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 remittances, but also as connections to extended family members in other parts of Nigeria and as claims to land and houses in Kaduna. Building upon their actions as a way of thinking about the ways that the dead work for the living, the author focuses on three major themes. The first considers the growth of the city of Kaduna as a colonial construct which, as the capital of the Protectorate of Northern Nigeria, was organized by neighborhoods, by public cemeteries, and by industrial areas. The second theme examines the establishment of textile mills in the industrial area and new ways of thinking about work and labor organization, time regimens, and health, particularly occupational ailments documented in mill clinic records. The third theme discusses the consequences of KTL mill workers’ deaths for the lives of their widows and children.
This book will be of interest to scholars of African studies, development studies, anthropology of work, and the history of industrialization.
The Introduction, Chapter 2 and the Conclusion of this book is freely available as a downloadable Open Access PDF under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives 4.0 license available at http://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/e/9781003058137
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
