Voices From Mutira: Change in the Lives of Rural Gikuyu Women, 1910-1995

To update this rich, informative collection of life histories, Davison returned to Mutira in 1989, 1992, and 1994, documenting the changes occurring since her 1984 study. Six of the seven life histories in the first edition have been expanded to reflect the events of the last decade. Two new introductory chapters frame the life histories within the context both of the significant macrolevel transitions in Kenya and the current thinking about gender and the development process. The seven women who are the focus of the book describe, with dignity, candor, and often humor, their own views of the often turbulent historical and sociocultural forces influencing their individual and collective lives. They discuss—from differing points of view—such feminist issues as female circumcision, polygyny, family violence, and experiences of mothering. And spanning nearly a century, their histories illuminate critical moments in Kenya's past.