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I Laugh So I Won't Cry: Kenya's Women Tell The Story Of Their Lives | 
 enlarge | Author: Helena Halperin
Publisher: Africa World Press
Category: Book
List Price: $29.95
Buy New: $29.35
You Save: $0.60 (2%)
New (8) Used (6) from $25.50
Rating:  4 reviews
Sales Rank: 91713
Media: Paperback
Pages: 378
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.2
Dimensions (in): 8.6 x 5.7 x 1.1
ISBN: 1592213049
Dewey Decimal Number: 305.4096762090511
EAN: 9781592213047
ASIN: 1592213049
Publication Date: March 1, 2005
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
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Product Description
In I Laugh So I Won t Cry, Kenya s women tell their stories of love, struggle, happiness, and tragedy in their own words. I Laugh strikes a balance between intimate acquaintance and a comprehensive view. In-depth portraits allow readers to know a diverse selection of women intimately. Topical chapters feature the voices of a large range of women talking about the subjects closest to their hearts. Chapters cover: marriage, childrearing, work and getting by when there is no work, women s self-help groups, genital cutting, ethnic tensions, and the new government that has promised huge reforms. I Laugh shows the full panorama of women s struggles in sub-Saharan Africa without sacrificing the vivid details of individual lives. Subsistence farmers, herders, beggars, sex workers, office workers, hawkers, business executives and a few friends who stopped an ethnic war all speak in I Laugh So I Won t Cry. I Laugh will interest readers who seek to understand the multiple realities of contemporary Africa. Excerpts from I Laugh So I Won t Cry: On Husbands You know, men don't like laughing with their wives. Other men will say, Don't laugh with her. You are showing her that you love her too much. She will shame you. She will make you serve tea. So they just sit stony-faced. A man wouldn't like the woman to know how much money he has. If a wife asks her husband to buy something that is needed, like soap or tea, he will ask himself, Now, how did she know that I have money in my pocket? On Education Women who have been educated are respected. A husband knows that she is also an independent person and can do things on her own. The man is scared. He thinks maybe that if he hits her she is free to leave, but an uneducated lady is just forced to stay even if she gets problems in her marriage. On Female Genital Cutting Our mothers live with us. They will say it must be done. I can't disagree with my mother regarding my daughter. But for my daughter's daughter, it will change. There's the social pressure, even when they are very young. Because it is being done to all her friends in school, she would feel that you are denying her right.
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| Customer Reviews:
 Reality in the land of "The Constant Gardener." October 11, 2005
Marc B. Haefele (santa monica CA USA)
22 out of 22 found this review helpful
From Robert Ruark's "Something of Value" of 50 years ago to John le Carre's "Constant Gardner," popular literature about Kenya has been visualized through the point of view of white people makking their way there.
Halperin's non-fiction book is a first. It's a story of the land, compiled from the viewpoint of very many actual Kenyans, mostly female: It is about what's really been happening there over the past half century. How the society has changed, sometimes for better, often for worse, in the past generation, as more and more people have to live on fewer acres of farmable land or depart for the impoverished cities.
It's about living with AIDS, the effects of money on a barter society, how education affects relationships and what it means to be a born again Christian (or Muslim) in a society where animistic beliefs often prevail. In short, its about what it is like being a Kenyan. It is a book of anthropological thoroughness that reads like the deep-felt personal narrative that it is.
Wonderful depiction of reality February 13, 2007
Charles Herrick (Seattle, WA USA)
9 out of 9 found this review helpful
This is an interesting and informative book. It has a bit of an academic format but because the author includes so many firsthand accounts of real women in all stations, ages and social strata, it has a great story telling aspect as well.
Since I spent most of my time in the interior of Kenya in the most primitive settings, I can only speak authoritatively on the plight of rural women. I can tell you that Helena's recounting of lives and situations is really indicative of what's going on there. It brought back a lot of memories.
The social landscape is changing rapidly over there but the situation women find themselves in is moving a lot more slowly. I am so thankful for this snapshot provided by this book.
 The Women Folk of Kenya January 5, 2008
Merritt Ireland
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
This is a very professionally accomplished book of collectd interviews of the ordinary Kenyan women who is trying to live from day to day in difficult conditions. It is very good reading especially in the light of the post election crisis happening now in early 2008.
Pretty good! September 3, 2008
L. Miller
This book is very interesting but slightly repetitive. The author records her extensive interviews that she conducted with Kenyan women. She used a tape recorder and so much of the book is written verbatim from the discussions that she had with these women. Some of the topics that she covers are husband-wife relationships, aids, education, marriage, raising children and the work that a typical day entails.
An interesting aspect of life for these women is the corporal punishment that abounds in their daily life. According to this book, women accept being beaten by their husbands or perhaps their parents as the natural order of events. Many viewed it as punishment for behaving badly, for example, burning dinner. There were a few women who escaped from abusive marriages and didn't re-marry, but several of the women were satisfied with husbands who beat them but didn't threaten their lives. Interestingly enough, most of the women, even knowing what married life was likely to be like, wanted to marry and have children. This was a concept that was hard for my American mind to grasp.
Another theme of these women's lives is the fact that they often bear the sole responsibility of raising their children and providing for them financially. The fathers of the children often don't even provide their children with money for food or their elementary education.
This book provides the reader with a very detailed and insightful look into the daily lives of some of the women of Kenya. Very good for those with an anthropological bent, but perhaps not so great for those who are just looking for a good novel. I enjoyed it very much myself and recommend it to anyone who is thinking of traveling to Africa or who is interested in studying the culture of Kenya.
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