The Mafa as reflected in their oral literature. A monograph from the viewpoint of women
This monograph on the Mafa in Northern Cameroon includes the major chapters of a classical monograph, stressing the women´s perspective: childhood, being a bride, marriage, motherhood, the mother´s sister, the world of men (including gender relations, mutual dependence), death, the world beyond, and conclusions. Kosack has lived with the Mafa for a long time, during several field trips with her husband and three children, and she includes self-reflexive accounts in her ethnography. An appendix includes a glossary of Mafa terms, the stories used in the book, the narrators (25 women, 11 men, and 219 interviewed women who have been cited in the monograph. Kosack has recorded more than 200 life histories of women. Thus she constructs an ideal-typical woman of the Mafa society, who from the first day is subject to customary social relationships which are based on values based on belief systems. Belief systems are based on economy, the way of production - which has resulted from historical development. All of these processes emerge from people´s relations with each other and with environments - they are illustrated by and exemplified with 158 stories retold in German, with commentaries of interviewees and the authoress.
Keywords: Mafa women, women of Mafa, ethnography of Mafa, gender studies, world view of Mafa, oral literature of Mafa, life histories of Mafa, values of Mafa, kinship of Mafa
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