In researching my book Seeking Sexual Freedom, I was struck by the contrast between the expansive ways our ancestors understood gender, sexuality and intimacy, and the growing restrictions being shaped today by religious fundamentalism, patriarchy and political power.
I think of these restrictions – often described as a “backlash” – as an interruption.
Across the continent, we have centuries of knowledge that speak to fluidity in our gods and goddesses, and to a multiplicity of family structures and ways of being. The current moment – marked by rising homophobia and the rollback of progressive rights across Africa and beyond – sits uneasily against that longer history.
