The Illiterate African Woman as Depicted in Ama Ata Aidoo’s Anowa

Based on the theory of existentialism, this study seeks to find out Ama Ata Aidoo’s view on how illiteracy affects the African Woman in her drama, Anowa, which was published in 1970. The text depicts the illiterate woman as being powerful woman in African society. However, Ama Ata Aidoo posits that illiteracy makes the woman a pathetic individual who is not able to function effectively in this changing world. This study seeks to deepen the appreciation of Ama Ata Aidoo’s Anowa, by contributing to the understanding of Aidoo’s attitude to the illiterate Ghanaian woman (and for that matter African woman) who is seen as a powerful matriarch, but frustrated by African society as a result of lack of formal education. The available literature was explored to find what other writers have said on Aidoo’s Anowa. We used the method of qualitative content analysis in our analysis. The findings of the study show that Ama Ata Aidoo uses her writing to satirize societal weaknesses for her readers to refrain from committing such wrongs. Her illiterate women characters in Anowa are bent on maintaining their traditions and are not prepared for change. Consequently, Aidoo uses the character, Anowa, to depict change in African societies.

Indecent Theology: Sex and Female Heresy in Counter-Reformation Spain

In 1636, the Spanish Inquisition tried María de la Cruz for heresy and having made a pact with the devil. Examination of her trial in light of information about sexual misconduct on the part of Catholic clerics, however, reveals that what drove María to the emotional and behavioral extremes that her accusers described was neither heresy nor the devil the authorities had in mind. Theologians who evaluated her case and also met with María discerned what those who only read the accusations against her were unable to know: María's devils were human men taking advantage of a poor, illiterate woman for sex.

Educação popular feminina: uma análise em Enrique Dussel sobre a libertação da mulher em meios rurais na primeira metade do século XX / Female popular education: an analysis in Enrique Dussel on liberation woman in rural media in the first half of the 20th Century

Este artigo traz uma reflexão teórica a respeito dos caminhos da mulher analfabeta que consegue a libertação por meio da educação popular. Trazendo uma abordagem em torno dos conceitos de libertação do filósofo Enrique Dussel, este texto prioriza práticas de educação popular em meios carentes. Metodologicamente, sob o olhar de Enrique Dussel, este caminhar reflete a busca da mulher como forma de libertação ao meio culturalmente e socialmente opressor, no intuito de se desvencilhar de uma consciência subalternizada pelo colonialismo. Neste despertar e neste encontro consigo mesma, a mulher que consegue se libertar por meio de uma educação popular recria seus caminhos. Conclui-se que os investimentos na alfabetização para as mulheres trazem retornos sociais altos: melhora a saúde das famílias e traz uma conscientização do dever de motivar seus filhos também a estudar. Mulheres recém-alfabetizadas melhoram os indicadores de desenvolvimento e, portanto, todos os cidadãos, instituições e organismos governamentais deveriam estar comprometidos para a alfabetização destas mulheres que tanto tem sofrido com a opressão ao longo da história.* * *This article brings a theoretical reflection on the ways of the illiterate woman who obtains the liberation through the popular education. Bringing an approach around the concepts of liberation of the philosopher Enrique Dussel, this text prioritizes practices of popular education in needy environments. Methodologically, under the watchful eye of Enrique Dussel, this walk reflects the search of the woman as a way of liberation to the environment culturally and socially oppressive, in order to get rid of a conscience subalternizada by colonialism. In this awakening and in this encounter with herself, the woman who is able to free herself through a popular education recreates her ways. It is concluded that investments in literacy for women bring high social returns: it improves the health of families and brings an awareness of the duty to motivate their children to study. Newly literate women improve development indicators and therefore all citizens, institutions and government agencies should be committed to the literacy of these women who have suffered so much from oppression throughout history.

Women, Marriage and Property in Upper Canada

This article explores how one illiterate woman in Upper Canada, Elizabeth Sanders, used the few legal tools that were at her disposal to deal with a bad marriage and to protect her property for her daughters. Her social standing, her property and, even more importantly, the support of her family, allowed her to have access to and use the very deficient Upper Canadian justice system to deal successfully with a bad marriage. This study shows that even illiterate women could and did use the law to their advantage.

CESAREAN SECTION PERFORMED WITH SUCCESS BY AN ILLITERATE IRISH MIDWIFE IN 1738

To read about major surgical operations being performed by untrained laymen before the discovery of anesthesia and the beginning of modern medical practice fills one with profound sympathy for the patient's harrowing ordeal. Imagine the suffering of poor Alice O'Neal on whom a cesarean section was performed in January 1738 by an illiterate midwife as described below by Mr. Duncan Stewart, Surgeon in Dungannon in the County of Tyrone, Ireland. (I believe this is the first reported cesarean section performed in the United Kingdom from which the mother recovered.) Alice O'Neal, aged about 33 years, Wife to a poor Farmer near Charlemont, and Mother of several Children, in January 1738 took her Labour-Pains; but could not be delivered of her Child by several Women who attempted it. She remained in this Condition twelve Days; the Child was judged to be dead after the third Day. Mary Donally, an illiterate Woman, but eminent among the common People for extracting dead Births, being then called, tried also to deliver her in the common Way: And her Attempts not succeeding, performed the Caesarian Operation, by cutting with a Razor first the containing Parts of the Abdomen and then the Uterus; at the Aperature (sic) of which she took Out the Child and Secundines. The Part of the Incision was an Inch higher, and to a Side of the Navel, and was continued about six Inches downwards in the Middle betwixt the right Os Ilium and the Linea alba. She held the Lips of the Wound together with her Hand, till one went a Mile and returned with Silk and the common Needles which Taylors (sic) used: with these she joined the Lips in the manner of the Stitch employed ordinarily for the Hare-lip, and dressed the Wound with whites of Eggs, as she told me some days after, when led by Curiosity I visited the poor Woman who had undergone the Operation.