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.

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

"The editors of this volume succeed in proving that work on nonnormative sexual practices and identities in Africa remains urgent, while at the same time they ask new questions to reshape and redirect these scholarly investigations. This is an extraordina

“[Sexual Diversity in Africa] sets out to investigate non-normative sexualities and gender variance in the African context, [with] authors representing a new generation of African scholars engaged in this topic. This important and well-timed book appears

“This anthology gives us a rich, nuanced discussion of colonial legacies and comparative case studies that inform the reader of the fluidity and diversity of sexual discursive formations across the continent.” Mechthild Nagel, Wagadu, A Journal of Transnational Women's and Gender Studies