Heterosexual Africa?
Subtitle: the history of an idea from the age of exploration to the age of AIDS
By: Marc Epprecht.
Series: New African histories series
Publisher: Ohio University Press; University of KwaZulu-Natal Press
Published: 2008
Place of publication: Athens
Language: eng
Number of pages: 231
ISBN-13: 9780821417980; 9780821417997
Subjects: Homosexuality -- Africa -- History; Gays -- Africa -- History; AIDS (Disease) -- Africa; HIV infections -- Africa; Africa -- Social life and customs; Africa -- Politics and government
Description: "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 explicitly 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." "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. In telling 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."--BOOK JACKET.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references and index.
Table of contents: title: Introduction; title: The ethnography of African straightness; title: Ethnopsychiatry and the making of gay shaka; title: Slim disease and the science of silence; title: Alternatives and ambiguities : African voices in literature and film.