1st Edition

Death and the Textile Industry in Nigeria

By Elisha P Renne Copyright 2021
172 Pages 7 Color & 25 B/W Illustrations
by Routledge

172 Pages 7 Color & 25 B/W Illustrations
by Routledge

172 Pages 7 Color & 25 B/W Illustrations
by Routledge

This book draws upon thinking about the work of the dead in the context of deindustrialization—specifically, the decline of the textile industry in Kaduna, Nigeria—and its consequences for deceased workers’ families. The author shows how the dead work in various ways for Christians and Muslims who worked in KTL mill in Kaduna, not only for their families who still hope to receive termination... Read more

Introduction: The Work of the Dead and the Coalition of Unpaid Textile Workers of Nigeria

Chapter 1. The City of Kaduna as Colonial Construct

Chapter 2. New Work-time Regimes: The Rise and Fall of Kaduna Textiles Ltd (KTL)

Chapter 3. Workers’ Health and Deaths after the Closure of Kaduna Textiles Ltd

Chapter 4. Burying the Dead: Hometowns, Houses, and Cemeteries

Chapter 5. Widows' Dilemmas and Experiences of Hardship

Chapter 6. Consequences for Children, Problems for Families

Conclusion: Death, Deindustrialization, and Time

Biography

Elisha P. Renne is Professor Emerita in the Departments of Anthropology and of Afroamerican and African Studies, University of Michigan–Ann Arbor, USA.

"In Death and the Textile Industry in Nigeria, Renne (emer., anthropology and Afroamerican and African studies, Univ. of Michigan) provides a close, intimate examination of the ramifications of the demise of the textile industry in Kaduna, Nigeria. The book looks at the rise of the city of Kaduna as an industrial center, then traces its decline and the closing of its major textile mill. The author includes richly detailed interview excerpts from women who lost their husbands and focuses on how they conceptualize health and ailments in the context of life in Kaduna. One of this volume's unique features is an intriguing chapter titled “Interlude,” which includes beautiful full-color portraits of six Kaduna women with whom the author worked. Translations of Renne's interviews with the women about their lives accompany the photos. This book is very narrowly focused and rich with interviews, photographs, and narratives of life within this community. It will be of most interest to students and scholars of Nigeria and West Africa and to anthropologists and others who are interested in practices surrounding death and dying and in industrialization and deindustrialization."

E. E. Stiles, University of Nevada, Reno