Synopses & Reviews
Claims concerning the presence and status of homosexuality in historic African cultures have become central points of contention in debates among contemporary African Americans. Some of those involved in the debate have even asserted that the original languages of Africa contained no words for gay or lesbian, therefore concluding that they did not exist. As the first work of its kind on the subject,
Boy-Wives and Female-Husbands answers an urgent need for accurate, well-researched, and balanced work on African sexuality. It offers perspectives from the fields of anthropology and history, along with extensive evidence from ethnographic and literary sources. The essays explore such topics as woman-woman marriages, early reports of Malagasy "berdaches," male homosexuality in contemporary West Africa, alternative gender identities among the Swahili, the regulation of sexuality in colonial Zimbabwe, and the portrayals of homosexuality in modern African literature. Bound to be an invaluable resource for discussions of traditional and contemporary African cultures,
Boy-Wives and Female-Husbands is a book whose time has clearly come.
Review
“The myth that homosexuality in Africa is nonexistent, incidental, or the result of Western influence is unequivocally refuted in this though-provoking book.” —
Library Journal“Defying the homophobia common in some parts of today's Africa, then, and challenging heterosexual-bound conceptions of parenthood, Murray and Roscoe have given birth to a new area of study...this book is not only an intellectual achievement-it is an act of courage on the part of both editors and contributors.” —International Journal of African Historical Studies
Description
Includes bibliographical references (p. [325]-351) and index.
About the Author
Will Roscoe is most recently the author of
Changing Ones: Third and Fourth Genders in Native North America.
Stephen O. Murray's recent book is American Gay. They both live in San Francisco.
Table of Contents
"A Feeling within Me": Kamau, a twenty-five-year-old Kikuyu / Stephen O. Murray -- Occurrences of contrary-sex among the negro population of Zanzibar (1899) / M. Haberlandt, translated by Brandley Rose -- Mashoga, Mabasha, and Magai: "homosexuality" on the East African Coast / Deborah P. Amory -- A 1958 visit to a Dakar boy brothel / Michael Davidson -- Male lesbians and other queer notions in Huasa / Rudolf P. Gaudio -- West African Homoeroticism: West African men / Nii Ajen -- Homosexuality among the Negroes of Cameroon and a Pangwe Tale (1921,1911) / Gèunter Tessmann, translated by Bradley Rose -- Ganga-Ya-Chibanda (1732) / Jean Baptiste Labat, translated by Will Roscoe -- Same-sex life among a few negro tribes of Angola (1923) / Kurt Falk, translated by Bradley Rose -- Homosexuality among the natives of Southwest Africa (1925-26) / Kurt Falk, translated by Bradley Rose -- "Good God Almighty, what's this!": homosexual "crime" in early colonial Zimbabwe / Marc Epprecht -- "When a woman loves a woman" in Lesotho: Love, sex, and the (Western) construction of homophobia / Kendall -- Sexual politics in contemporary Southern Africa / Stephen O. Murray -- Woman-woman marriage in Africa / Joseph M. Carrier and Stephen O. Murray -- Diversity and identity: the challenge of African homosexulities -- African groups with same-sex patterns -- Organizations of homosexuality and other social structures in sub-Saharan Africa / Stephen O. Murray.