The Sex Lives Of African Women: Self-Discovery, Freedom and Healing by Nana Darkoa Sekyiamah
Synopsis.
The Sex Lives of African Women uniquely amplifies individual women from across the African continent and its global diaspora, as they speak of their diverse experiences of sex, sexualities and relationships.
Many of the women who tell their stories in this collection recall the journeys they have travelled in order to own their own sexualities. They do this by grappling with experiences of child sexual abuse, resisting the religious edicts of their childhood, and by asserting their sexual power.
From finding queer community in Egypt to living a polyamorous life in Senegal to understanding the intersectionality of religion and pleasure in Cameroon to choosing to leave relationships that no longer serve them, these narratives are as individual and illuminating as the women who share them.
The Sex Lives of African Women provides a deep insight into women’s quest for freedom, highlights the complex tapestry of African women’s sexuality, and bestows upon all women inspirational examples to live a truly liberated life.
The Review
Sex positive and liberating, THE SEX LIVES OF AFRICAN WOMEN is diverse and then some.
An anthology of stories that run a spectrum of identities and orientations. They are beautiful stories of sex and love and relationships ranging from monogamy and polyamory and everything in between.
There are stories of abuse and of the ramifications along those lines. There are stories of kink and experimentation. There are stories of finding what works and doesn’t. But mostly these are stories of how women identify and how their sexual lives are experienced.
There’s a lot about setting sexual boundaries, learning and growing from sexual experiences and relationships and becoming the most whole of a person you can be no matter what your orientation is and no matter who you have sex with.
Very fem. Very informative and inspiring!
Quite the read!
Thanks to Astra Publishing House and Netgalley for the advanced copy!
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
For this title I recommend:
Open Secret
2019 Pinotage from Western Cape, South Africa
Sex and Lies: True Stories of Women’s Intimate Lives in the Arab World by Leila Slimani
1866. In a coastal village in southern England, Nell picks violets for a living. Set apart by her community because of the birthmarks that speckle her skin, Nell’s world is her beloved brother and devotion to the sea.
But when Jasper Jupiter’s Circus of Wonders arrives in the village, Nell is kidnapped. Her father has sold her, promising Jasper Jupiter his very own leopard girl. It is the greatest betrayal of Nell’s life, but as her fame grows, and she finds friendship with the other performers and Jasper’s gentle brother Toby, she begins to wonder if joining the show is the best thing that has ever happened to her.
In London, newspapers describe Nell as the eighth wonder of the world. Figurines are cast in her image, and crowds rush to watch her soar through the air. But who gets to tell Nell’s story? What happens when her fame threatens to eclipse that of the showman who bought her? And as she falls in love with Toby, can he detach himself from his past and the terrible secret that binds him to his brother?
Moving from the pleasure gardens of Victorian London to the battle-scarred plains of the Crimea, Circus of Wonders is an astonishing story about power and ownership, fame and the threat of invisibility.
The Review
CIRCUS OF WONDERS
I’m not sure you’re supposed to feel this passionately about the MC but I think I inadvertently transferred some anger from reading A LITTLE LIFE and it landed at the feet of this one.
I hated the father in the story for who he was and what he did. I hated her brother, who was lost and her handler, who was out for himself despite himself. I hated the main character for becoming what she did.
So much emotion.
And then it kind of fizzled.
Once the story was laid out and the world was built I felt a big drop in presence. I disconnected with the story at some point and all of that hatred and passion from the beginning of the book did not carry the plot.
I feel drawn to stories of the circus for a multitude of reasons but the way the circus is used in this book, as an exploitation of the human predicament, I didn’t enjoy this concept as much as I would’ve liked.
I think this book will appeal to readers looking for a historical fiction story with strained familial dynamics, oddities and spots of intrigue.
For me, ⭐️⭐️⭐️
Thanks to Netgalley and Atria Books for an advanced copy!
