The spectre of cultural and religious relativism has dogged African women’s rights activists for decades, particularly in the area of sexual and reproductive human rights. In Uganda, such debates and tensions were manifest in the rapid successive passing of the Anti-Homosexuality Act, the Anti-Pornography Act and the HIV Prevention & Control Act. A policy adopted […]
Articles
Religious Leadership and the Re-Politicisation of Gender and Sexuality in Cameroon
This article examines the role of religious actors in the emergence of sexual politics in Cameroon. Apart from arguing that the Catholic Archbishop Victor T. Mbakot, Cardinal Christian W. Tumi, and the private media were the key actors in the public debate of homosexuality, the article argues that their actions created the moral sexual panic […]
African Religions, the Parapolitics of Discretion and Sexual Ambiguity in African Oral Epics1
Does religion and cultural imagination matter in the understanding of the controversy about sexual orientation in Africa today? This contribution articulates the importance of religious beliefs and cultural imagination in documenting not just oppression, but also ambiguous sites for theorising sociopolitical identities in Africa. I explore the idea of ambiguity within African religions and oral […]
Thank You For Making Me Strong: Sexuality, Gender and Environmental Spirituality
The article seeks to situate issues of sexuality and gender orientation in an ecological perspective. It is well known that most plant species are not two-gendered, although a few trees are like the human species: male, female and intersex. Some animal species, such as snails, are fully intersex. Moreover, over 450 animal species have been […]
Unmasking the Colonial Silence: Sexuality in Africa in the Post Colonial Context
This article explores the silence associated with sexuality in Africa. Aside from examining the false premise that homosexuality is un-African and un-Christian, this article argues that sexuality in Africa was not only socially controlled, but also carried socio-ethical and sacred overtones. Against the belief that sexuality in Africa exists in silence, the essay contends that […]