Re-thinking sexualities in Africa

Abstract

The volume brings together papers by African and Nordic/Scandinavian gender scholars and anthropologists, in attempts to investigate and critically discuss existing lines of thinking about sexuality in Africa, while at the same time creating space for alternative approaches. Issues of colonial and contemporary discourses on 'African sexuality' and on 'female genital mutilation' are being discussed, as well as issues of female agency and of feminists' engagement with HIV/AIDS. The volume contributes to contemporary efforts of re-thinking sexualities in the light of feminist, queer and postcolonial theory.

CONTENTS: Re-thinking Sexualities in Africa: Introduction / Signe Arnfred -- UNDER WESTERN EYES -- 1. Efundula: Women's Initiation, Gender and Sexual Identitites in Colonial and Post-Colonial Northern Namibia / Heike Becker --2. 'African Sexuality'/Sexuality in Africa: Tales and Silences / Signe Arnfred -- 3. A Reflection on the Cultural Meanings of Female Circumcision. Experiences from Fieldwork in Casamance, Southern Senegal / Liselott Dellenborg -- 4. Preventing HIV?: Medical Discourses and Invisible Women / Katarina Jungar & Elina Oinas -- 5. Whos 'Unmet Need'?: Dis/Agreement about Childbearing among Ghanian Couples / Akosua Adomako Ampofo -- PROBLEMS OF PLEASURE AND DESIRE -- 6. Kinky Politics / Kopano Ratele -- 7. Opening a Can of Worms: A Debate of Female Sexuality in the Lecture Theatre / Mumbi Mahcera -- 8. Paradoxes of Female Sexuality in Mali. On the Practices of Magnonmaka and Bolokoli-kela / Assitan Diallo -- FEMALE AGENCY -- 9. Understanding Sexuality in Africa: Diversity and Contextualised Dividuality / Jo Helle-Valle -- 10. 'Prostitutes' or Modern Women?: Negotiating Respectability in Northern Tanzania / Liv Haram -- 11. Masculinities, Sexuality and Socio-Economic Change in Rural and Urban East Africa / Margrethe Silberschmidt 12. Re-Conceptualizing African Gender Theory: Feminism, Womanism and the Arere Metaphor/ Mary Kolawole.