Book Makes Century List

NELSON MANDELA MADE THE LIST. So did acclaimed authors Nadine Gordimer, Alan Paton and Chinua Achebe. And when "Africa's 100 Best Books of the 20th Century" was announced in Ghana in April, Dartmouth religion professor Ifi Amadiume found that she, too, had made the list for her 1987 book Male Daughters, Female Husbands.

"I had no idea about the list until my publisher told me my book had been selected," says Amadiume, who came to Dartmouth in 1993 and teaches courses on African religions, writers, gender and social change. (The book was one reason Dartmouth hired her, according to religion department chair Ronald M. Green.)

Africa's 100 Best Books" grew out of a suggestion made by a SUNY

Binghamton humanities professor at the Zimbabwe International Book Fair in 1998. A 15-member jury from 13 countries selected the top 100 books from 1,500 nominated publications. Amadiume's was one of only 10 scholarly books included in the final list.

Criteria included a books new insights, its contribution to debate and the "extent to which a book breaks boundaries," according to jury chairman Njabulo Ndebele, vice chancellor of the University of Cape Town.

Amadiume began breaking boundaries while studying anthropology at the University of London. An Igbo who grew up in Nigeria, she brought inside knowledge to her studies of African culture. "I saw a disjunction between reality and theory," she says. Whereas anthropologists saw Igbo society as patriarchical, with men holding all power, Amadiume knew better. "I was

remembering my formidable auntie. It wasa different reality," she says.

She explored that reality further in her fathers Igbo village. The result was MaleDaughters, Female Husbands. Its title refers to an unusual feature of Igbo society. "A woman can play the role of husband by marrying another woman. A daughter can forego marriage, remain in her natal home and officially occupy the status of son," says Amadiume. "Both positions are key to the mobilization of labor, the accumulation of wealth, the inheritance of property and the succession to power."

Amadiume, who has written four other scholarly books about African culture, sees her place on the book list as a vote of confidence in her findings. "I think it means I should stick to those ideas more, not compromise them," she says.

Out of Africa "I simply wenthome and did fieldwork,"professor Amadiume saysof her noteworthy book.

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