Yearning and Refusal

Hadiza Moussa was an assistant professor of anthropology and sociology at Abdou Moumouni University. She received her PhD in Anthropology from the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales (EHESS) in 2008. Her book was published in 2012 in French as Entre absence et refus d'enfant: Socio-anthropologie de la gestion de la fécondité féminine à Niamey, Niger (L'Harmattan/La Sahélienne). As a member of the Laboratoire d'Études et de Recherches sur les Dynamiques Sociales et le Développement Local (LASDEL), Hadiza Moussa researched public health delivery, sexual health, decentralization and development, and women, power, and local politics. She passed away in 2013.Alice J. Kang is an associate professor of political science and ethnic studies at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and scholar of women, gender, and politics in Africa. Barbara M. Cooper is a professor of African history and gender at Rutgers University; her research focuses on the former French colonies of theSahel, particularly Niger. Natalie Kammerer is a French-English translator with a Masters in French Literature from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.Jean-Pierre Olivier de Sardan is an emeritus professor of the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique and a professor at the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales and Abdou Moumouni University.

• Editors' IntroductionBarbara M. Cooper and Alice J. Kang Preface for the English TranslationJean-Pierre Olivier de Sardan AcronymsAcknowledgements Introduction Part I. The Problem of Infertility1. The Infertile Body2. Managing Infertility3. Varieties of Infertility4. The Emotional Weight of Childlessness Part II. Tensions in the Clinic5. Confronting the Biomedical Sphere Part III. Knowing and Negotiating Contraception6. Contraception Outside of the Clinic 7. Negotiating Biomedical Contraception8. The Realities of Abortion Conclusion BibliographyIndex

In Yearning and Refusal, Hadiza Moussa presents powerful ethnographic vignettes of the complex subjectivities and agency of women of Niger who confront social marginalization and stigmatization because of marital infertility. The book offers a complex examination of policing by the Nigerien state and society of women's rights to safe abortion and access to safe contraception. Barbara M. Cooper and Alice J. Kang's translation pays tribute to a brilliant scholar whose life was prematurely taken in a car accident in 2013. Yearning and Refusal is truly a masterpiece.