ABSTRACT
This book examines the types, discourse modes, and effects of sex jokes in different African contexts, in a range of different cultural forms, from the internet to music, books, films, advertising, and images, thus filling the existing void in literature on the subject.
Arguing that sex jokes are used to perform a number of functions in African society, the contributors show how they can be used to perpetuate violence against women, construct spaces, resist oppression, create conformity, build affiliations, and subvert morality. They consider jokes from Egypt, Ghana, Nigeria, Kenya, and Zambia in a range of forms including queer sex jokes, rape jokes, performed sex jokes, gendered humour, and resistance sex humour. The book places particular emphasis on the impact of new media platforms and the anonymity they provide.
Providing an important analysis of this tabooed but culturally important facet of everyday life, this book will be of interest to scholars of African culture and society from a range of disciplines, including anthropology, gender studies, literary studies, and sociology.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
part I|62 pages
Sex joke
chapter 3|25 pages
The theatre of jokers
part II|46 pages
African language, folk music, and rhetorical strategies
chapter 4|23 pages
Pudendic cult and public discourse
chapter 5|21 pages
The dynamics of humour in coital imagery
part III|30 pages
Sex joke and the written word
chapter 6|12 pages
Validating the subversive
chapter 7|16 pages
Through the lens of gender
part IV|58 pages
(Cis)gender, ideology, and discourse
chapter 9|22 pages
Sex jokes and ideology
chapter 10|21 pages
Reinforcing gendered scripts
part V|44 pages
Bodies and representations
chapter 11|16 pages
“Ooin, freaky freaky, you are doing well”
part VI|40 pages
Resistance and responses