Pub Date : 2020-05-27DOI: 10.1093/obo/9780199846733-0216
A. Mickleburgh
LGBTI embodies diverse life experiences of the groups included, with different levels of knowledge about and understanding of each group contributing to varying degrees of acceptance and inclusion. Notwithstanding these experiences, the anti-gay rhetoric of many African leaders, anti-homosexuality legislation in a number of African countries, and harassment of sexual minorities throughout Africa raise vital issues and important lessons, including ample reasons for optimism. Probing these issues provides important and wide-ranging perspectives on how political and social systems work, including processes, barriers, and opportunities for social change more generally. Numerous accounts of traditional “cultures of discretion” surrounding same-sex practices debunk the myth that homosexuality is a decadent un-African import designed to corrupt African societies. Even though, traditionally, “looking the other way” was widely accepted, it is inadequate in complex contemporary settings. Many scholars argue cogently that it is not homosexuality that is un-African, but homophobia and the rigid dichotomy between what is today regarded as heterosexuality and homosexuality. Some refer to “homophobias” to emphasize the multiple ways in which discrimination, anxiety, and hatred are directed toward sexual minorities. Heterosexuality encompassed a broad range of relationships that flourished in stark contradiction to widely stated claims about homogeneous African heterosexuality. The role of religion in fueling anti-homosexuality rhetoric is also more nuanced than generally portrayed, with numerous examples showing that religion can play positive roles in (re)building Africa as a continent accepting of sexual diversity. Same-sex issues intersect with many matters, including gender, race, and class, creating openings for exploring how, for instance, same-sex marriage advances understandings of changing gender relations, and the price paid by those who do not conform to patriarchal and heteronormative expectations. Literature on activism includes descriptions of how sexual minorities have strategically managed visibility and invisibility to make LGBTI rights intelligible as African rather than foreign, and used other concerns and campaigns to advance their interests. However, enormous challenges remain. For example, South Africa became the first country to enshrine the rights of sexual minorities in its constitution. Yet vicious homophobic hate crimes and persistent heteronormative values and practices in education systems illustrate how same-sex-friendly legislation is necessary but not sufficient. Sexual minorities have been well represented in literature and the arts, often before anti-gay rhetoric appeared. This includes biographies illustrating the great diversity and fluidity of lives, including multiple forms of agency and strategic resistance, and the ways that sexuality and faith have sometimes been reconciled.
{"title":"LGBTI Minorities and Queer Politics in Eastern and Southern Africa","authors":"A. Mickleburgh","doi":"10.1093/obo/9780199846733-0216","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/obo/9780199846733-0216","url":null,"abstract":"LGBTI embodies diverse life experiences of the groups included, with different levels of knowledge about and understanding of each group contributing to varying degrees of acceptance and inclusion. Notwithstanding these experiences, the anti-gay rhetoric of many African leaders, anti-homosexuality legislation in a number of African countries, and harassment of sexual minorities throughout Africa raise vital issues and important lessons, including ample reasons for optimism. Probing these issues provides important and wide-ranging perspectives on how political and social systems work, including processes, barriers, and opportunities for social change more generally. Numerous accounts of traditional “cultures of discretion” surrounding same-sex practices debunk the myth that homosexuality is a decadent un-African import designed to corrupt African societies. Even though, traditionally, “looking the other way” was widely accepted, it is inadequate in complex contemporary settings. Many scholars argue cogently that it is not homosexuality that is un-African, but homophobia and the rigid dichotomy between what is today regarded as heterosexuality and homosexuality. Some refer to “homophobias” to emphasize the multiple ways in which discrimination, anxiety, and hatred are directed toward sexual minorities. Heterosexuality encompassed a broad range of relationships that flourished in stark contradiction to widely stated claims about homogeneous African heterosexuality. The role of religion in fueling anti-homosexuality rhetoric is also more nuanced than generally portrayed, with numerous examples showing that religion can play positive roles in (re)building Africa as a continent accepting of sexual diversity. Same-sex issues intersect with many matters, including gender, race, and class, creating openings for exploring how, for instance, same-sex marriage advances understandings of changing gender relations, and the price paid by those who do not conform to patriarchal and heteronormative expectations. Literature on activism includes descriptions of how sexual minorities have strategically managed visibility and invisibility to make LGBTI rights intelligible as African rather than foreign, and used other concerns and campaigns to advance their interests. However, enormous challenges remain. For example, South Africa became the first country to enshrine the rights of sexual minorities in its constitution. Yet vicious homophobic hate crimes and persistent heteronormative values and practices in education systems illustrate how same-sex-friendly legislation is necessary but not sufficient. Sexual minorities have been well represented in literature and the arts, often before anti-gay rhetoric appeared. This includes biographies illustrating the great diversity and fluidity of lives, including multiple forms of agency and strategic resistance, and the ways that sexuality and faith have sometimes been reconciled.","PeriodicalId":51769,"journal":{"name":"African Studies","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.9,"publicationDate":"2020-05-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44497478","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2020-04-02DOI: 10.1080/00020184.2020.1790851
J. Muckerman, Patrick D Achord, C. Creutz, Dmitry E. Polyansky, E. Fujita
CHEMISTRY Correction for “Calculation of thermodynamic hydricities and the design of hydride donors for CO2 reduction,” by James T. Muckerman, Patrick Achord, Carol Creutz, Dmitry E. Polyansky, and Etsuko Fujita which appeared in issue 39, September 25, 2012, of Proc Natl Acad Sci USA (109:15657–15662; first published July 23, 2012; 10.1073/pnas.1201026109). The authors note that on page 15659, left column, first paragraph, line 9, “−393.3 kcal/mol” should instead appear as “−391.4 kcal/ mol.” Additionally, on page 15659, left column, fourth full paragraph, line 4, “(266.5 kcal/mol)” should instead appear as “(−266.5 kcal/ mol).”Both the online article and print article have been corrected.
James T. Muckerman, Patrick Achord, Carol Creutz, Dmitry E. Polyansky和Etsuko Fujita对“计算热力学水合性和设计用于二氧化碳减排的氢化物供体”的化学修正，发表于2012年9月25日第39期《美国国家科学学报》(109:15657-15662);2012年7月23日首次发表;10.1073 / pnas.1201026109)。作者指出，在第15659页，第一段左栏第9行，“- 393.3 kcal/mol”应该写成“- 391.4 kcal/mol”。此外，在第15659页，第4个完整段落左栏第4行，“(266.5 kcal/mol)”应该写成“(- 266.5 kcal/mol)”。在线文章和印刷版文章都已被更正。
{"title":"Correction","authors":"J. Muckerman, Patrick D Achord, C. Creutz, Dmitry E. Polyansky, E. Fujita","doi":"10.1080/00020184.2020.1790851","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/00020184.2020.1790851","url":null,"abstract":"CHEMISTRY Correction for “Calculation of thermodynamic hydricities and the design of hydride donors for CO2 reduction,” by James T. Muckerman, Patrick Achord, Carol Creutz, Dmitry E. Polyansky, and Etsuko Fujita which appeared in issue 39, September 25, 2012, of Proc Natl Acad Sci USA (109:15657–15662; first published July 23, 2012; 10.1073/pnas.1201026109). The authors note that on page 15659, left column, first paragraph, line 9, “−393.3 kcal/mol” should instead appear as “−391.4 kcal/ mol.” Additionally, on page 15659, left column, fourth full paragraph, line 4, “(266.5 kcal/mol)” should instead appear as “(−266.5 kcal/ mol).”Both the online article and print article have been corrected.","PeriodicalId":51769,"journal":{"name":"African Studies","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.9,"publicationDate":"2020-04-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1080/00020184.2020.1790851","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47140887","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2020-04-02DOI: 10.1080/00020184.2020.1803045
Karin Müller, Yvonne Niekrenz, C. Schmitt, S. Krishnamurthy, Matthias D. Witte
ABSTRACT Metaphors are linguistically dense images that transfer terms from their original usage to a different context and describe actions and objects beyond their literal meaning. This article uses Rudolf Schmitt’s metaphor analysis (2017) to gain insight into the experiences of the so-called GDR children of Namibia. This term refers to a group of approximately 430 people who, as part of a solidarity project between the South West Africa People’s Organisation (SWAPO) and the German Democratic Republic (GDR), were brought to the GDR between 1979 and 1989 to be trained as the elite for a future liberated Namibia. They grew up and attended school in the GDR until they were returned to Namibia in August 1990. Based on narrative interviews, we use metaphor analysis to show how the now-adult ‘GDR children’ experienced their lives between different national contexts. The interviewees talk about their collective education, feelings of heteronomy and the family bond that existed among the children themselves and between the children and their care staff. The metaphors they use underline the uniqueness of their upbringing.
{"title":"An analysis of metaphors in the biographies of the ‘GDR children of Namibia’","authors":"Karin Müller, Yvonne Niekrenz, C. Schmitt, S. Krishnamurthy, Matthias D. Witte","doi":"10.1080/00020184.2020.1803045","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/00020184.2020.1803045","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT Metaphors are linguistically dense images that transfer terms from their original usage to a different context and describe actions and objects beyond their literal meaning. This article uses Rudolf Schmitt’s metaphor analysis (2017) to gain insight into the experiences of the so-called GDR children of Namibia. This term refers to a group of approximately 430 people who, as part of a solidarity project between the South West Africa People’s Organisation (SWAPO) and the German Democratic Republic (GDR), were brought to the GDR between 1979 and 1989 to be trained as the elite for a future liberated Namibia. They grew up and attended school in the GDR until they were returned to Namibia in August 1990. Based on narrative interviews, we use metaphor analysis to show how the now-adult ‘GDR children’ experienced their lives between different national contexts. The interviewees talk about their collective education, feelings of heteronomy and the family bond that existed among the children themselves and between the children and their care staff. The metaphors they use underline the uniqueness of their upbringing.","PeriodicalId":51769,"journal":{"name":"African Studies","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.9,"publicationDate":"2020-04-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1080/00020184.2020.1803045","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44266825","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2020-04-02DOI: 10.1080/00020184.2020.1793662
Horman Chitonge
ABSTRACT Water scarcity has featured prominently in the policy discourses, especially at the United Nations level. This is in response to the growing pressure exerted on water resources by the rising global population against renewable but finite water resources. This challenge is acutely manifested in low income countries in Africa, where the rate at which the urban population is growing has outstripped the capacity of water services providers to accommodate all residents at an adequate and sustainable level. However, the dominant discourse on water scarcity has focused on the deteriorating water availability in the natural environment, paying less attention to other forms of scarcity, particularly the socially induced ones. This article takes a broader approach to the concept of water scarcity to mapout the different orders of water scarcity. By categorising scarcity into four different types (orders), it illustrates that while first order scarcity is a result of natural lack of water, the other three orders of scarcity are human and socially induced. This approach highlights the need for a more nuanced understanding of water scarcity to enable effective planning for water resource use and service management. By highlighting the different dimensions of water scarcity, the article aims to make a contribution to the debates on sustainable management and use of water resources.
{"title":"Urbanisation and the water challenge in Africa: Mapping out orders of water scarcity","authors":"Horman Chitonge","doi":"10.1080/00020184.2020.1793662","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/00020184.2020.1793662","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT Water scarcity has featured prominently in the policy discourses, especially at the United Nations level. This is in response to the growing pressure exerted on water resources by the rising global population against renewable but finite water resources. This challenge is acutely manifested in low income countries in Africa, where the rate at which the urban population is growing has outstripped the capacity of water services providers to accommodate all residents at an adequate and sustainable level. However, the dominant discourse on water scarcity has focused on the deteriorating water availability in the natural environment, paying less attention to other forms of scarcity, particularly the socially induced ones. This article takes a broader approach to the concept of water scarcity to mapout the different orders of water scarcity. By categorising scarcity into four different types (orders), it illustrates that while first order scarcity is a result of natural lack of water, the other three orders of scarcity are human and socially induced. This approach highlights the need for a more nuanced understanding of water scarcity to enable effective planning for water resource use and service management. By highlighting the different dimensions of water scarcity, the article aims to make a contribution to the debates on sustainable management and use of water resources.","PeriodicalId":51769,"journal":{"name":"African Studies","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.9,"publicationDate":"2020-04-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1080/00020184.2020.1793662","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48080789","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2020-04-02DOI: 10.1080/00020184.2020.1803729
C. Baez-Camargo, Paul Bukuluki, Richard F. Sambaiga, Tharcisse Gatwa, Saba Kassa, Cosimo Stahl
ABSTRACT This article presents comparative evidence about the relevance of behavioural drivers in relation to petty corruption in three East African countries. It discusses the potential to incorporate behavioural insights into anti-corruption policy-making. Persistently high levels of bureaucratic corruption prevail in many countries across the African continent. This along with the limited effectiveness of conventional anti-corruption prescriptions call for a contextualised understanding of the multiple factors determining corruption-related decision-making. Adopting a behavioural lens involves accounting for the human factor as it relates to the effects of sociality and social constructs on propensities for corruption. As such, this novel approach complements the literature that has sought to understand corruption on the basis of political, economic, and institutional drivers and constraints. Field research conducted in Tanzania, Uganda and Rwanda found evidence for such behavioural drivers, showing that citizens are swayed by social pressures and beliefs that ultimately spur petty corruption by endorsing associated maladaptive practices. Sustained by social norms of group solidarity and reciprocity and legitimised by commonly shared perceptions of corruption as the norm, the research points to a problematic overlap of the public (formal) and the socio-cultural (informal) spheres. By adding a behavioural dimension to the study of the drivers of corruption, this article seeks to contribute towards the development of more effective anti-corruption policy formulation that acknowledges the pitfalls attached to behavioural factors that conventional anti-corruption prescriptions have largely failed to address.
{"title":"Petty corruption in the public sector: A comparative study of three East African countries through a behavioural lens","authors":"C. Baez-Camargo, Paul Bukuluki, Richard F. Sambaiga, Tharcisse Gatwa, Saba Kassa, Cosimo Stahl","doi":"10.1080/00020184.2020.1803729","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/00020184.2020.1803729","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT This article presents comparative evidence about the relevance of behavioural drivers in relation to petty corruption in three East African countries. It discusses the potential to incorporate behavioural insights into anti-corruption policy-making. Persistently high levels of bureaucratic corruption prevail in many countries across the African continent. This along with the limited effectiveness of conventional anti-corruption prescriptions call for a contextualised understanding of the multiple factors determining corruption-related decision-making. Adopting a behavioural lens involves accounting for the human factor as it relates to the effects of sociality and social constructs on propensities for corruption. As such, this novel approach complements the literature that has sought to understand corruption on the basis of political, economic, and institutional drivers and constraints. Field research conducted in Tanzania, Uganda and Rwanda found evidence for such behavioural drivers, showing that citizens are swayed by social pressures and beliefs that ultimately spur petty corruption by endorsing associated maladaptive practices. Sustained by social norms of group solidarity and reciprocity and legitimised by commonly shared perceptions of corruption as the norm, the research points to a problematic overlap of the public (formal) and the socio-cultural (informal) spheres. By adding a behavioural dimension to the study of the drivers of corruption, this article seeks to contribute towards the development of more effective anti-corruption policy formulation that acknowledges the pitfalls attached to behavioural factors that conventional anti-corruption prescriptions have largely failed to address.","PeriodicalId":51769,"journal":{"name":"African Studies","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.9,"publicationDate":"2020-04-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1080/00020184.2020.1803729","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"42332425","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2020-04-02DOI: 10.1080/00020184.2020.1781594
A. Sarkar
ABSTRACT Women living in low-income areas and informal settlements in the cities regularly have to undergo hardships to access water from overstressed shared water sources in the absence of individual utility piped connections within their premises. Drawing from an ethnographic research in the Mathare slums of Nairobi, this study looks at the ‘daily’ ‘multiple’ and ‘repetitive’ actions that women particularly engage to ‘fetch’, ‘store’ and ‘save’ water for themselves and their families. Besides the woes of finding a running tap and wasting valuable time waiting in the queues, procuring water entails physical hardship that often leads to mental agony that sometimes even threatens the safety and dignity of these women’s lives. Since water supply is frequently interrupted for several days, women struggle to store water, design innovative ways for their families to save water and even cut back on their own water usage at the cost of their health and hygiene to cope with water shortages. Thus, poor urban women experience ‘everyday sufferings from water’ as their everyday choices to access water are restricted by their individual assessment of household water requirements, ownership of assets and their ability to access agencies of power.
{"title":"Everyday practices of poor urban women to access water: Lived realities from a Nairobi slum","authors":"A. Sarkar","doi":"10.1080/00020184.2020.1781594","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/00020184.2020.1781594","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT Women living in low-income areas and informal settlements in the cities regularly have to undergo hardships to access water from overstressed shared water sources in the absence of individual utility piped connections within their premises. Drawing from an ethnographic research in the Mathare slums of Nairobi, this study looks at the ‘daily’ ‘multiple’ and ‘repetitive’ actions that women particularly engage to ‘fetch’, ‘store’ and ‘save’ water for themselves and their families. Besides the woes of finding a running tap and wasting valuable time waiting in the queues, procuring water entails physical hardship that often leads to mental agony that sometimes even threatens the safety and dignity of these women’s lives. Since water supply is frequently interrupted for several days, women struggle to store water, design innovative ways for their families to save water and even cut back on their own water usage at the cost of their health and hygiene to cope with water shortages. Thus, poor urban women experience ‘everyday sufferings from water’ as their everyday choices to access water are restricted by their individual assessment of household water requirements, ownership of assets and their ability to access agencies of power.","PeriodicalId":51769,"journal":{"name":"African Studies","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.9,"publicationDate":"2020-04-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1080/00020184.2020.1781594","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43164921","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2020-04-02DOI: 10.1080/00020184.2020.1806037
L. Cordeiro‐Rodrigues, J. Chimakonam
ABSTRACT Land redistribution in post-apartheid South Africa is a problem that has caused division and violence in the country. Particularly, the dispossession of land suffered by many Africans in South Africa and the failure of land redistribution programmes has led to a variety of protests. In this article, we analyse whether, in light of Nelson Mandela’s thought, these protests are morally justified. The point is not to contend that Mandela’s thought is correct. Instead, it is to understand what the implications of Mandela’s ideas are for the land question in South Africa today. According to Mandela’s political thought, we maintain that some forms of protest could be morally justified even if they involve property violation and symbolic destruction. However, excessively violent and radical protests would not be considered legitimate. The more violent and radical protests violate Mandela’s principles of a gradual increase of violence and of preserving future-friendly race relations. In contrast, some of the property violation and symbolic destruction protests do not disregard these principles.
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Pub Date : 2020-03-25DOI: 10.1093/obo/9780199846733-0215
M. Epprecht
Human sexuality is a highly complex phenomenon that involves the ways we feel, think, and act (or not) sexually, all subject to change over time in relation to our physical bodies as they age, and to the political economy and culture in which we live and relate to others. Nature (genetics, hormones, physical endowments) interacts with nurture (childhood socialization, culture, law) in ways that are not predictable and indeed often only rudimentarily understood. Scholars thus often prefer the term “sexualities” to reflect the contingent and changeable plurality of human sexual behavior, and the ways in which sex is conceived in relation to the wider worlds, seen and unseen. Yet in Africa, political and religious leaders frequently assert or imply that “African sexuality,” as distinct from “Western sexuality” or “Arab sexuality,” exists as a distinctive, timeless, and singular phenomenon, often in ways that promote harmful stereotypes. “Homosexuality is un-African,” to give one notorious example, is a widely made claim that has been made to justify vigilantism and state repression against sexual minorities throughout the continent. Certain features of Africa’s modern political economy, in conjunction with inherited gender, ethnic, and other aspects of culture and identity, have meanwhile facilitated the emergence of seemingly distinctive expressions of sexuality on the continent, or among specific peoples from regions within. For instance, high levels of male migration together with low levels of male circumcision and a long-standing culture of having multiple concurrent sexual partners have combined to abet the spread of HIV in southern Africa to a far greater extent than elsewhere, particularly in contrast to Muslim-majority regions. Such distinctions bear important social, health, and human rights implications. The study of how local or regional sexual cultures within Africa arose can thus potentially address harms, like HIV transmission, that are linked to stigma, stereotypes, secrecy, and shame around sexuality. This essay introduces some of the key issues as revealed through a range of literatures primarily in the social sciences and humanities. The various headings chosen for this article are for convenience only—the works cited in most cases transcend easy categorization, much as sexuality itself transcends neat heuristic borders. Note as well that the number of studies devoted to the topic has exploded since the late 1990s to shed light on an ever-widening circle of factors pertinent to understanding sexualities (alcohol and drug use, pornography, asexuality, cults, and social media, for example). I have included a small number of references to material in French but there are bound to be further rich sources in Arabic, in indigenous African languages, and in other former colonial languages like Portuguese that await future research projects.
{"title":"Sexualities in Africa","authors":"M. Epprecht","doi":"10.1093/obo/9780199846733-0215","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/obo/9780199846733-0215","url":null,"abstract":"Human sexuality is a highly complex phenomenon that involves the ways we feel, think, and act (or not) sexually, all subject to change over time in relation to our physical bodies as they age, and to the political economy and culture in which we live and relate to others. Nature (genetics, hormones, physical endowments) interacts with nurture (childhood socialization, culture, law) in ways that are not predictable and indeed often only rudimentarily understood. Scholars thus often prefer the term “sexualities” to reflect the contingent and changeable plurality of human sexual behavior, and the ways in which sex is conceived in relation to the wider worlds, seen and unseen. Yet in Africa, political and religious leaders frequently assert or imply that “African sexuality,” as distinct from “Western sexuality” or “Arab sexuality,” exists as a distinctive, timeless, and singular phenomenon, often in ways that promote harmful stereotypes. “Homosexuality is un-African,” to give one notorious example, is a widely made claim that has been made to justify vigilantism and state repression against sexual minorities throughout the continent. Certain features of Africa’s modern political economy, in conjunction with inherited gender, ethnic, and other aspects of culture and identity, have meanwhile facilitated the emergence of seemingly distinctive expressions of sexuality on the continent, or among specific peoples from regions within. For instance, high levels of male migration together with low levels of male circumcision and a long-standing culture of having multiple concurrent sexual partners have combined to abet the spread of HIV in southern Africa to a far greater extent than elsewhere, particularly in contrast to Muslim-majority regions. Such distinctions bear important social, health, and human rights implications. The study of how local or regional sexual cultures within Africa arose can thus potentially address harms, like HIV transmission, that are linked to stigma, stereotypes, secrecy, and shame around sexuality. This essay introduces some of the key issues as revealed through a range of literatures primarily in the social sciences and humanities. The various headings chosen for this article are for convenience only—the works cited in most cases transcend easy categorization, much as sexuality itself transcends neat heuristic borders. Note as well that the number of studies devoted to the topic has exploded since the late 1990s to shed light on an ever-widening circle of factors pertinent to understanding sexualities (alcohol and drug use, pornography, asexuality, cults, and social media, for example). I have included a small number of references to material in French but there are bound to be further rich sources in Arabic, in indigenous African languages, and in other former colonial languages like Portuguese that await future research projects.","PeriodicalId":51769,"journal":{"name":"African Studies","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.9,"publicationDate":"2020-03-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"42375377","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2020-02-26DOI: 10.1093/obo/9780199846733-0214
K. Mann, R. Roberts
In all societies, law together with social norms act to maintain the social order by creating rules and expectations about human interactions and exchanges. Changes, however, do occur. Debates about the content and meaning of social norms and about the law, legal statuses, and legal rights and expectations in African societies predated colonialism, were accelerated by the colonial encounter, and persist to this day. The long history of human contact and social and cultural change on the continent introduced new ideas and practices for resolving disputes both between members of different groups and within groups, often yielding forms of legal pluralism. Pluralistic legal thought, institutions, and practices were shaped by the spread of Islam in Africa from the 8th century and the arrival Europeans from the 15th century. Recent research on legal pluralism underscores the need to focus not only on the establishment of formal legal institutions, but also on how litigants used the multiple arenas created by overlapping systems of dispute settlement. The most useful way to think about legal pluralism is as a form of encounter between dynamic, local processes of change in indigenous societies that predated colonial conquest and continued after it and dynamic and changing forms of European colonialism. Identifying African norms, enshrined as custom, and producing customary law were essential strategies of colonial rule based on legal traditions associated with the establishment of protectorates, which separated, in principle, external and internal sovereignties. African customary law constituted a foundation of internal sovereignties associated with various forms of indirect rule. In all cases, however, African customary law was subject to colonial interventions when particular customs were considered detrimental to European assumptions about “civilization” and good governance. Metropolitan legal traditions also influenced the practice of law in colonial societies. It is important to distinguish common law as applied in colonies influenced by British practice and the civil law tradition applied in those influenced by legal systems of continental European colonial powers. South Africa forms an anomaly in that its legal system developed from a Roman-Dutch legal inheritance, a superimposed British colonial practice, and constructed African customs. Although North Africa experienced many of the same pressures from colonialism and decolonization as sub-Saharan Africa, this article does not engage fully with this region. We recognize that this is a significant gap that has colonial and postcolonial geopolitical roots and look forward to future research that better integrates these subregions. The end of colonialism accelerated the processes of legal change as independent nations both incorporated colonial law into their independent judiciaries and revised colonial-era laws to reflect changing regional and international ideas regarding human rights. Significant
{"title":"Law and the Study of Sub-Saharan Africa","authors":"K. Mann, R. Roberts","doi":"10.1093/obo/9780199846733-0214","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/obo/9780199846733-0214","url":null,"abstract":"In all societies, law together with social norms act to maintain the social order by creating rules and expectations about human interactions and exchanges. Changes, however, do occur. Debates about the content and meaning of social norms and about the law, legal statuses, and legal rights and expectations in African societies predated colonialism, were accelerated by the colonial encounter, and persist to this day. The long history of human contact and social and cultural change on the continent introduced new ideas and practices for resolving disputes both between members of different groups and within groups, often yielding forms of legal pluralism. Pluralistic legal thought, institutions, and practices were shaped by the spread of Islam in Africa from the 8th century and the arrival Europeans from the 15th century. Recent research on legal pluralism underscores the need to focus not only on the establishment of formal legal institutions, but also on how litigants used the multiple arenas created by overlapping systems of dispute settlement. The most useful way to think about legal pluralism is as a form of encounter between dynamic, local processes of change in indigenous societies that predated colonial conquest and continued after it and dynamic and changing forms of European colonialism. Identifying African norms, enshrined as custom, and producing customary law were essential strategies of colonial rule based on legal traditions associated with the establishment of protectorates, which separated, in principle, external and internal sovereignties. African customary law constituted a foundation of internal sovereignties associated with various forms of indirect rule. In all cases, however, African customary law was subject to colonial interventions when particular customs were considered detrimental to European assumptions about “civilization” and good governance. Metropolitan legal traditions also influenced the practice of law in colonial societies. It is important to distinguish common law as applied in colonies influenced by British practice and the civil law tradition applied in those influenced by legal systems of continental European colonial powers. South Africa forms an anomaly in that its legal system developed from a Roman-Dutch legal inheritance, a superimposed British colonial practice, and constructed African customs. Although North Africa experienced many of the same pressures from colonialism and decolonization as sub-Saharan Africa, this article does not engage fully with this region. We recognize that this is a significant gap that has colonial and postcolonial geopolitical roots and look forward to future research that better integrates these subregions. The end of colonialism accelerated the processes of legal change as independent nations both incorporated colonial law into their independent judiciaries and revised colonial-era laws to reflect changing regional and international ideas regarding human rights. Significant","PeriodicalId":51769,"journal":{"name":"African Studies","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.9,"publicationDate":"2020-02-26","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"42469737","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2020-01-02DOI: 10.1080/00020184.2020.1747935
K. Varming
ABSTRACT After more than a century of mutually constructed strangerhood, relations between the Somali community and the Kenyan state are strained. Following the concomitant developments of the devolution of power, an influx of refugees and a growing securitisation discourse, Somalis in Kenya today take up an ambiguous position between marginalisation and increasing political and economic visibility (Carrier & Lochery 2013; Scharrer 2018; Weitzberg 2017). Based on eight months of ethnographic fieldwork in Eastleigh, Nairobi, I will show how contemporary narratives of belonging and contribution are being presented by the Somali community on a variety of platforms. I will discuss the role of taxation in historical as well as contemporary claims to recognition and the significance of taking claims to formal Kenyan courts. I argue that these diverse practices all serve to create an urban Somali subjectivity in Kenya, as they seek to constitute Eastleigh as a central urban space from where the Somalis can make claims on the Kenyan state.
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