Lwando Scott: African Masculinities in Sexuality Education

Ataya: HUMA Interdisciplinary Seminar Series

Speaker: Lwando Scott, University of Western Cape

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Bio: Lwando Scott holds a PhD in Sociology, and is currently a Senior Researcher at the Centre for Humanities Research at the University of the Western Cape. Lwando is an interdisciplinary scholar with a focus on gender and sexualities, on how these categories must be linked to ideas of freedom in post-apartheid South Africa. Lwando is interested in the nature of post-apartheid freedom, in thinking with and through the South African Constitution, to upend legacies of slavery, colonialism, and racial domination whose effects extend into the contemporary moment. Lwando’s scholarship is engaged in the complex ways gender and sexuality are omitted in discussions of the legacies of colonialism and apartheid and the impact of this omission on contemporary understanding of these categories. To this end, Lwando has written on the intersections of sexuality, gender, and African cultural practices in post-apartheid South Africa. Lwando has been working on developing the concept of “queering the postcolony” by incorporating and stretching concepts such as sexuality (queerness), gender, and culture within the post-colonial/post-apartheid South African context. Lwando is interested in expansive ideas and practices of freedom that go beyond normative, nationalist and racialised boundaries. Lwando's work echoes the call issued by Fahmida Riaz in her epic poem, "come let us create a new lexicon."

Topic: A sexuality education without a considered masculinities engagement cannot grasp the composite ways that inform men’s feelings, decisions, and thoughts about sex and sexualities. In its development masculinities studies has been preoccupied with how masculinities are made, remade, and sustained over periods of time. What are the historical processes involved in the changing nature of masculinities? The focus on masculinities has enabled us to question taken-for-granted assumptions of what it means to be an African, and also inhabit a masculine identity. A comprehensive sexuality education should include a focus on African masculinities as part of the spectrum of sexuality education. Young people growing up in African contexts need to be equipped with historical knowledge of the making of their identities in order to make sense of themselves.

How Ataya works: One presenter and their work – in exchange with the audience. Each Ataya session engages with selected work by the presenter (a text, artwork, performance, even food). The presenter introduces their work and grounds the subsequent discussion with the participants. For best engagement, we recommend participants to view the work (made available in advance on our website) before the session.