Boiled down to essentials the problem regarding ‘African sexuality’ from the point of view of Caldwell et al. is that necessary (male) control and regulation of female sexuality is lacking, and that ‘female chastity’ (emblem of civilization) is not held in sufficient regard. From a feminist point of view readings and evaluations will obviously differ: Less male control and regulation of female sexuality seem to indicate more female self-determination, and the central position of ‘female chastity’ is highly questionable, of course. The interesting thing is that the author’s do provide sufficient data to make a reading against the grain possible. In the section of their paper titled ‘Aspects of society influencing sexuality’ (Caldwell et al. 1989:199 ff) they focus on four phenomena, which contribute to the ‘permissiveness’ or ‘sexual networking’—the pivotal issue in their description of ‘African sexuality’. These four phenomena are the following:
— lineage is more important than marriage,
— polygyny emphasizes the mother-children unit,
— separation of the world of women from the world of men,
— sexual transactions.
In the context of Caldweill et al., these characteristics of (some) African societies all contribute to the sad state of affairs with voluptuous sexual networking all over the place and little understanding of the grand importance of female chastity. I shall take a look at them one by one.
Arnfred Page 70 Wednesday, March 3, 2004 2:38 PM