Abstract:
Sexuality: An African Perspective. The politics of self and cultural
beliefs is intended to be a response to: 1) strong urges within
the writers to respond, explain, question, and contribute to
an inventory of socio-cultural understandings and
misunderstandings that both African and western
anthropologists may have created, ignored, erred, and I
or
missed; 2) recommendations and insights i;enerated by
research on sexuality in general, and reproductive health and
rights in particular (Abd El-Salaam•2003; Aghacy 2003; Allan
Guttmacher Institute 2003; Ashford 2003; Dialmy 2003;
Lempey et al. 2002; Luke and Kurz 2000; Rao Gupta 2000,
2003; CARE International 2002; Niang 1996; UNIFEM 2001),
and 3) a call to Africans (ourselves) to join the debate on their
social life by engaging in self-critique as products of the
unfolding socio-political history,
There are two main themes throughout the articles. First,
culture manifests itself differently in every ethnic group and
consequently each group has a unique way of understanding
the world (life), divinity, and being human and a different
way of communicating that understanding to each other and
the world. An indigenous African's way of life, forms an
interface with modern ways through the assimilation of
whatever belief system one has adopted and continues to
embrace in the long journey of life. Shared norms and an
underlying belief system also are (re)packaged and/ or
cushioned within global and commercial cultures introduced
and absorbed through schooling and the mass media.
Second, points of view and norms relating to sexual
practices are dynamic and largely influenced by social,
religious, economic, and ,Political changes in diverse ways.
Globalization and foreign cultures" introduced and absorbed
through formal education, religion, and the mass media play
an important role in the construction of sexuality.
Subsequently moving away, conformity, and/ or resistance to
societal norms mold the constructions, understandings and
meanings of sexuality and gender identity, control sexual
practices, create, preserve or erode communities and
subcultures. These reactions also structure social life. As such,
the chapters in this book offer a historical context are
explorative, contemporary, and self-reflective.
This book is designed to contribute to the knowledge base
on sexual norms and practices among Africans with regard
to: lived experiences and the context that enabled certain
defining experiences to emerge; marking of the place of
departure from ( un)justified cultural practices: challenging
and perhaps destroying stereotypical thinking about ethnic
groups as intact units who mass produce and imprint values
and associated practices in a conveyor belt fashion; and
providing the space for critique of taken-for-granted
phenomena.
In
most of the cases, the writers are writing about their
experiences as informed by many "educators"
Ill
the formal
and informal settings. These experiences are in no way
representative of an ei:hnic group's experiences or an African
male or female experience. What is represented here are
meanings and interpretations of multilayered experiences
overt and covert, obvious and not so obvious sent to us from
multiple sources and received and interpreted through
multiple lenses. Gender, social, economic, and political
undercurrents though subtle, powerfully create boundaries
I
limits of how the writers see the world. For example, some of
the authors are privileged women and men who, even though
they were born and raised in rural settings, went to privileged
high schools that opened up a world of educational
opportunities that was closed to most of their counterparts in
the village. The writers could be categorized as belongi?g to
a sub-culture constituted of an amalgamated, hybnd and
contemporary African which is different. The difference spells
their departure from traditions and at the same time subscribes
them to new norms and subsequent practices as this book
highlights. Such a process of social interaction, Bakhtin (in
Iswolsky 1984) argues "leads to the interaction of different
social values ... ", He also argued that though the powerful in
the society would want to force a single discourse (monologic)
as the only wax of understanding the world, the subaltern
often subvert this "monologic closure" (p. 1). Hence the
amalgamated African depicts a subaltern in her/ his cultural
practices, including sexuality.
The writings are reflective because the writers have
engaged their personal histories as a way of developing,
reinforcing, and challenging taken-for-granted viewpoints.
The writing is also direct and provides numerous examples:
individual
critique of lived experiences born out of the
socialization processes that were/ are structured within the
bearings of education, class, religion, ethnic base, and gender;
illustrations of many rituals, phenomena; and socializing
agents and institutions that have influenced the writers
constructs, experiences, and observations with regard to
sexual practices and sexuality in general. The work of
changing the culture of sexual relations relies on (1)
a critical
mass of positive information, positive images around men's
and women's experiences with value based sexual relations,
and (2)
the cross-cultural dimensions relating to sexual
practices-hence a dialogue around the contexts of sexuality
mediated by customary laws, family, religion, media, class,
curiosity, and oh love!
·
This book will make a useful text on society and culture in
general, African studies, anthropology, literature, sociology
at both under graduate and post graduate studies. Those in
development literature, and qualitative research classes will
also find it invaluable.