European University Institute Library

When sex threatened the state, illicit sexuality, nationalism, and politics in colonial Nigeria, 1900-1958, Saheed Aderinto

eng

Includes bibliographical references (pages [217]-235) and index

illustrations

index present

non fiction

When sex threatened the state

bibliography

898908825

Saheed Aderinto

illicit sexuality, nationalism, and politics in colonial Nigeria, 1900-1958

British colonizers saw prostitution as a distinctively African form of sexual primitivity and as a problem to be solved as part of the "civilizing mission" they used to morally justify imperialism. Saheed Aderinto details the Nigerian response to imported sexuality laws and the contradictory ways both British and African reformers advocated for prohibition or regulation of prostitution. Tracing the tensions within diverse groups of colonizers and the colonized to highlight their concerns, he reveals how wrangling over prostitution camouflaged the negotiating of separate issues that threatened the social, political, and sexual ideologies of Africans and Europeans alike. The first book-length project on sexuality in early twentieth century Nigeria, 'When sex threatened the state' combines the study of a colonial demimonde with an urban history of Lagos and a look at government policy to provide a cutting-edge reappraisal of the history of Nigerian public life