Marriage in Maradi

Book excerpt: Women's contradictory contributions to social and economic change in the twentieth century can be seen in their improvisations upon the seemingly fixed "traditions" surrounding marriage in Maradi. Cooper finds that women in Maradi have simultaneously advanced their individual interests and undermined protections to women as a whole by redefining the role of "wife" in agriculture, by adopting seclusion in order to find leisure time for trade, by emphasizing hierarchy among wives, unmarried women, and girls, and by transforming the material component in marriage exchange. With the growth of international trade, state employment, and Islamic norms, competing ideals for marriage and the role of women have emerged. The French colonial administration, the independent government of Niger, and individual men have all attempted to redefine local practices in an effort to control women. Both men and women in the region are manipulating, negotiating, and reinterpreting marriage, wedding exchange, and nonmarriage in response to options created by a shifting political economy.