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    Heterosexual Africa?: The History of an Idea from the Age of Exploration to the Age of AIDS
    Unavailable
    Heterosexual Africa?: The History of an Idea from the Age of Exploration to the Age of AIDS
    Unavailable
    Heterosexual Africa?: The History of an Idea from the Age of Exploration to the Age of AIDS
    Ebook408 pages8 hours

    Heterosexual Africa?: The History of an Idea from the Age of Exploration to the Age of AIDS

    By Marc Epprecht

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    About this ebook

    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. This is an eloquently written, accessible book, based on a rich and diverse range of sources, that will find enthusiastic audiences in classrooms and in the general public.

    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. He does this with a light enough hand that his story is not bogged down by endless references to particular debates.

    Heterosexual Africa? aims to understand an enduring stereotype about Africa and Africans. It asks how Africa came to be defined as a “homosexual-free zone” during the colonial era, and how this idea not only survived the transition to independence but flourished under conditions of globalization and early panicky responses to HIV/AIDS.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherOhio University Press
    Release dateAug 15, 2008
    ISBN9780821442982
    Unavailable
    Heterosexual Africa?: The History of an Idea from the Age of Exploration to the Age of AIDS
    Author

    Marc Epprecht

    Marc Epprecht is a professor in the Department of Global Development Studies at Queen's University, Canada. He has consulted and published extensively on the history of gender and sexuality in Africa, including Hungochani: The History of a Dissident Sexuality in Southern Africa (winner of the 2006 Joel Gregory Prize from the Canadian Association of African Studies) and Heterosexual Africa? The History of an Idea from the Age of Exploration to the Age of AIDS (finalist for the 2009 Mel Herskovits prize from the African Studies Association). He recently received the Desmond Tutu Award for Outstanding Contributions to the Study of Sexuality in Africa from the International Resource Network-Africa. Marc holds his PhD in history from Dalhousie University, and has also taught at the University of Zimbabwe.

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