BOY-WIVES AND FEMALE HUSBANDS
Studies of African Homosexualities
Edited by Stephen O. Murray and Will Roscoe
ISBN: 0-312-21216-X
Hardback, 358 pages
St. Martin´s Press, 1998
New York, 175 Fifth Av, New York, NY10010

This groundbreaking volume incontrovertibly establishes the wide range of sexual activities pursued among black peoples, and constitutes an appropriately serious engagement with the complexeties of numerous African societies and cultures. The book´s strength derives not just from its comprehensiveness-in terms of both historical depth and geographical scope-but also from the nuanced and expansive way it conceives of sex, gender, and other supposedly ´essential´aspects of human experience. In collecting and contextualising the disparate materials presented here and at the same time offering sophisticated guidelines for how to interpret them, Murray and Roscoe perform an invaluable service for all those interested in understanding human sexuality in its myriad manifestations.

TOMMY BOYS, LESBIAN MEN AND ANCESTRAL WIVES
Female same-sex practices in Africa
Edited by Ruth Morgan and Saskia Wieringa
ISBN: 1-77009-093-2
Paperback, 344 pages
Jacana Media, 2005
www.jacana.co.za

This unique book documents same sexuality in East and southern Africa. Eight of the chapters have been co-authored by women activists spanning six different countries. They have collected personal narratives on a range of issues related to sex and secrecy. This is an incredibly difficult area to research as many African leaders declare it taboo on the basis that these practices are alien to African culture and an import from the depraved west. The book demonstrates that there are silenced, traditional, institutionalised ways in which African women contracted same-sex relations. Second, it proclaims the right of African women engaged in same-sex practices or relations to their identities as Africans, as several interviewees state: we, lesbian women, are born here in Africa, we belong here. Who can say we are un-African? Third it gives a vivid portrait of the lives of African women engaged in same-sex relations and practices, portraying the joys of having found love as well as the pains of betrayal and the hatred encountered in their communities, as well as the many shades of emotions in between. This book eloquently testifies that although silence isolates and protects these women, some are beginning to speak out.

HUNGOCHANI
The History of a Dissident Sexuality in Southern Africa
By Marc Epprecht
ISBN: 0-7735-2751-6
Paperback, 317 pages
McGill-Queen´s University Press, 2004
Montreal & Kingston : London : Ithaca

In a sweeping overview, Epprecht traces the history and traditions of homosexuality among black Africans from the pre-colonial era to the present with focus on Zimbabwe and Southern Africa. Using oral testimony, memoirs, literature, criminal court records, and early government enquiries from the eighteenth century to the present, he explores the complex origins of homophobia. He also examines the emergence of modern gay and lesbian idetities with the introduction of capitalism, colonial rule, and Christian education.
Hungochani brings a new dimension to the broad struggle for human rights and democracy unfolding on the continent and is a valuable  to our understading of global queer cultures.