>
> Call for Papers:
>
> Symposium on Law, Colonialism, and Children in Africa
>
> 30 April to 1 May 2004, Stanford University.
>
>
> European colonialism in Africa involved efforts to remake African
societies
> in accordance with prevailing European cultural paradigms and to have
> Africans fulfill metropolitan needs.  Colonialism was also about Africans'
> responses to European efforts to tinker with their societies, their
> economies, and their polities.  Some Africans embraced the opportunities
> provided by colonialism;  some resisted them;  and most probably ignored
> them as long as they could until they were drawn inexorably into economies
> and communities shaped by wider colonial and international economies.
>
> Sooner or later, colonialism intruded into the social organization of
> households and families.  Occasionally, it empowered women to claim more
> legal rights.  Usually, colonialism enhanced men's power and authority
over
> their wives and children.  As jural minors, children had few legal rights
> in either "customary" or colonial courts.  Yet children and rights over
> children were always valued and thus they were likely to be involved in
> disputes surrounding marriage, divorce, inheritance, and guardianship
among
> other types of disputes.
>
> This symposium seeks to use disputes over children and disputes over the
> rights to children to examine the social and legal histories of the
> "family" during the colonial era.  We are interested in examining how
> changing concepts of children and the rights of children influenced
> disputes in Africa.  Thus, we are especially interested in changes in both
> cultural and legal categories of what constituted children and what these
> changes actually meant to children and their guardians.  Central to the
> legal and social debates about children are issues of juvenile delinquency
> and the emergence of juvenile courts.  Similarly, laws limiting child
labor
> provide a perspective on the nature of the child as actor and as a member
> of households and families with a distinctive character and rights.  Court
> cases dealing with orphans may also provide rich areas to investigate the
> category of child and the nature of kinship.
>
> The organizers of this symposium are particularly interested in papers
> dealing with court cases surrounding children, although papers on colonial
> policies regarding children which provide insights into the legal and
> social history of the family in colonial Africa are welcome.  We also
> welcome papers that examine current debates about children can the rights
> of children in relationship to colonial inheritances.  Of particular
> interest to this symposium would be studies demonstrating how the colonial
> legal systems contributed to changing ideas and practices regarding
> children and rights over children.
>
> By linking law, colonialism, and control over children, the organizers of
> this symposium are interested in exploring the range of ways the study of
> law in colonial Africa can provide new insights into the social history of
> change in colonial Africa and the meanings of those changes.
>
> Those wishing to attend should send an abstract of their papers to Richard
> Roberts (<mailto:[log in to unmask]>[log in to unmask]) by 20
> February.  If accepted, full papers must be sent to the organizer by 15
> April to be circulated prior to the symposium.  All local expenses will be
> covered and some subsidies for travel are available.  In your abstract,
> please indicate if you will require a travel subsidy.
>