Primitive Normativity: Race, Sexuality, and Temporality in Colonial Kenya

Elizabeth W. Williams explores how British colonial authorities in Kenya used a discourse of "primitive normativity" to justify their control over indigenous populations by suggesting that Africans were too close to nature to develop sexual neuroses and practices. This narrative reinforced ideas about the evolutionary backwardness of African peoples and their inability to govern themselves.

Format: Paperback / softback
Length: 256 pages
Publication date: 12 January 2024
Publisher: Duke University Press

In her groundbreaking work, "Primitive Normativity," Elizabeth W. Williams delves into the intricate history of a narrative that British colonial authorities in Kenya employed to assert their authority over indigenous populations. Through meticulous research, she uncovers a discourse of "primitive normativity," which posited that Africans were inherently too close to nature to experience sexual neuroses and practices such as hysteria, homosexuality, and prostitution, which were supposedly prevalent among Europeans. This narrative served as a means to justify the control and subjugation of African communities.

Primitive normativity presented Kenyan African sexuality as less tainted than that of their colonizers, portraying it as a natural and pure expression of human sexuality. Colonial officials and settlers exploited this narrative to advance the goals of white supremacy. They argued that Africans' sexuality was evidence of their vulnerability and needed protection from the forces of urbanization, Western-style education, and political participation. By perpetuating the notion that Africans were sexually deviant, they sought to perpetuate the belief that they were incapable of governing themselves and required the intervention of colonial powers.

Williams challenges the prevalent notion that Europeans universally viewed Africans as hypersexualized. Instead, she demonstrates how narratives of African sexual normativity reinforced ideas about the evolutionary backwardness of African peoples and their inability to govern themselves. Through her analysis, Williams sheds light on the complex ways in which colonialism shaped perceptions of African sexuality and contributed to the ongoing marginalization and oppression of African communities.

Weight: 384g
Dimension: 152 x 229 x 18 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781478025498