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Author Dankwa, Serena Owusua, 1975- author.

Title Knowing women : same-sex intimacy, gender, and identity in postcolonial Ghana / Serena Owusua Dankwa, Universität Bern, Switzerland
Published New York : Cambridge University Press, [2021]

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Description 1 online resource (xi, 318 pages) : illustrations
Series African identities: past and present
African identities: past and present.
Summary "Knowing Women is an ethnography on friendship, same-sex desire, and intimacy among urban, working-class women in southern Ghana who engage in erotic relationships with each other. The intersectional analysis of these women's life narratives and world views situates them in relation to contemporary political, economic, and social developments affecting Ghana and other African societies in a postcolonial world. Prominent among these are the anti-gay policies and rhetoric and the pro-gay activism of local and international LGBTIQ advocacy organizations. Paying close attention to the women's own practices of self-reference, S.O. Dankwa refers to them as "knowing women" in a way that both distinguishes them from, and relates them to such categories as lesbian or supi a Ghanaian term for female friend(ship). In so doing it critically refutes both the anti-gay claim that homosexuality is "un-African" and the universalizing claim that queer identity categories exist in and can be translated between all languages and cultures. The book contributes to the burgeoning field of global queer studies in which both women and Africa have been largely underrepresented. In addition to engaging feminist, queer, Africanist and postcolonial theories of gender and sexuality, it responds to anthropological theories of kinship and gift-exchange"-- Provided by publisher
Analysis African studies
LGBT and queer studies
gender studies
feminist theory
social and cultural anthropology
postcolonial studies
Bibliography Includes bibliographical references and index
Notes Online resource; title from PDF title page (Cambridge University Press, viewed April 19, 2021)
Subject Lesbianism -- Ghana -- History
Lesbians -- Ghana -- Social life and customs
Interpersonal relations -- Ghana
Gender identity -- Ghana
Gender identity
Interpersonal relations
Lesbianism
Lesbians -- Social life and customs
Ghana
Genre/Form Open educational resources
History
Form Electronic book
LC no. 2020025741
ISBN 9781108863575
1108863574