Seeking Sexual Freedom: African Rites, Rituals, and Sankofa in the Bedroom

A delightful romp exploring African traditions around sexual pleasure, with the personal goal of self-discovery and liberation, by one of Africa’s preeminent feminists.

While working on her first book, The Sex Lives of African Women, acclaimed feminist and activist Nana Darkoa Sekyiamah had access to the wildest dreams and spiciest realities of Black women from around the world. But so often, she noticed that something was holding them back from achieving full liberation and unfettered joy. So, she set out to apply sankofa—which means learning from the past to inform the future—to sexuality and pleasure, reclaiming African traditions in a quest to achieve true freedom.

In Seeking Sexual Freedom, Sekyiamah takes readers across the African continent, from Senegal to Tanzania and beyond, where she meets and trains with gurus, “witches”, and aunties whose job it is to guide girls through puberty rites and later through “marital training.” She discusses practices like beading and pulling, while highlighting the spiritual and gender-fluid nature of African traditional religions. With the “interruption” of colonialism, Sekyiamah explores why we have lost our way, how western patriarchal norms led to our warped ideals of beauty and shame, internalized racism, as well as to state and interpersonal violence. Sankofa, she explains, can help rid us of these obstacles that stand in the way of our sexual liberation. Using practical advice and prompts, Sekyiamah concludes this adventure by giving us the tools we need to establish a more joyful and free sexual practice of our own.

Part travelogue, part manifesto, Seeking Sexual Freedom is the powerful and bold call to pleasure women of all backgrounds need today.