Clothing and Difference

Embodied Identities in Colonial and Post-Colonial Africa

Hildi Hendrickson

 

Synopsis

This volume examines the dynamic relationship between the body, clothing, and identity in sub-Saharan Africa and raises questions that have previously been directed almost exclusively to a Western and urban context. Unusual in its treatment of the body surface as a critical frontier in the production and authentification of identity, Clothing and Difference shows how the body and its adornment have been used to construct and contest social and individual identities in Nigeria, Zimbabwe, Tanzania, Kenya, and other African societies during both colonial and post-colonial times.

Review

An excellent book. Clothing and Difference will contribute to knowledge about Africa as well as to the general topic of the communication process involved in dressing the body. — Joanne B. Eicher, University of Minnesota

Author

Dr. Hildi Hendrickson is associate professor of anthropology and chair of the Department of Sociology/Anthropology at Long Island University.