The Daily Bulletin Archive

Jacqueline-Bethel Tchouta Mougoué, assistant professor of history at Baylor University, will present "'When Women Wear Slacks': Gender, Clothing, and Embodied Nationalism in Cameroon" on Monday, March 18, from noon to 1:30 p.m. in Bacon Hall 215. Her talk, in honor of Black History Month and Women's History Month, examines how debates about wearing slacks in 1960s West Cameroon framed negotiations about ideal womanhood, urban subjecthood, and public behavior as the newly created Federal Republic of Cameroon sought to balance the legacies of British and French colonization. Embracing ideal womanhood through both Western and African traditional feminine attire became a crucial way for English-speaking women to advance ideas about nationalism, identity, and public decorum. In this environment, the policing of wearing slacks took on a new nationalist urgency among Anglophone Cameroonians that continues to resonate today.

Dr. Mougoué's talk has been made possible by generous support from the Grant Allocation Committee, the Faculty-Student Association, the African and African American Interdisciplinary Studies Unit, and the History and Social Studies Education Department.