Re-thinking Sexualities in Africa (review)

Re-thinking Sexualities in Africa makes a timely contribution to the literature on sexualities in Africa at a time when much Western scholarly and development discourse either ignores the topic or links it to issues of violence and illness (e.g., female circumcision, HIV/AIDS, and rape as a weapon of war). In her introduction, Signe Arnfred rightly contends that this discourse perpetuates images of African woman as inherent victims, to a great extent denies individual agency and experience, and implicitly dismisses the possibility of female pleasure and desire. Additionally, much discussion about gender in Africa focuses on women, largely ignoring the reality that gender is as much at issue for men as for women. Positioning itself as a critique of these discourses, this volume explores a wide range of topics related to sexuality in specific contexts across sub-Saharan Africa.

The thirteen essays, written by sociologists, anthropologists, gender studies scholars, and/or development experts, are organized into three sections. The first, "Under Western Eyes," a reference to the influential article by Chandra Mohanty of the same title, comprises five essays that critique and provide alternative approaches for studying female sexualities to those pervasive within colonial and neocolonial discourse. The second section, "Problems of Pleasure and Desire," includes three essays that cover topics ranging from sexual desire in the highly racialized context of South Africa (Ratele) to those about female pleasure. The third, "Female Agency," consists of essays about female agency and empowerment in addition to one article about the lack of empowerment of many men in East Africa as a result of contemporary social, political, and economic realities (Silberschmidt).

A strong point of this volume is the recognition that sexuality in Africa is not a topic that is generalizable, but rather should be considered in its plural form (sexualities) because of the multiple ways that it is experienced by different people depending on their nationality, ethnicity, religion, gender, age, economic status, personality, and individual circumstances. Most of the contributions are grounded in ethnographic research methods, allowing for localized and personalized data and analyses. Even in dealing with violence or illness, contributors examine individualized perspectives that provide alternative and more specific ways of understanding a social issue. For example, in her contribution about female circumcision practices in Casamance, Liselott Dellenborg explains that for many Jola women, the ritual of circumcision is important for religious and social empowerment. Rather than perceiving themselves to be victims of violence, many Jola women consider Western discourse about the practice and the Senegalese government's laws against it to be oppressive and imperialistic. In the same vein, Liv Haram critiques moralistic condemnation of prostitution by providing portraits of individual women in northern Tanzania that highlight their agency rather than either their stigmatization or oppression.

Though the volume claims to address male as well as female gender issues, women receive much greater attention than do men, a reflection of the pervasive association of gender with women. Similarly, though the book is written partly in response to the paucity of material about sexual pleasure and desire in Africa, the essays include relatively little discussion about the experiences and attitudes of individuals toward their own sexuality. One hopes that this important work will inspire more scholarship in these areas.

In sum, Re-thinking Sexualities in Africa makes a much needed critical contribution to existing knowledge and is recommended to all scholars and development workers engaged with issues of gender, sexualities, and development in African contexts.