A comprehensive analysis of sexual diversity in Africa from a multidisciplinary perspective;How does one address homophobia without threatening majority rule democracy and freedoms of speech and faith? How does one "Africanize" sexuality research, empirically and theoretically, in an environment that is not necessarily welcoming to African scholars? In Sexual Diversity in Africa, contributors critically engage with current debates about sexuality and gender identity, as well as with contentious issues relating to methodology, epistemology, ethics, and pedagogy. They present a tapestry of issues that testify to the complex nature of sexuality, sexual practices, and gender performance in Africa. Essays examine topics such as the well-established same-sex networks in Accra and Bamako, African "traditions" defined by European observers, and the bizarre mix of faith, pharmaceuticals, and pseudo-science used to "cure" homosexual men. Their evidence also demonstrates the indefensibility of over-simplified constructions of homosexuality versus heterosexuality, modern versus traditional, Africa versus the West, and progress from the African closet towards Western models of out politics, all of which have tainted research on same-sex practices and scientific studies of HIV/AIDS. Asserting that the study of sexuality is intellectually and politically sustainable in Africa, Sexual Diversity in Africa contributes to the theorization of sexualities by presenting a more sensitive and knowledgeable study of African experiences and perspectives. Contributors include Olajide Akanji, Christophe Broqua, Cheryl Cooky, Serena Owusua Dankwa, Shari L. Dworkin, Marc Epprecht, Melissa Hackman, Notisha Massaquoi, Crystal Munthree, Kathleen O'Mara, Stella Nyanzi, S.N.Nyeck, Vasu Reddy, Amanda Lock Swarr, and Lisa Wiebesiek;Human rights challenge in Africa: sexual minority rights and the African charter on human and peoples' rights / Olajide Akanji and Marc Epprecht -- No place like home: African refugees and the emergence of a new queer frame of reference / Notisha Massaquoi -- The making of "African sexuality": early sources, current debates / Marc Epprecht -- Rhetorical analysis of President Jammeh's threats to behead homosexuals in the Gambia / Stella Nyanzi -- Military mutilation: the aversion program in the South African Defence Force in the apartheid era / Vasu Reddy, Lisa Wiebesiek, and Crystal Munthree -- Constructing the "ex-gay" subject: cultural convergences in post-apartheid South Africa / Melissa Hackman -- The (mis)treatment of South African track star Caster Semenya / Shari L. Dworkin, Amanda Lock Swarr, and Cheryl Cooky -- Mobilizing against the invisible: erotic nationalism, mass media, and the "paranoid style" in Cameroon / S.N. Nyeck -- "The one who first says I love you": love, seniority, and relational gender in postcolonial Ghana / Serena Owusua Dankwa -- LGBTI community and citizenship practices in Urban Ghana / Kathleen O'Mara -- Male homosexuality in Bamako: a cross-cultural and cross-historical comparative perspective / Christophe Broqua