Readings in Sexualities from Africa, livre ebook

Images and stories about African sexuality abound in today's globalized media. Frequently old stereotypes and popular opinion inform these stories, and sex in the media is predominately approached as a problem in need of solutions and intervention. The authors gathered here refuse an easy characterization of African sexuality and instead seek to understand the various erotic realities, sexual practices, and gendered changes taking place across the continent. They present a nuanced and comprehensive overview of the field of sex and sexuality in Africa to serve as a guide though the quickly expanding literature. This collection offers a set of texts that use sexuality as a prism for studying how communities coalesce against the canvas of larger political and economic contexts and how personal lives evolve therein. Scholars working in Africa, the U.S., and Europe reflect on issues of representation, health and bio-politics, same-sex relationships and identity, transactional economies of sex, religion and tradition, and the importance of pleasure and agency. This multidimensional reader provides a comprehensive view of sexuality from an African perspective.ContentsAcknowledgementsNote on SourcesIntroduction: Reading "sexualities" from "Africa" / Rachel Spronk and Thomas HendriksI. Representing "African" Sexualities1. Is there a distinct African sexuality? A critical response to Caldwell / Beth Maina Ahlberg2. Which bodies matter? Feminism, poststructuralism, race, and the curious theoretical odyssey of the "Hottentot Venus" / Zine Magubane3. "Bisexuality" and the Politics of Normal in African Ethnography / Marc Epprecht4. On Being Area-Studied: A Litany of Complaint / Keguro MachariaII. Bio-Politics—Sexual Health5. Dangerous Aphrodisiac, Restless Sexuality: Venereal Disease, Biomedicine, and Protectionism in Colonial Lagos, Nigeria / Saheed Aderinto6. Irua Ria Atumia and Anti-Colonial Struggles among the Gikuyu of Kenya: A Counter Narrative on "Female Genital Mutilation" / Wairimu N. Njambi7. "These Women, They Force Us to Rape Them": Rape as Narrative of Social Control in Post- Apartheid South Africa / Helen Moffett8. "Transparent Sexualities": Sexual Openness, HIV Disclosure and the Governmentality of Sexuality in South Africa / Marian BurchardtIII. Same-Sex Practices—Gendered Identities9. A Note on "Woman Marriage" in Dahomey / Melville J. Herskovits10. Sexual Inversion Among the Azande / Edward E. Evans-Pritchard11. "A Man is a Man Completely and a Wife is a Wife Completely": Gender Classification and Performance amongst "Ladies" and "Gents" in Ermelo, Mpumalanga'/ Graeme Reid12. The Imagined Homoconference: "Activist-ism" and the Politics of Indirection, Serena DankwaIV. Love Transactions—Economies of Pleasure13. The Materiality of Everyday Sex: Thinking beyond "Prostitution"/ Mark Hunter14. On remuneration for homosexual practices in Bamako / Christophe Broqua15. Belonging in Ethno-Erotic Economies: Adultery, Alterity, and Ritual in Postcolonial Kenya / George P. Meiu16. The Pleasures of the City: Masculinity, Sexuality and Femininity in Dakar / Tshikala K. BiayaV. Mobilizing Religion—Queering Tradition17. Post-Colonial Histories of Sexuality: The Political Invention of a Libidinal African straight / Basile Ndjio18. Homosexuality, Politics and Pentecostal Nationalism in Zambia / Adriaan van Klinken19. "He Uses my Body": Female Traditional Healers, Male Ancestors and Transgender in South Africa / Cheryl Stobie20. The sexual potentate. On sodomy, fellatio and other postcolonial privacies / Achille MbembeVI. Discrete Pleasures—Defiant Agencies21. Sex Lives among Young People / Jomo Kenyatta22. Eroticism, Sensuality and Women's Secrets among the Baganda / Sylvia Tamale23. Sex, Food and Female Power: Discussion of Data Material from Northern Mozambique / Signe Arnfred24. My Childhood as an Adult Molester / Zackie Achmat List of SourcesList of ContributorsIndex