Sex Lives of African Women and Raising a Body-Positive Daughter with Nana Darkoa Sekyiamah
In this episode, Hannah is joined by Nana Darkoa Sekyiamah, who is the author of Sex Lives of African Women and the co-founder of Adventures from the Bedrooms of African Women. Nana discusses the breadth of sexual identities and experiences across Africa, and how her book is challenging narrow stereotypes of African women. Nan and Hannah chat about how African women often feel pigeonholed into conversations that don’t represent their personal female sexual pleasure, how the book offers new perspectives on polygamy, and why Nana wanted to put these stories about African women and sex into the world. Finally, Nana speaks about her own journey with sexuality and pleasure as a queer woman as well as raising a body positive daughter and the importance of communal parenting.
CW: mentions of miscarriage and FGM
Read the episode transcript here!
QUESTIONS FROM LISTENERS
Do you have any advice for women of colour in general for feeling beautiful? I compare myself to white women.
In what ways was the sex life of African women influenced by white supremacy and colonialism?
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MORE ABOUT NANA DARKOA SEKYIAMAH
Nana Darkoa Sekyiamah is the author of The Sex Lives of African Women, which Publishers Weekly described as “an astonishing report on the quest for sexual liberation” in their starred review. It was also listed by The Economist as a best book of the year. She is also co-founder of Adventures from the Bedrooms of African Women, a website, podcast and festival that publishes and creates content that tells stories of African women’s experiences around sex, sexualities, and pleasure.
Nana Darkoa Sekyiamah is the author of The Sex Lives of African Women, which Publishers Weekly described as “an astonishing report on the quest for sexual liberation” in their starred review. It was also listed by The Economist as a best book of the year. She is also co-founder of Adventures from the Bedrooms of African Women, a website, podcast and festival that publishes and creates content that tells stories of African women’s experiences around sex, sexualities, and pleasure.
Nana is also a communications strategist who has over fifteen years experience of developing and delivering strategic communications programmes across media, public sector and non-governmental organisations. She has a deep understanding of digital technologies for feminist activism, and is widely recognised as a key African feminist working at the intersections of gender, sexualities and technologies. The impact of Nana Darkoa’s work has been documented by CNN in a film titled, Not Yet Satisfied.
Nana Darkoa’s opinion editorials and articles have been published by The Guardian, open Democracy and Essence. She has contributed to anthologies such as Feminist Parenting: Perspectives from Africa and Beyond as well as The Routledge Handbook of Queer Africa Studies. Her short stories have been published in It Wasn’t Exactly Love and The Pot and Other Stories. In 2016, she won a prestigious Hedgebrook fellowship.
Nana Darkoa is a sought-after facilitator, speaker, and commentator. She has been a guest on several international media programs including being interviewed by Christiane Amanpour for CNN, The Forum, and National Public Radio.
She holds a BSc (Hons) in Communications and Cultural Studies from the University of North London (now London Metropolitan University), and a MSc in Gender and Development from the London School of Economics and Political Science. She is also a trained performance coach, and leadership trainer. Nana lives in Accra, Ghana with her daughter Asantewaa, and her dog Romeo.
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