Studying at York
Heterosexual Africa? Sexuality, Power, & Politics in Africa since 1900 - HIS00098C
- Department: History
- Module co-ordinator: Dr. Joseph Mujere
- Credit value: 20 credits
- Credit level: C
- Academic year of delivery: 2022-23
Module summary
Homophobia and homophobic rhetoric in many African countries have largely been premised on the faulty argument that homosexuality is a Western phenomenon introduced to Africans during the colonial period. It is against this background that homosexuality is often perceived in some African societies as 'un-African.' Using sexuality as the organizing framework for both historical and contemporary case studies, this course challenges students to critique the political, social, and religious dimensions of African sexualities. In doing so, the course examines the imbrication of sexual and gendered identities, culture and religion as well as human rights. By combining perspectives from history, anthropology, Queer African Studies, cultural studies, and human rights, the course tackles themes such as Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, Intersex, and Asexual (LGBTQIA) people's rights, the role of colonialism, culture and religion in the criminalization of non-normative sexualities in societies, surveillance and violence against sexual minorities, and sexual minorities' experiences of the HIV/AIDS epidemic. The course aims to equip students with knowledge of the everyday struggles of sexual minorities in Sub-Saharan Africa during the colonial and post-colonial period, as well as make students realize that knowledge on and about Africa is often contested. The course will, therefore, enable students to develop writing, analytical and critical thinking skills that they can utilize throughout their academic and professional careers.
Module will run
| Occurrence | Teaching period |
|---|---|
| A | Spring Term 2022-23 |
Module aims
The aims of this module are:
- To give an intensive introduction to an unfamiliar period and/or approach to the study of history;
- To offer experience in the use of primary source materials;
- To develop skills in analysing historiography; and
- To develop core skills such as: bibliographical search techniques; source analysis; essay writing; giving presentations; and, undertaking independent research.
Module learning outcomes
Students who complete this module successfully will:
- Acquire an insight into an unfamiliar period and/or approach to history through intensive study of an aspect of the period and/or an approach to it;
- Gain experience of analysing primary source materials;
- Be able to evaluate an historical explanation;
- Have further developed work undertaken in the Autumn Term lecture courses and skills portfolios, including historical analysis, note-taking, using primary sources, presenting to groups, and leading discussions in seminars;
- Be able to construct a coherent historical argument in oral and written forms
Module content
Teaching Programme:
Teaching will be in weekly 2-hour seminars taught over nine weeks, plus an overview and revision session in Week 2 of Summer Term. Each week students will do reading and preparation in order to be able to contribute to discussion.
Seminar topics are subject to variation, but are likely to include the following:
- Introductory session
- Researching and Theorising African Sexualities
- Culture and sexual diversity in pre-colonial period Africa
- Labour migrancy and homosexuality during the colonial period
- Female same-sex sexuality
- The Black peril and Moral panics in colonial Africa
- Homosexuality and the HIV/AIDS epidemic
- LGBTQIA community and human rights
- Sex, God, and the Body
Indicative assessment
| Task | Length | % of module mark |
|---|---|---|
| Online Exam - 24 hrs (Centrally scheduled) Open Exam - Heterosexual Africa? |
8 hours | 100 |
Special assessment rules
None
Additional assessment information
Formative work:
During the Spring Term students will prepare a presentation in pairs or small groups. Tutors will determine the formative work for the course: all groups will present on a primary source. Formative work will be completed in one or more sessions at the tutor’s discretion.
Summative assessment:
An open exam in the Common Assessment Period, comprising one essay question chosen from five options
Indicative reassessment
| Task | Length | % of module mark |
|---|---|---|
| Online Exam - 24 hrs (Centrally scheduled) Open Exam - Heterosexual Africa? |
8 hours | 100 |
Module feedback
Following their formative assessment task, students will typically receive written feedback that will include comments and a mark within 10 working days of submission.
Work will be returned to students in their discussion groups and may be supplemented by the tutor giving some oral feedback to the whole group. All students are encouraged, if they wish, to discuss the feedback on their procedural work with their tutor (or module convenor) during student hours. For more information, see the Statement on Feedback.
For the summative assessment task, students will receive their provisional mark and written feedback within 20 working days of the submission deadline. The tutor will then be available during student hours for follow-up guidance if required. For more information, see the Statement of Assessment.
Indicative reading
For term time reading, please refer to the module VLE site. Before the course starts, we encourage you to look at the following items of preliminary reading:
Sylvia Tamale, African Sexualities: A Reader (Oxford: Pambazuka Press, 2015)
Sybille Ngo Nyeck & Marc Epprecht, eds., Sexual Diversity in Africa: Politics, Theory, Citizenship. Montreal: McGill-Queen's University Press, 2013.
Lahoucine Ouzgane and Robert Morell, eds., African Masculinities: Men in Africa from the late Nineteenth Century to the Present (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2005)
Sybille Ngo Nyeck, ed., Routledge Handbook of Queer African Studies. New York: Routledge, 2020
Marc Epprecht, Hungochani: The history of a dissident sexuality in Southern Africa (Montreal and Kingston: McGill-Queen’s University press, 2004)
Stephen O. Murray and Will Roscoe (eds.), Boy-wives and Female-husbands: Studies of African Homosexualities (New York: Palgrave, 1998).