The dynamics of gender relations and kinship in a commercial context: Afro-Atlantic partnerships in the area of Guinea Bissau (17th-19th centuries)

• Authors: Havik PJ
• Publication Year: 2016
• Journal: Atlântico de dor: faces do tráfico de escravos
• Link: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/291352159_A_Dinamica_das_Relacoes_de_Genero_e_Parentesco_num_Contexto_Comercial_um_balanco_da_producao_historica_sobre_a_regiao_da_Guine_Bissau_seculos_XVII_e_XIX

The present article provides a comparative analysis of the role of women and men in trade networks on the Upper Guinea Coast from an anthropological perspective. Focusing on the period from the seventeenth to the nineteenth century, it addresses discursive narratives in primary sources on the Afro-Atlantic communities which formed in the context of the trans-Atlantic slave and commodity trade. Operating diasporic trade networks between commercial entrepots on the coast and the interior, local female actors demonstrated a considerable autonomy and spatial and social mobility, and a notable capacity for negotiation and mediation. A number of case studies serve to highlight the partnerships between women and men, and the crucial role African women from coastal societies played in the transformations that occurred in this West African region from the slave to the legitimate trade.