril of Childlessness2. Ritual, Membership, and Domestication of Space3. Performing the Burden of Infertility4. Kañelaŋ Children and the Spirituality of NamingConclusion: Kañelaŋyaa and the Challenge for African WomenNotesBibliographyIndex