Women's Aggressive Use of Genital Power in Africa

Anthropology has long recognized the inadvertent polluting power of the male and female genitals. In his important discussion of Yoruba beliefs in female power and witchcraft, Raymond Prince (1961) recognized that African women know very well that they can direct the power that can emanate from their own genitals, and in some extreme situations their threats to loosen this power are strongly persuasive. Only a few others have recognized the aggressive use of female genital power. Further research in this area has important implications for understanding African ideas of sexuality.