Yearning and Refusal

Drawing upon original in-depth interviews with women in Niamey, Niger, Yearning and Refusal unveils the hidden issue of failed fertility in Niger and the ways in which women continue to strive for reproductive control in a country at the heart of the population growth debate.

Hadiza Moussa was an assistant professor of anthropology and sociology at Abdou Moumouni University. She received her PhD in Anthropology from the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales (EHESS) in 2008. Her book was published in 2012 in French as Entre absence et refus d'enfant: Socio-anthropologie de la gestion de la fÃ(c)conditÃ(c) fÃ(c)minine à Niamey, Niger (L'Harmattan/La SahÃ(c)lienne). As a member of the Laboratoire d'Études et de Recherches sur les Dynamiques Sociales et le DÃ(c)veloppement Local (LASDEL), Hadiza Moussa researched public health delivery, sexual health, decentralization and development, and women, power, and local politics. She passed away in 2013.
Alice J. Kang is an associate professor of political science and ethnic studies at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and scholar of women, gender, and politics in Africa.
Barbara M. Cooper is a professor of African history and gender at Rutgers University; her research focuses on the former French colonies of the
Sahel, particularly Niger.
Natalie Kammerer is a French-English translator with a Masters in French Literature from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.
Jean-Pierre Olivier de Sardan is an emeritus professor of the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique and a professor at the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales and Abdou Moumouni University.

Editors' Introduction
Barbara M. Cooper and Alice J. Kang
Preface for the English Translation
Jean-Pierre Olivier de Sardan
Acronyms
Acknowledgements
Introduction
Part I. The Problem of Infertility
1. The Infertile Body
2. Managing Infertility
3. Varieties of Infertility
4. The Emotional Weight of Childlessness
Part II. Tensions in the Clinic
5. Confronting the Biomedical Sphere
Part III. Knowing and Negotiating Contraception
6. Contraception Outside of the Clinic
7. Negotiating Biomedical Contraception
8. The Realities of Abortion
Conclusion
Bibliography
Index