Boy-Wives and Female Husbands

Stephen O. Murray (1950–2019) was an independent scholar who held a PhD in Sociology from the University of Toronto. Will Roscoe is an independent scholar, with a PhD in History of Consciousness from the University of California, Santa Cruz. They are the coeditors of Islamic Homosexualities: Culture, History, and Literature.

• Figures and TablesNew ForewordMarc EpprechtThe Genesis of Boy-Wives and Female HusbandsStephen O. MurrayPreface: "All Very Confusing"Africa and African Homosexualities: An IntroductionPart I: Horn of Africa, Sudan, and East Africa Overview"A Feeling within Me": Kamau, a 25-Year-Old KikuyuStephen O. MurrayOccurrences of Contrary-Sex among the Negro Population of Zanzibar (1899)M. Haberlandt, translated by Bradley RoseMashoga, Mabasha, and Magei: "Homosexuality" on the East African CoastDeborah P. AmoryPart II: West Africa OverviewA 1958 Visit to a Dakar Boy BrothelMichael DavidsonMale Lesbians and Other Queer Notions in HausaRudolf P. GaudioWest African Homoeroticism: West African Men Who Have Sex with MenNii AjenPart III: Central Africa OverviewHomosexuality among the Negroes of Cameroon and a Pangwe Tale (1921, 1911)Günther Tessmann, translated by Bradley RoseGanga-Ya-Chibanda (1687)Giovanni Antonio Cavazzi, translated by Will RoscoeSame-Sex Life among a Few Negro Tribes of Angola (1923)Kurt Falk, translated by Bradley RosePart IV: Southern Africa OverviewHomosexuality among the Natives of Southwest Africa (1925–1926)Kurt Falk, translated by Bradley Rose and Will Roscoe"Good God Almighty, What's This!": Homosexual "Crime" in Early Colonial ZimbabweMarc Epprecht"When a Woman Loves a Woman" in Lesotho: Love, Sex, and the (Western) Construction of HomophobiaKendallSexual Politics in Contemporary Southern AfricaStephen O. MurrayPart V: Conclusions Woman-Woman Marriage in AfricaJoseph M. Carrier and Stephen O. MurrayDiversity and Identity: The Challenge of African HomosexualitiesAppendix 1: African Groups with Same-Sex PatternsAppendix 2: Organizations of Homosexuality and OtherSocial Structures in Sub-Saharan AfricaStephen O. MurrayBibliographyIndex

"Will Roscoe's books have been a great inspiration to me, and a great education as well. Growing up queer in a conservative Christian household in the 1980s and '90s, I came to believe that my love was a sin, punishable by eternal fire. His book Queer Spirits: A Gay Men's Myth Book gave me my first clue as a teenager that my queerness could be beautiful—even spiritual. His book Changing Ones then helped me begin to understand the extent to which queer people of color have been excluded and erased from the 'official' histories we are all taught in school. More recently, in my work as a scholar of Black queer history, I have joyously returned to Boy-Wives and Female Husbands again and again. Each time I learn something new about our African queer ancestors, their lives, their loves, and their forgotten role in the many cosmologies of the mother continent." — Channing Gerard Joseph, University of Southern California