Description
Book SynopsisThis social history of twentieth-century Black intimacy and family life in South Africa is the first book to demonstrate the singular role of Christianity in reshaping sexual and marital traditions. It is a must-read for scholars interested in the politics of gender, sexuality, and family in South Africa, as well as for historians of Christianity.
Trade ReviewRecommended. * Choice *
“This is a provocative recasting of fundamental topics in southern African historiography: love, marriage, religion, gender. Natasha Erlank argues that the major force restructuring southern Africans‘ intimate lives was Christianity, not migrant labor. A masterful analysis of how religion shaped all aspects of Southern Africans’ public and private lives in the twentieth century.” -- Joel Cabrita, author of The People’s Zion: Southern Africa, the United States, and a Transatlantic Faith-Healing Movement
“Filled with memorable characters and riveting narratives, this book admirably captures the tangle of Christianity, gender and tradition. With an astute eye, Natasha Erlank elucidates the fine-grained intricacies of love, courtship, marriage, and sexuality through deeply researched and richly detailed thematic case studies—an essential contribution to feminist histories of Christianity in Africa.” -- Isabel Hofmeyr, professor emerita, University of the Witwatersrand, and Global Distinguished Professor, New York University
“Convening Black Intimacy skillfully situates Christian belief as pivotal to gender and sexual transformations in twentieth-century South Africa. By exploring both conservative and emancipatory strains of Christian thought and practice, Natasha Erlank powerfully reveals African intellectual debates and intimate relations as deeply intertwined domains. This is an important contribution to African intellectual history and gender history.” -- Lynn M. Thomas, author of Beneath the Surface: A Transnational History of Skin Lighteners and Politics of the Womb: Women, Reproduction, and the State in Kenya
