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Heterosexual Africa? Sexuality, Power, and Politics in Africa since 1900 - HIS00146I

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  • Department: History
  • Credit value: 20 credits
  • Credit level: I
  • Academic year of delivery: 2023-24
    • See module specification for other years: 2024-25

Module summary

Many African societies largely premise homophobic rhetoric on the problematic 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 organising 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 since colonial times as well as making students realize that knowledge on and about Africa is often contested.

Module will run

Occurrence Teaching period
A Semester 1 2023-24

Module aims

The aims of this module are:

  • To provide students with the opportunity to study particular historical topics in depth
  • To develop students’ ability to examine a topic from a range of perspectives and to strengthen their ability to work critically and reflectively with secondary and primary material

Module learning outcomes

Students who complete this module successfully will:

  • Have acquired a deep knowledge of the specific topic studied
  • Have developed their ability to use and synthesise a range of primary and secondary sources
  • Be able to evaluate the arguments that historians have made about the topic studied
  • Have developed their ability to study independently through seminar-based teaching

Module content

Students will attend a 1-hour briefing in week 1. Students will then attend a 1-hour plenary/lecture and a 2-hour seminar in weeks 2-4, 6-8 and 10-11 of semester 1. Weeks 5 & 9 are Reading and Writing Weeks (RAW) during which there are no seminars. Students prepare for and participate in eight 1-hour plenaries/lectures and eight 2-hour seminars in all.

Seminar topics are subject to variation, but are likely to include the following:

  1. Theorising Sexuality in Africa
  2. Oral histories of sexual minorities: South Africa and Zimbabwe
  3. Culture and sexual diversity in pre-colonial Africa
  4. Labour migrancy and homosexuality during the colonial period
  5. Female same-sex sexuality in Africa
  6. The Black peril and moral panics in colonial Africa
  7. Homosexuality and the HIV/AIDS epidemic
  8. Sex, God and the Body

Indicative assessment

Task % of module mark
Essay/coursework 100

Special assessment rules

None

Additional assessment information

For formative assessment, students will complete a referenced 1200 to 1500-word essay relating to the themes and issues of the module. This will be submitted in either the Week 5 or Week 9 RAW week (on the day of the weekly seminar).

For summative assessment, students will complete an Assessed Essay (2000 words, footnoted). This will comprise 100% of the overall module mark.

Summative assessments will be due in the assessment period.

Indicative reassessment

Task % of module mark
Essay/coursework 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 seminars 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 formative work during their tutor’s 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 25 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:

  • Epprecht, M. Heterosexual Africa? The History of an Idea from the Age of Exploration to the Age of Aids. Athens: Ohio University Press, 2008.
  • Nyeck, S.N. & Epprecht, M. (eds.), Sexual Diversity in Africa: Politics, Theory, Citizenship. Montreal: McGill-Queen's University Press, 2013.
  • Tamale, S. African Sexualities: A Reader. Oxford: Pambazuka Press, 2015.


The information on this page is indicative of the module that is currently on offer. The University constantly explores ways to enhance and improve its degree programmes and therefore reserves the right to make variations to the content and method of delivery of modules, and to discontinue modules, if such action is reasonably considered to be necessary. In some instances it may be appropriate for the University to notify and consult with affected students about module changes in accordance with the University's policy on the Approval of Modifications to Existing Taught Programmes of Study.