Sex, Food and Female Power: Discussion of Data Material from Northern Mozambique

Abstract

Issues of sex and food are often inscribed in male/female relationships. Frequently in a western context sex is perceived as a site of male power and female subordination, while food and cooking are seen as female domains, but still sites of subordination, as elements of women's household chores. In this article, looking at issues of sex and food in a rural matrilineal setting, power aspects of male/female relationships as mediated through sex and food emerge somewhat differently. Sexual proficiency is here a woman's art, mastered by old women and transmitted to the young. Also, in a setting where daily life is largely based on subsistence production, food and cooking become domains of power, again with old women in control. Based on fieldwork in northern Mozambique and with reference to African feminist conceptualizations of male/female power relationships, the article makes a case for rurality and ‘tradition’ not necessarily being adverse to female power in social relationships.