Nana Darkoa Sekyiamah is the author of the new book Seeking Sexual Freedom: African Rites, Rituals, and Sankofa in the Bedroom. She also has written the book The Sex Lives of African Women. She is the cofounder of the podcast and blog Adventures from the Bedrooms of African Women.
Q: What inspired you to write Seeking Sexual Freedom?
A: The easy answer is I wrote this book because I am seeking sexual freedom. All my books are very much inspired by questions I am seeking to answer in my own life.
I am on a life long journey of learning about sex, and sexualities, and my first book, The Sex Lives of African Women, introduced me to women who were living incredibly free sexual lives.
I wanted to learn how I too could be sexually free, and then I realised that the roots of freedom lie in our past - in what those who came before us did - and so I decided to use the concept of “Sankofa,” which literally translates as “Go back and take it,” to research traditional African rites, and rituals to uncover those elements that could help women and people of all backgrounds find freedom in the here and now.
Q: How did you research the book, and what did you learn that especially surprised you?
A: Part of what I am learning - two books in - is that interviewing people, women in particular, is my favourite research methodology, and so I travelled across the African continent speaking to various women whom I consider custodians of indigenous knowledge.
I also went back and re-read various texts by African feminist scholars like Dr. Sylvia Tamale and Nziru Nkegwu whose knowledge has been a source of inspiration for years.
Part of what I learnt that pleased me greatly - I wouldn’t say it surprised me - is how so many traditional rites and rituals in Africa continue to flourish in spite of how demonised they have been by colonisation and racism.
The Krobo Odumase in Ghana where I am from still practice Dipu. In Benin, another country I visited, Vodoun thrives and is a nationally recognised religion. In Senegal communities still hold Xarxars, a space where sexuality is chanted about in ways that could be considered “obscene” to the westernised ear.
Q: How would you define the concept of “Sankofa” as it relates to the themes of the book?
A: As it relates to the book, “Sankofa” encourages us all to look back at our own indigenous rites and rituals, as well as the practices of our ancestors, discard those elements that no longer serve us, and reclaim those positive aspects that we can build on to experience freedom in the here and now.
Q: What do you hope readers take away from the book?
A: I hope readers are inspired to create new rituals of pleasure in their lives today. I hope readers are inspired to research their own ancestral ways of knowing and being, and take strength from knowing the radical ways in which those who came before created intentional space to share knowledge across generations.
Q: What are you working on now?
A: Too many things as usual :) I recently launched a new Substack, African Pleasure Fairy Godmother, I am working with an amazing group of African feminists to organise a festival on pleasure at the end of the year in Benin, and I continue to do research through the Institute of Journalism and Social Change (IJSC), as well as running my communications company MAKEDA PR.
Q: Anything else we should know?
A: I think you know all the key things for now :)
--Interview with Deborah Kalb
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