Boy-Wives and Female Husbands: Studies of African Homosexualities

Abstract

Steve Murray first approached me in early 1996 to invite me to participate in the second-ever panel devoted to queer topics at the African Studies Association (Amory 1997, 2017 provide succinct accounts of those early days of organizing).I was a junior lecturer at the University of Zimbabwe at the time, just embarking on this line of research.San Francisco, California, where the panel was being held, seemed like an awfully long way to go, but Steve convinced me.It proved to be a worthwhile investment, to say the least, to establish connections with people at the very beginning of what was to become a vibrant and critically important field of study.It was there that Steve mooted his idea to me for a book that spoke directly to my intentions in the paper I presented-that is, to provide a base of empirical evidence that confounded the emerging political homophobia in Zimbabwe and, subsequently, more widely on the continent; to balance the prevailing dominance of South Africa with material from other regions of Africa; and to challenge the silences and rhetorical claims about female-female sexuality.My eventual chapter in that book Boy-Wives and Female Husbands (BWFH) was my first substantive publication on the topic and helped set me on a most rewarding career path.Steve and I had several small and enjoyable collaborations over the years that followed.I greatly admired