Heterosexual Africa?: The History of an Idea from the Age of Exploration to the Age of AIDS (New African Histories) - Softcover

Epprecht, Marc

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0821417991 ISBN 13: 9780821417997

Publisher: Ohio University Press, 2008

Synopsis

Honorable Mention by the David Easton Award Committee
APSA Finalist for the 2009 Herskovits Award for outstanding scholarly work published on Africa


Heterosexual Africa? The History of an Idea from the Age of Exploration to the Age of AIDS builds from Marc Epprecht’s previous book, Hungochani (which focuses expli citly on same-sex desire in southern Africa) to explore the historical processes by which a singular, heterosexual identity for Africa was constructed―by anthropologists, ethnopsychologists, colonial officials, African elites, and most recently, health care workers seeking to address the HIV/AIDS pandemic. This is an eloquently written, accessible book, based on a rich and diverse range of sources, that will find enthusiastic audiences in classrooms and in the general public.

Epprecht argues that Africans, just like people all over the world, have always had a range of sexualities and sexual identities. Over the course of the last two centuries, however, African societies south of the Sahara have come to be viewed as singularly heterosexual. Epprecht carefully traces the many routes by which this singularity, this heteronormativity, became a dominant culture. A fascinating story that will surely generate lively debate Epprecht makes his project speak to a range of literatures―queer theory, the new imperial history, African social history, queer and women’s studies, and biomedical literature on the HIV/AIDS pandemic. He does this with a light enough hand that his story is not bogged down by endless references to particular debates.

Heterosexual Africa? aims to understand an enduring stereotype about Africa and Africans. It asks how Africa came to be defined as a “homosexual-free zone” during the colonial era, and how this idea not only survived the transition to independence but flourished under conditions of globalization and early panicky responses to HIV/AIDS.

About this title

About the Author:

Marc Epprecht is associate professor in the departments of history and global development studies at Queen’s University. He is the 2006 winner of the Canadian Association of African Studies Joel Gregory Prize for his book Hungochani: The History of a Dissident Sexuality in Southern Africa. In 2009 he won the Desmond Tutu Award for Outstanding Contributions to the Study of Sexuality in Africa.

Review:

“Epprecht’s own interview material and his close reading of a wide range of AIDS literature from across the continent reveals one terrifying fact: researchers have studied HIV/AIDS as a heterosexual disease in Africa because they have been told and have read that there is no homosexuality in Africa.... the assumption that Africa is a continent of heterosexual sex has been deadly for too many people for too long.”
― Bulletin of the History of Medicine

“Epprecht’s argument―that imperialism ultimately brought homophobia to Africa, not an introduction of homosexual acts―has become an important tool for African LGBTI and human rights activists.”
― International Socialist Journal

“Heterosexual Africa? interrogates the silences of anthropologists who have failed to dispel the myths denying that alternative forms of sexual expression among Africans, particularly men’s same-sex relationships, formerly were tolerated in various societies.”
― African Studies Review

“Marc Epprecht boldly challenges a whole series of boundaries and blind spots in the history of African scholarship. This book should make for valuable controversy―both intellectually and politically―in contemporary Africa.”
― T. Dunbar Moodie, Hobart and William Smith Colleges

“This is a ground-breaking survey by an award-winning historian, a work of great significance for anyone interested in the study of sexuality in Africa.... Such work is essential for our understanding not only of African culture but, perhaps more immediately important, for our understanding of how violence, gender discrimination, and anxiety and ignorance about sexuality have impeded treatment of a health crisis of catastrophic and continental magnitude.”
― Anthropos

“(Heterosexual Africa?) is a Kafkaesque labyrinth of the stories of researchers who either ignored evidence of African homosexuality or were blind to it or chose to suppress what they found due to homophobia (their own or that of their peers.”
― The Gay & Lesbian Review

“This outstanding study will attract a significant readership among undergraduate and postgraduate students in the fields of African history, queer theory, anthropology, and postcolonial literature. Scholars and activists working in the field of HIV/AIDS will also be challenged and engaged by this book. I am convinced that Heterosexual Africa? will stimulate debate and inspire a rethinking of methods and models in African social history. It represents a significant, provocative, and at times controversial contribution to the field.”
― Stephanie Newell, University of Sussex

About this edition

• Publisher: Ohio University Press
• Publication date: 2008
• ISBN 10: 0821417991
• ISBN 13: 9780821417997
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 240