# Women's Voices in a Man's World (1999) by Lidwien Kapteijns: women in northern Somali oral literature

> Lidwien Kapteijns's Women's Voices in a Man's World (1999): its study of women's voices in northern Somali poetry and song from 1899 to 1980, its two parts and its reviews.

Source page: https://calankii.com/en/books/womens-voices-in-a-mans-world-kapteijns/
Last checked: 2026-11-12
Publisher: Calankii (https://calankii.com)

## The book

**Women's Voices in a Man's World: Women and the Pastoral Tradition in Northern Somali Orature, c. 1899-1980** is by **Lidwien Kapteijns**, professor of history at Wellesley College, written with **Maryan Omar Ali**. It was published by Heinemann in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, in September 1999, with xiv and 224 pages, in hardback and paperback ([Harvard Book Store](https://www.harvard.com/book/9780325001364); [Journal of African History review listing](https://cambridge.org/core/journals/journal-of-african-history/article/abs/somali-women-womens-voices-in-a-mans-world-women-and-the-pastoral-tradition-in-northern-somali-orature-c-18991980-by-lidwien-kapteijns-with-maryan-omar-ali-portsmouth-nh-heinemann-1999-pp-x-224-43955995-isbn-0325001367-195024-paperback-isbn-0325001332/2178CA2066CAE44A959E5446EF0A9487)).

## What it studies

The book is a study of Somali society through its oral literature, which it calls orature: poems, sayings and songs composed and passed on by voice. It asks two questions ([Harvard Book Store](https://www.harvard.com/book/9780325001364)):

- What do Somali oral texts reveal about women and about relations between women and men?
- How do these texts present "tradition" and cultural authenticity, especially where they affect women?

Within the large body of Somali orature, Kapteijns picks out texts voiced by women across about a century, from the start of the Dervish period to 1980 ([Research in African Literatures review](https://muse.jhu.edu/article/29679)). See [Somali poetry](/en/society/somali-poetry/).

## Its two parts

1. **The colonial period.** The first part uses oral texts from the colonial era to build a critical picture of women's lives and of gender in northern Somali pastoral society.
2. **Modern love songs.** The second part treats the popular love songs of the decades after independence as places where Somalis argued about women and about "tradition" ([Harvard Book Store](https://www.harvard.com/book/9780325001364)). See [Somali music](/en/society/somali-music/).

The publisher wrote that the book would introduce readers unfamiliar with Somali culture to its "wit and spirit", and that Somali readers would find it useful for reassessing received views of their own past and traditions ([Harvard Book Store](https://www.harvard.com/book/9780325001364)). The wider subject is on [Women in Somali society](/en/society/women-in-somali-society/).

## How it was received

The book was reviewed in the Journal of African History, in Research in African Literatures (2002), and by the anthropologist Dorothy L. Hodgson in the International Journal of African Historical Studies (1999) ([Journal of African History](https://cambridge.org/core/journals/journal-of-african-history/article/abs/somali-women-womens-voices-in-a-mans-world-women-and-the-pastoral-tradition-in-northern-somali-orature-c-18991980-by-lidwien-kapteijns-with-maryan-omar-ali-portsmouth-nh-heinemann-1999-pp-x-224-43955995-isbn-0325001367-195024-paperback-isbn-0325001332/2178CA2066CAE44A959E5446EF0A9487); [Research in African Literatures](https://muse.jhu.edu/article/29679); [Brandeis ScholarWorks](https://scholarworks.brandeis.edu/esploro/outputs/bookReview/Kapteijns-Womens-Voices-In-A-Mans/9924032278801921)).

## Where to read it

- Lending copy: [Internet Archive](https://archive.org/details/womensvoicesinma00kapt)
- In a library: [WorldCat](https://search.worldcat.org/search?q=Women%27s+Voices+in+a+Man%27s+World+Kapteijns)

## Related pages

- [Clan Cleansing in Somalia (2013), Lidwien Kapteijns](/en/books/clan-cleansing-in-somalia-kapteijns/)
- [A Tree for Poverty](/en/history/a-tree-for-poverty/)

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