Call for Papers: Symposium on Law, Colonialism, and Children in Africa, 05/04
Symposium on Law, Colonialism, and Children in Africa
30 April to 1 May 2004, Stanford University.
European colonialism in Africa involved efforts to remake African societies
in accordance with prevailing European cultural paradigms and to have
Africans fulfill metropolitan needs. Colonialism was also about Africans'
responses to European efforts to tinker with their societies, their
economies, and their polities. Some Africans embraced the opportunities
provided by colonialism; some resisted them; and most probably ignored
them as long as they could until they were drawn inexorably into economies
and communities shaped by wider colonial and international economies.
Sooner or later, colonialism intruded into the social organization of
households and families. Occasionally, it empowered women to claim more
legal rights. Usually, colonialism enhanced men's power and authority over
their wives and children. As jural minors, children had few legal rights
in either "customary" or colonial courts. Yet children and rights over
children were always valued and thus they were likely to be involved in
disputes surrounding marriage, divorce, inheritance, and guardianship among
other types of disputes.
This symposium seeks to use disputes over children and disputes over the
rights to children to examine the social and legal histories of the
"family" during the colonial era. We are interested in examining how
changing concepts of children and the rights of children influenced
disputes in Africa. Thus, we are especially interested in changes in both
cultural and legal categories of what constituted children and what these
changes actually meant to children and their guardians. Central to the
legal and social debates about children are issues of juvenile delinquency
and the emergence of juvenile courts. Similarly, laws limiting child labor
provide a perspective on the nature of the child as actor and as a member
of households and families with a distinctive character and rights. Court
cases dealing with orphans may also provide rich areas to investigate the
category of child and the nature of kinship.
The organizers of this symposium are particularly interested in papers
dealing with court cases surrounding children, although papers on colonial
policies regarding children which provide insights into the legal and
social history of the family in colonial Africa are welcome. We also
welcome papers that examine current debates about children can the rights
of children in relationship to colonial inheritances. Of particular
interest to this symposium would be studies demonstrating how the colonial
legal systems contributed to changing ideas and practices regarding
children and rights over children.
By linking law, colonialism, and control over children, the organizers of
this symposium are interested in exploring the range of ways the study of
law in colonial Africa can provide new insights into the social history of
change in colonial Africa and the meanings of those changes.
Those wishing to attend should send an abstract of their papers to Richard
Roberts (<mailto:rroberts@stanford.edu>rroberts@stanford.edu) by 20
February. If accepted, full papers must be sent to the organizer by 15
April to be circulated prior to the symposium. All local expenses will be
covered and some subsidies for travel are available. In your abstract,
please indicate if you will require a travel subsidy.
From: Richard Roberts
<rroberts@stanford.edu>
Editor: Ali B. Ali-Dinar