African histories)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-8214-2119-2 (hc : alk. paper) — ISBN 978-0-8214-2120-8
(pb : alk. paper) — ISBN 978-0-8214-4503-7 (pdf)
1. Marriage—Gabon—Libreville—History. 2. Divorce—Gabon—Libreville—History. 3. Sex—Gabon—Libreville—History. 4. Customary law—Gabon—Libreville—History. 5. Gabon—History—1839–1960. I. Title. II. Series: New African histories series.
HQ694.9.J43 2014
306.8096721—dc23
2014014964
In memory of Lumen and Emanuel Georges and Melanie and Pierre Jean-Baptiste
Contents
Introduction Narrating a History of Domestic Life, Sexuality, Being, and Feeling in Urban Africa
Part I FROM ATLANTIC OCEAN TRADING POST TO COLONIAL CAPITAL CITY, 1849–1929
Chapter 1 Sexual Economy in the Era of Trade and Politics: The Founding of Libreville, 1849–1910
Chapter 2 Planning, Protest, and Prostitution: Libreville in the Era of Timber, 1910–1929
Part II LIBREVILLE’S GROWTH, 1930–1960
Chapter 3 Migration and Governance: The Expansion of Libreville
Chapter 4 The Bridewealth Economy: Money and Relationships of Affinity
Chapter 5 Jurisprudence: Marriage and Divorce Law
Chapter 6 “Faire Bon Ami” (To Be Good Friends): Sex, Pleasure, and Punishment
Chapter 7 “A Black Girl Should Not Be with a White Man”: Interracial Sex, African Women, and Respectability
Conclusion
Notes
Bibliography
Index
Illustrations
MAPS
1 .1 Mpongwé Settlement in the Gabon Estuary, Mid-Nineteenth Century
2 .1 Administrative Division of Gabon, 1916
3 .1 Libreville’s African Neighborhoods, ca. 1957
FIGURES
2 .1 Population of the City of Libreville, 1912–1929
3 .1 Population of the City of Libreville, 1931–1938
3 .2 Population of the Subdivision of Libreville, 1931–1938
3 .3 Population of the City of Libreville, 1939–1960
3 .4 Population of the Subdivision of Libreville, 1939–1955
3 .5 Marital Status by Ethnicity and Gender of Inhabitants of the Subdivision of Libreville, 1944
4 .1 Fang Bridewealth in Years of Timber Laborer Salary
4 .2 Median Fang Bridewealth in Years of Timber Laborer Salary
4 .3 Marriage Loans from the De Gaulle Marriage Loan Fund
5 .1 Colonial Native Court System, 1927–1939
5 .2 Categories of Legal Complaints in Divorce Disputes
6 .1 Polygamous and Monogamous Marriage Rates, Subdivision of Libreville, 1944
PHOTOGRAPHS
2 .1 Village of Louis, ca. 1900
2 .2 Maritime Boulevard, ca. 1927
2 .3 Bastille Day celebration, 1929
3 .1 House on stilts, ca. 1950s
6 .1 Simone Agnoret Iwenga St. Denis, husband, and child, ca. 1950s
6 .2 A man and his copine, ca. 1950s
7 .1 Mpongwé women and French military personnel, ca. 1950s
7 .2 A métis woman and child, ca. 1950s
Acknowledgments
I received tremendous financial, intellectual, and emotional support from varied institutions and people in completing this book. Fellowships from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the Department of Education’s Foreign Language and Area Studies Program, and the Fulbright Program supported fieldwork
