Onions Are My Husband

by Clark, Gracia

• ISBN13: 9780226107790
• ISBN10: 0226107795
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 1995-01-01
• Publisher: Univ of Chicago Pr

Summary

In the most comprehensive analysis to date of the world of open air marketplaces of West Africa, Gracia Clark studies the market women of Kumasi, Ghana, in order to understand the key social forces that generate, maintain, and continually reshape the shifting market dynamics. Probably the largest of its kind in West Africa, the Kumasi Central Market houses women whose positions vary from hawkers of meals and cheap manufactured goods to powerful wholesalers, who control the flow of important staples. Drawing on more than four years of field research, during which she worked alongside several influential market "Queens", Clark explains the economic, political, gender, and ethnic complexities involved in the operation of the marketplace and examines the resourcefulness of the market women in surviving the various hazards they routinely encounter, from coups d'etat to persistent sabotage of their positions from within.

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations

List of Tables

Preface

Stepping into the Market

The Regional Web

Persistent Transformation

Buying and Selling

Control of Resources

""We Know Ourselves""

Queens of Negotiation

Multiple Identities

Home and Husband

The Market under Attack

Surviving the Peace

Survey Methodology

References

Index

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