Skip to main content Skip to search Skip to search

Social Science Cultural

Sexual Diversity in Africa

Politics, Theory, and Citizenship

edited by S.N. Nyeck & Marc Epprecht

Publisher
McGill-Queen's University Press
Initial publish date
Oct 2013
Category
Cultural
  • eBook

    ISBN
    9780773589766
    Publish Date
    Oct 2013
    List Price
    $100.00
  • Paperback / softback

    ISBN
    9780773541887
    Publish Date
    Oct 2013
    List Price
    $37.95
  • Hardback

    ISBN
    9780773541870
    Publish Date
    Oct 2013
    List Price
    $125.00

Add it to your shelf

Where to buy it

Description

How does one address homophobia without threatening majority rule democracy and freedoms of speech and faith? How does one "Africanize" sexuality research, empirically and theoretically, in an environment that is not necessarily welcoming to African scholars?

In Sexual Diversity in Africa, contributors critically engage with current debates about sexuality and gender identity, as well as with contentious issues relating to methodology, epistemology, ethics, and pedagogy. They present a tapestry of issues that testify to the complex nature of sexuality, sexual practices, and gender performance in Africa. Essays examine topics such as the well-established same-sex networks in Accra and Bamako, African "traditions" defined by European observers, and the bizarre mix of faith, pharmaceuticals, and pseudo-science used to "cure" homosexual men. Their evidence also demonstrates the indefensibility of over-simplified constructions of homosexuality versus heterosexuality, modern versus traditional, Africa versus the West, and progress from the African closet towards Western models of out politics, all of which have tainted research on same-sex practices and scientific studies of HIV/AIDS.

Asserting that the study of sexuality is intellectually and politically sustainable in Africa, Sexual Diversity in Africa contributes to the theorization of sexualities by presenting a more sensitive and knowledgeable study of African experiences and perspectives.

Contributors include Olajide Akanji, Christophe Broqua, Cheryl Cooky, Serena Owusua Dankwa, Shari L. Dworkin, Marc Epprecht, Melissa Hackman, Notisha Massaquoi, Crystal Munthree, Kathleen O’Mara, Stella Nyanzi, S.N.Nyeck, Vasu Reddy, Amanda Lock Swarr, and Lisa Wiebesiek.

About the authors

CA

S.N. Nyeck's profile page

Marc Epprecht is professor in the Department of Global Development Studies at Queen’s University, co-editor with S.N. Nyeck of Sexual Diversity in Africa: Politics, Theory, and Citizenship, and author of Hungochani: The History of a Dissident Sexuality in Southern Africa.

Marc Epprecht's profile page

Other titles by