This collection comprises a diverse and stimulating collection of essays on questions of gender and sexualities, crafted by both established and younger researchers. The collection includes fascinating insights into topics as varied as the popularity of thong underwear in urban Kenya, the complexity of Tanzanian youth’s negotiation of HIV-cultures, the dialogues between religion and controversial questions in sexualities activism, and the meaning of living as a Zimbabwean girl, who became HIV-positive because her mother had no access to antiretroviral drugs during pregnancy. Some pieces deepen contemporary debates, others initiate new questions. The collection seeks to sustain and invigorate research, policy-making and continentaly-focused thought on difficult, yet compelling, realities.

This collection comprises a diverse and stimulating collection of essays on questions of gender and sexualities, crafted by both established and younger researchers. The collection includes fascinating insights into topics as varied as the popularity of thong underwear in urban Kenya, the complexity of Tanzanian youths negotiation of HIV-cultures, the dialogues between religion and controversial questions in sexualities activism, and the meaning of living as a Zimbabwean girl, who became HIV-positive because her mother had no access to antiretroviral drugs during pregnancy. Some pieces deepen contemporary debates, others initiate new questions. The collection seeks to sustain and invigorate research, policy-making and continentally-focused thought on difficult, yet compelling, realities.

This book is a collection of significant analytical and critical writings on how the structures of power have exerted systematic governance over women. Women, Gender, and Sexualities in Africa also addresses how the rhetorical devices of tradition and modernity have played important roles in the control and appropriation of African women's bodies. The chapters draw on history, literature, political science, journalism, sociology, comparative studies, and women and gender studies to offer multidisciplinary perspectives from which to understand the diversity of women's experiences, gender issues, and sexualities as they intersect with class, race, ethnicity, and nationality. This volume not only shows how the macro-narratives of colonialism and post-colonialism provide frameworks for understanding the micro-narratives of empowerment and disempowerment of women, but also considers resistance strategies women have used to guard against the subjugation of their bodies and sexualities. Themes covered include constructions of African motherhood and womanhood, femininity and health, gender and sexual representations and contestations, and gendered nationalism and culture. Women, Gender, and Sexualities in Africa is not only an important sourcebook, but it also speaks to a broad spectrum of readers from a multidisciplinary perspective. This book is part of the African World Series, edited by Toyin Falola, Jacob and Frances Sanger Mossiker Chair in the Humanities, University of Texas at Austin. "This will be a welcome addition in any library, as the essays can be used in a broad range of courses (such as gender studies, history, anthropology, literature, art, public health, even political science and development studies) ... Highly recommended." -- CHOICE Magazine "Overall, the book brings together a very good selection of academic articles that, starting from the introduction, carefully and in detail analyze the topic of sexuality in its various aspects, without avoiding uncomfortable subjects at all, and with sound referencing and support materials, each of them with clarifying notes and the appropriate, up-to-date bibliography on the issue, so that readers who want to increase their knowledge of specific points can do so."--Mar Rodríguez Vázquez, Cuttington University, African Studies Quarterly

A groundbreaking book, accessible but scholarly, by African activists. It uses research, life stories, and artistic expression--including essays, case studies, poetry, news clips, songs, fiction, memoirs, letters, interviews, short film scripts, and photographs--to examine dominant and deviant sexualities and investigate the intersections between sex, power, masculinities, and femininities. It also opens a space, particularly for young people, to think about African sexualities in different ways.

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.

The book focuses on the ways in which gendered and sexualised systems of power are produced in educational settings that are framed by broader social and cultural processes, both of which shape and are shaped by children and young people as they interact with each other. All these nuanced features of gender and sexuality are vital if we are to understand inequalities and violence, and fundamental to our three-ply yarn approach in this book. Focusing on the South African context, but with international relevance, the authors adopt the metaphor of the three-ply yarn (Jordan-Young, 2010): these being the cross-cutting themes of gender, sexuality and violence. Subsequently, the book illustrates the intimate ties that bind gender and sexuality with the social and cultural dimensions of violence, as experienced in educational settings.

This book provides a timely contribution to the field of gender and development in the face of the looming failure of international development targets, the deepening HIV/AIDS pandemic and the increased incidence of civil conflict in Sub-Saharan Africa.