Since the turn of the millennium, in Ghana and in other African countries, there has been a vociferous debate over the history and present condition of the family. The debate has largely fragmented the Ghanaian constituency into two nearly intransigent camps: those who think the indigenous family system should experience cultural osmosis to accommodate the seismic Western cultural revolutions and the overwhelming religious constituency who advocate the retention of conservative family system. This book is a contribution to the debate. Written by an African Studies academic, it seeks to use the resources of both the social sciences and religion to assess the merits of the various parties to the debate. The author believes in the legitimacy of the traditional family system as conditio sine qua non for preserving human civilization. Nevertheless, the goal of this book is not to further polarize the Ghanaian front, but build bridges, by inviting the various parties to the debate to walk the complex pathways of exercising compassion without compromising the values that support human flourishing. Charles Prempeh is a Research Fellow at the Centre for Cultural and African Studies, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Kumasi-Ghana.

Since the turn of the millennium, in Ghana and in other African countries, there has been a vociferous debate over the history and present condition of the family. The debate has largely fragmented the Ghanaian constituency into two nearly intransigent camps: those who think the indigenous family system should experience cultural osmosis to accommodate the seismic Western cultural revolutions and the overwhelming religious constituency who advocate the retention of conservative family system. This book is a contribution to the debate. Written by an African Studies academic, it seeks to use the resources of both the social sciences and religion to assess the merits of the various parties to the debate. The author believes in the legitimacy of the traditional family system as conditio sine qua non for preserving human civilization. Nevertheless, the goal of this book is not to further polarize the Ghanaian front, but build bridges, by inviting the various parties to the debate to walk the complex pathways of exercising compassion without compromising the values that support human flourishing.

Knowing Women is a study of same-sex desire in West Africa, which explores the lives and friendships of working-class women in southern Ghana who are intimately involved with each other. Based on in-depth research of the life histories of women in the region, Serena O. Dankwa highlights the vibrancy of everyday same-sex intimacies that have not been captured in a globally pervasive language of sexual identity. Paying close attention to the women's practices of self-reference, Dankwa refers to them as 'knowing women' in a way that both distinguishes them from, and relates them to categories such as lesbian or supi, a Ghanaian term for female friend. In doing so, this study is not only a significant contribution to the field of global queer studies in which both women and Africa have been underrepresented, but a starting point to further theorize the relation between gender, kinship, and sexuality that is key to queer, feminist, and postcolonial theories. This title is also available as Open Access on Cambridge Core.

This book presents a new approach to the understanding of non-normative sexuality and gender transgressive modes in South Asia and South Asian diaspora. It reconceives sexual representation from the point of view of the theoretical, political and empirical trajectories of decolonization, provincialization and neoliberalism to look at the role of historical contingency, postcolonial sexual politics and gender and sexual diversity. The volume brings together anthropological, historical, material and political analyses around South Asian sexual politics by exploring a range of themes, including culture, class, ethnicity, identity, intersectionality, migration, borders, diaspora, modernity and cosmopolitanism across various local, regional and global contexts. By using southern/non-Western and subaltern theorizations of gender and sexuality, the book discusses South Asian sexualities through issues such as the sexual politics of indeterminacy; sexual subculture, iconography and political decision-making; religious identity; queer South Asian diaspora; decolonizing the postcolonial body; sexual politics, gender and feminist debates; discrimination, and socio-political violence; the political economy of empowerment; and critical appropriation of the 377 Indian Penal Code. It also builds forms of dialogues to bridge the gap between academic and development practitioners. With diverse case studies and a fresh theoretical framework, this book will be an essential read for scholars and researchers of South Asian studies, gender studies, sexuality studies, sociology and social anthropology, political studies, diaspora studies, postcolonial and global south studies.

Gender and Sexuality in Ghanaian Societies explores cultural dynamics embedded in the interstices of agency, vulnerability, and power within patriarchal structures that seek to regulate the sexual lives of women in Ghana. Emphasizing the centrality of gender as a motive force for sexual expression, the book stresses that contemporary Ghanaian women's sexual expressions are caught at the intersection of traditional gender expectations of heteronormativity and women’s perceptions of how heteronormativity should operate in their lives. The book's emphasis on women's agency is significant because it highlights a flaw in earlier, Western accounts of African women's lives under Africa's special brand of patriarchy that held women in total subjection to men. Gender and Sexuality debunks that trope and presents Ghanaian women's dynamism, resilience, and vulnerabilities embedded in the diverse cultures in which they live.

Even as African states are currently legislating against homosexuality in order to protect their societies, there are some emergent Eurocentric discourses seeking to legalize bestiality involving sex between humans and nonhuman animals. Indeed, binaries between humans and nonhumans are being challenged, and speciesism is being deconstructed to pave the way for interspecies sex. Critically interrogating these dissident and subversive sexualities in novel ways, this book also deals with emergent humanoid sex robots which are challenging human marriages and families, by replacing human spouses. The book is relevant to anthropologists, sociologists, lawyers, legislators, politicians, theologians, historians, philosophers and educators. "Huge commendations are due for the gargantuan work done on this book which speaks to the past, present and future of African sexualities. These are revolutionary thoughts that change the traditional Western scholarship landscape in the field of sexualities. The book inculcates and imparts African people-centred strategic architectural futuristic flavor for building Africa's competitive positioning in the discourses on sexualities for the centuries ahead. Indeed, it is commendable and deserves an award for revitalizing Africanity and Africanism renaissance. I am sure this book is going to stimulate broad discussions from Africa and the rest of the world which have sadly been fed with Eurocentric single stories on African sexualities." Professor Eginald P. Mihanjo, Saint Augustine University of Tanzania "This is a must-read book. It grapples with the important question: 'Why the West would want to decolonize only by 'returning' homosexuality to Africans and not by returning African land, artefacts, skulls and skeletons?' The book challenges the systemic humanophobic mission, orchestrated by neo- capitalists in the Euro-American world and their allies in Africa. Until we hold together the ethical and ontological boundaries of marriage as a divine-cultural mandate, secured in its sociogenic logicality, all the debates about decolonization will not save us from the ultimate crime of promoting ontological disorderliness." Charles Prempeh, PhD (Cantab), Research Fellow, Centre for Cultural and African Studies, Kumasi, Ghana, and author of Gender, Sexuality and Decolonisation in Postcolonial Ghana: A Socio-Philosophical Engagement