Kenyan Sexual Politics

[aeichener]

Actually, this could become a series of four or five articles. But... where would it at all be printed? No Kenyan print media of distinction would accept it. Too theoretical *and* too explicit.

And who the fúck (fitting expletive for the topic) would at all read it? Presumably Paddy Ahenda, because he misunderstood the meaning of the title. No, Honourable, we won't be treating your office teagirl... although maybe we should.

But seriously, there would not be an audience; we would have more potential authors than readers. Sigh.

Alexander

[aeichener]

Possible topics (30-seconds brainstorming), feel free to alter or to add:

1. Abortion, reproduction rights, and procreation slavery

2. Transactional sex; sex workers, common hypocrisy, and everyday barters

3. Queerness is Un-African - but post-colonial Christianity isn't?

4. Defilement or sexual development? Another approach to juvenile sexuality

5. Genital mutilation and genital modification - is there light at the end of the tunnel?

6. Sex is more than plugging and unplugging; or: "Bill Clinton was a Kenyan"

7. What is worse than a sexual offender? The Sexual Offences Bill and its many victims

8. "It takes a village to raise a child, but it takes a father not to pay for it." Alimony and child-care obligations revisited

[aeichener]

The notion of sexual violence is visible in many of the above-listed subtopics, not just the Sexual Offences Bill. Still I wonder whether it should be made an article of its own. I come to turn down this idea. Because focussing on sexual violence (especially rape) as an isolated, and luridly appealing "doom-and-gloom" issue of its own, would tend to veil and shadow its intrinsic interwovenness with many of the other sub-issues. For the issues of (individual and structural) violence are present in many of these topics, as an underpinning. Kamau coming home late and drunk, and beating up and raping his wife Wanjiku is not just an indivdual problem of the two spouses; it has a political dimension.

Alexander

[aeichener]

Tolle, lege:

www.africasexuality.org/reportpapers.php

Alexander