Undesirable Practices: Women, Children, and the Politics of the Body in Northern Ghana, 1930-1972

Undesirable Practices examines both the intended and the unintended consequences of “imperial feminism” and British colonial interventions in “undesirable” cultural practices in northern Ghana. Jessica Cammaert addresses the state management of social practices such as female circumcision, nudity, prostitution, and “illicit” adoption as well as the hesitation to impose severe punishments for the slave dealing of females, particularly female children. She examines the gendered power relation...