Queer Literature from North Africa and the Maghreb: A Reading List
Theoretical and literary works that explore themes of queerness, identity, and resistance within the context of North Africa and the Maghreb.
Exposing the Sexual Hypocrisy of European Colonists
In the early twentieth century, white colonizers’ exploitation of women in West Africa’s Gold Coast stoked anti-colonial politics.
Tanzania in the Cold War Crucible
After the US-Belgian assassination of the Congo’s first Prime Minister, leaders in Tanganyika and Zanzibar worried they would be given the same treatment.
Mussolini’s Colonial Inspiration
In its plans for the conquest of Eastern Europe, the Third Reich looked to the example set in Africa by Fascist Italy.
Women Leaders in Africa: The Case of the Igbo
In the precolonial Igbo states of West Africa, power was often wielded by male chiefs or elders, but women had their own forms of authority as well.
African Swimmers in American Waters
Although most enslaved people worked in the fields, captive workers with strong swimming and diving skills were also exploited by plantation owners.
Gold Weights and Wind Scales in the Asante Empire
The ornamented tools used to ensure fair market transactions also conveyed the stories and values of the Akan peoples.
How Two Kansans Invented the Safari Documentary
Martin and Osa Johnson were celebrities in their day, but their vision of Africa was way out of touch with reality.
George Washington Williams and the Origins of Anti-Imperialism
Initially supportive of Belgian King Leopold II’s claim to have created a “free state” of Congo, Williams changed his mind when he saw the horrors of empire.
The Benin Bronzes and the Cultural History of Museums
What an 1897 exhibition at the British Museum can tell us about how African artworks were perceived in an era of imperialism.