Description
Book SynopsisHeterosexual Africa?
Trade 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 *
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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.”
“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 *
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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.”
