“Wicked” Women and the Reconfiguration of Gender in Africa Dorothy L. Hodgson and Sheryl A. McCurdy

“Vagabond,” “prostitute,” “wayward,” “unruly,” “indecent,” and “immoral” are just a few of the terms used to label and stigmatize women whose behavior in some way threatens other people’s expectations of “the way things ought to be.” Yet, like the shebeen singer, many of these “wicked” women are struggling to do whatever is needed to “take care of business” and support themselves and their children. In the process, they are chastized and criticized as “vagabonds” or worse by others, who “spread evil of [them] in secret whispers.” “Wicked” Women and the Reconfiguration of Gender in
Africa analyzes how the ideas and actions of such “wicked” women are pivotal in transforming gender relations and other domains of social life. Whether accused of adultery, abandonment, or insubordination, their lives and actions often reflect and produce contradictions and contestations of
power within the intersecting and shifting landscapes of the individual, family, community, nation-state, and global arena. By analyzing the processes through which some women become stigmatized as “wicked,” the nature of their alleged transgressions, and the effects of their actions, the chapters in this volume document how “wicked” women and the paradoxes they generate become sites for debate over, and occasionally transformations in, gender relations, social practices, cultural norms, and political-economic institutions.