Gender violence in Africa : African women's responses /

Green's volume is based on extensive and varied secondary sources and official reports, many of which contain the voices of women from sub-Saharan countries. Green is a political scientist and Africanist whose previous research focused on Somalia and Namibia. Her research agenda is wide, encompassing physical violence and emotional and psychological abuse in everyday life. In the first two-thirds of the book, she develops a multilayered, interlocking framework on the relations of power that facilitate violence; in the last third she focuses on women's active agency in resisting violence through formal and informal means. By the time they reach those last chapters, some readers may feel overwhelmed and numbed at the sweeping and extensive portrait of violence, though resistance and engagement with international bureaucracy and the state offer some amelioration. This is shown in chapter 1, which outlines activities of the United Nations, and in chapter 6, which delineates the subject for nongovernmental organizations. At 37 pages, Green's bibliography is extraordinary. The volume complements Human Rights Watch reports and sets them in interdisciplinary academic analytic contexts. Suitable for graduate and research libraries and for large collections on women's studies and Africa. K. Staudt; University of Texas at El Paso