African Sexualities

A Reader

Edited by Sylvia Tamale

This groundbreaking volume, the first of its kind written by African activists themselves, aims to inspire a new generation of students and teachers to study, reflect and gain fresh and critical insights into the complex issues of gender and sexuality. It opens a space – particularly for young people – to think about African sexualities in different ways. This accessible but scholarly multidisciplinary text, from a distinctly African perspective, is built around themed sections each introduced by a framing essay. The authors use essays, case studies, poetry, news clips, songs, fiction, memoirs, letters, interviews, short film scripts and photographs from a wide political spectrum to examine dominant and deviant sexualities, analyse the body as a site of political, cultural and social contestation and investigate the intersections between sex, power, masculinities and femininities. The book adopts a feminist approach that analyses sexuality within patriarchal structures of oppression while also highlighting its emancipatory potential.

As well as using popular culture to help address the ‘what, why, how, when and where’ questions, the contributors also provide a critical mapping of African sexualities that informs readers about the plurality and complexities of African sexualities – desires, practices, fantasies, identities, taboos, abuses, violations, stigmas, transgressions and sanctions. At the same time, they pose gender-sensitive and politically aware questions that challenge the reader to interrogate assumptions and hegemonic sexuality discourses, thereby unmapping the intricate and complex terrain of African sexualities.

The blend of approaches and styles enhances the book’s accessibility and usefulness for teaching as well as allowing for historical and textual contextualisation.

Authors include scholars, researchers, professionals, practitioners and experts from different regions of Africa and Africans in the Diaspora.
 

Contents

1. Introduction (Sylvia Tamale)
Section One: Research, Theory & Methods
2. Researching and Theorizing Sexualities in Africa (Sylvia Tamale)
3. Doing Research on Sexuality in Africa: Ethical Dilemmas and the Positioning of the Researcher (Emídio Gune and Sandra Manuel)
4. From Minuscule Biomedical Models to Sexuality’s Depths (Stella Nyanzi)
5. Tracks: Researching Sexualities Walking AbOUT the city of Johannesburg (Zethu Matebeni)
6. Dialoguing Culture and Sex: Reflections from the Field (Amy S Tsanga)
Section Two: Sexuality, Power & Politics
7. Subversion & Resistance: Activist Initiatives (Jane Bennett)
8. The ‘Perils’ of Sex and the Panics of Race: The Dangers of Inter- acial Sex in Colonial Southern Rhodesia (Oliver Phillips)
9. Nudity and Morality: Legislating Women’s Bodies and Dress in Nigeria (Bibi Bakare-Yusuf)
10. “Getting the Nation Talking about Sex”: Reflections on the Politics of Sexuality and‘Nation-Building’ in Post-Apartheid South Africa (Deborah Posel)
11. Paradoxes of sex work and sexuality in modern- day Uganda (Sylvia Tamale)
12. Life Story: Love, Power and Resilience (Daughtie Akoth)
13. African LGBTI Declaration
14-19. Poems: Two Kinds of Blue (Connie Mutua); Life Story & Poem: A Night in Zanzibar (Jessica Horn); False Memory (Jumoke Verissimo); Dear Diary (Lindiwe Nkutha); Explain (Hakima Abbas); My Love –for Eudy Simelane (Musa Okwonga)
Section Three: Mapping Sexual Representations & Practices of Identity
20. Representing African Sexualities (Desiree Lewis)
21. Pious Stardom: Cinema and the Islamic Revival in Egypt (Karim Mahmoud Tartoussieh)
22. Intersex: The Forgotten Constituency (Julius Kaggwa)
23. The Chronicle of an Intersexed Activist’s Journey (Sally Gross)
24. Gender Dynamics: A Transsexual Overview (Audrey Mbugua)
25. Barrenness and Sexuality in the Ndau Community (Rebecca Magorokosho)
Section Four: Integrated and Positive Sexuality
26. “Osunality”–Or African Eroticism (Nkiru Nzegwu)
27. Politics of naming sexual practices (Brigitte Bagnol & Esmeralda Mariano)
28. Fiction: My American Jon (Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie)
29. Life Story: Questions, Questions (Lucy Nambajjwe)
30. Fiction: Penitence—Hurry Hurry No Speed (Derrick Zgambo)
31. Fiction: Love Beads (Yaba Badoe)
32-36. Poems: Cinnamon (Gabeba Baderoon); Covert Sexuality (Coumba Toure); The Dream in the Next Body (Gabeba Baderoon); Nature’s Dance (Olivia Coatzee); Untitled (Juliane Okot Bitek) Section Five: Reproduction and Rights
37. Reproductive Health and Sexual Rights (Beth Maina-Ahlberg and Asli Kulane)
38. Family Planning, Contraception and Abortion in Islam (Sa’diyya Shaikh)
39. Guilty Until Proven Innocent: Politics versus the Press in Defense of Reproductive Rights in Zambia (Wilma Nchito)
40. Abortion: a Desperate Measure for Lack of Choice (Salma Maoulidi)
41. Poem: The Shedding of Blood (Unoma Azuah)
42. Ode to my Uterus (Everjoice J. Win)
43. Life Stories: Ob/Gyn Experiences (Sylvia Tamale)
44. Journal Excerpts: Reflections on my Journey with my Womb (Akabotho Kaluwa)
Section Six: Sex & Masculinities
45. Masculinities and Male Sexualities (Kopano Ratele)
46. Multiple Meanings of Manhood Among Boys in Ghana (Akosua Adomako Ampofo and John Boaten)
47. “Mombasa Morans”: Embodiment, Sexual Morality and Samburu Men in Kenya (George Paul Meiu)
48. Sexual Orientation and Human Rights: Putting Homophobia on Trial (Makau Mutua)
49. ‘I am Not Tassa, He is Not a Man Like Other Men’: Feminizing Infertility and Masculinizing Fertility in South Nyanza, 1945-60 (Agnes Odinga)
50. Poem: The Phantoms of My Opera (Lombe Annie Mwambwa)
51. Poem: The Kiss (Frank Chipasula)
52. Life Story: The Diamond in The G…. (Kipkemboi [jeffrey moses])
Section Seven: Who’s Having Sex & Who’s Not?
53. Unpacking the [Govern]Mentality of African Sexualities (Stella Nyanzi)
54. Sexuality, Gender and Disability in South Africa (Washeila Sait, Theresa Lorenzo, Melissa Steyn and Mikki van Zyl)
55. The Realities of ‘Choice’ in Africa: Implications for Sexuality, Vulnerability, and HIV/AIDS (Chi-Chi Undie)
56. Poem: Wet Towel (Lombe Mwambwa)
57. Interview: Challenges of Sexuality and Aging in a Barren Woman (Edith Okiria)
58. Poem: AIDS Sting(ma)
Section Eight: Sexuality, Spirituality & The Supernatural
59. Sexuality, Spirituality & the Supernatural (Chimaraoke Izugbara)
60. ‘African sex is dangerous!’ renegotiating ‘ritual sex’ in Contemporary Masaka District, Uganda (Stella Nyanzi, Justine Nassimbwa, Vincent Kayizzi and Strivan Kabanda)
61. Sangomahood, Abstinence and Celibacy Among Tangoma in Swaziland (Hebron Ndlovu)
Section Nine: Pedagogy & Popular Culture
62. Creative Methodological/Pedagogical Approaches (Mansah Prah)
63. Interrogating the Link between Gendered Sexualities, Power and Legal Mechanisms: Experiences from the Lecture Room (Sylvia Tamale)
64. Through Zanele Muholi’s Eyes: Re/imagining Ways of Seeing Black Lesbians (Pumla Gqola)
65. A Radical Technique to Teach Sexual Rights (Dorothy Aken’ova)
66. Song: Laabaan Song (Marame Gueye)
• Glossary of Terms
• Abbreviations

About the Author

Sylvia Tamale a Ugandan feminist lawyer and academic. She has been a visiting professor at the University of Cape Town African Gender Institute and is dean of the Faculty of Law and Jurisprudence at Makerere University.