Men Own the Fields, Women Own the Crops: Gender and Power in the Cameroon Grassfields is a 1996 anthropological book written by Miriam Goheen that collects observations made by Goheen during a sixteen year long stay with the Nso people of Cameroon. During this time she studied the gender and power dynamics between the elite class and the Nso women.
The book was met with acclaim from members of the academic community and from the Nso’ community as well. Many scholars saw it as a continuation of the work of Phyllis Kaberry, an anthropologist of the early 1900s who conducted similar studies on gender dynamics and female resistance during the 1940s. The book is credited as influencing further writings and discussion in academia on gender dynamics within agriculture, even extending outside of the African continent.
Background
Goheen went to Harvard University earning her Ph.D. In 1984, Goheen published Ideology and Political Symbols In Western African Chiefdom: Commoditization of Land, Labor and Symbolic Capital in Nso, Cameroon, based on the different relationships of commodities such as land, labor, and symbolic capital in Nso, Cameroon. Men Own the Fields, Women Own the Crops is a compilation of observations made by Goheen, an anthropology-sociology professor at Amherst College, during her time studying and living in the Cameroons for a period of sixteen years. Her choice to write and publish the book was inspired by Phyllis Kaberry's report in Nso' chiefdom in highlands of western Cameroon. In addition to Kaberry's report, Goheen traveled to the highlands of western Cameroon to look deeper into Nso's relationship between local and national politics.
Synopsis
In the book, Goheen analyzes the division of power between genders in the Cameroon Grassfields. She lived with the Nso' for over a decade, spending half of her time in Kimbo, the Nso' capital, and the other half in the sub chiefdom of Nsə'. She focused her fieldwork on how the political structure of the chiefdom has changed since the postcolonial state.
The book starts with an introductory to the Nso' chiefdom, covering background information such as its precolonial history and its geographic setting in the west Cameroonian Grassfields. It also describes the social and gender hierarchies that exist within a hegemonic system that has existed for centuries, with the Fon Nso' being at the top of the social and political hierarchies. Only men have a direct influence and presence in politics, even though it has been recognized that women are the backbone of the country. Traditionally, women have been the farmers and ones in charge of domestic duties, but they are not able to sell their own crops or be involved with the market economy. They are also not permitted to land ownership. A longstanding tradition of women farming and men hunting is one of the reasons for this gendered division of labor. However, men no longer need to hunt. While the women can spend 60 hours a week at the farm and doing domestic duties at the compound, men are free to partake in politics. The men did not want the women in charge of trade, because it is said that women reason with their hearts, and so there is a hegemonic system of women being the producers of food and children.
This system has been in place for centuries and was enforced by German colonizers in the early 20th century. While the Germans focused their attention on the Elite and the Fon Nso', they completely ignored the women and their presence in the chiefdom. The Germans were mostly interested in labor, and when the Fon Nso' began supplying it, after he surrendered to them in June 1906, the Germans recognized him as the leader and enforced his rule. During this time, boys were being educated while the girls were not. Men were beginning to grow cash crops, such as coffee, and livestock was introduced to the area. However, the presence of livestock caused women's farmlands to be moved farther from their homes. Women protested, since they feared losing land for their crops and noticed that the livestock was causing damage to the farmland. The women confronted the Fon Nso' about this issue, and he did favor their side of the argument. However, the Fon Nso' did not report this matter to the German officers, solidifying the notion that the women lacked presence in the political structure.