Decolonising education on adolescent sexuality: critiquing human rights sex education as a continued colonial imposition in Africa

Abstract

Contemporary sexual ideologies that inform our knowledge about men's, women's, and queer sexuality in most parts of Africa are products of foreign imperial and missionary expansion across our continent. The cultural invasion of Africa resulted in the silencing of Africans' authentic identification and practices in various socio-cultural aspects, including their sexualities. Thus, the disposition of gender and sexuality education in contemporary African societies is a legacy of a colonial past that enforced the reconstruction of cultural values and knowledge systems on account of European standards and practices. Consequently, this created a society that is exposed to knowledge systems and practices such as gender and sexual ideologies that have limited exposure to indigenous culture and practice. The purpose of this paper is to explore the impact of dominant and normative ideologies on shaping sexuality in Africa, embedded within approaches such as comprehensive sexuality education and human rights framings. The paper is qualitative in nature which includes scoping literature for review based on key concepts informed by the purpose of the paper. In addition, the paper was guided by themes emerging in the literature reviewed. Content analysis was used to compare the quality of the discussion of literature in the various papers that formed part of this paper. Based on the findings, we suggest excavating some of the principles that have framed sexuality and educational practices that are part of indigenous African cultures.