WHEN RAPE GOES UNNAMEDGay Malawian Men’s Responses to Unwantedand Non-consensual Sex

Ashley Currier and Rashida A. Manuel

5 Abstract Marshalling research about male rape and unwanted sex in contemporary African

contexts, this article explores how cultural definitions of sex and sexuality affect African sexual

minority men’s perceptions of rape, non-consensual sex and unwanted sex in Malawi,

a country in which same-sex sexual practices are stigmatised and punished. We analyze two

divergent accounts of unwanted sex offered by two gay Malawian men the first author10 interviewed in 2012. Feminist and queer theoretical insights about representing the agency of

African gender and sexual minorities guide our inquiry. Our analysis shows how activistsocialisation can intervene in and reshape how African sexual minority men perceive and

name unwanted and/or coercive sex.15

Introduction AQ1 AQ2

Investigating cases of unwanted sex among vulnerable and marginalised popula-tions, such as gender and sexual minorities, is complicated. There is substantial risk in onlytreating these populations as victims, which denies group members agency (Tamale 2011).

20 Writing about her experiences researching black South African lesbian women, Matebeni(2008, 89) notes that research and news articles portray black lesbians primarily as ‘victimsof violence’, a limiting, externally imposed representation of African lesbians’ diverseexperiences. Accounting for the lives, interests, relationships and aspirations of Africangender and sexual minorities challenges racist representations of African sexualities

25 (Hames 2011). These representations derive in part from European colonialists’ racist urgeto control African bodies and from the perpetuation of myths about the purportedlyunruly sexual desires of African women and men (Arnfred 2004; Tamale 2011).Contemporary scrutiny extends the reach of these myths, rendering the sexual desires,behaviours and identities of African women, men and gender-variant persons as

30 hypervisible objects of fascination to observers. The homophobic and transphobicviolence some African gender and sexual minorities face exacerbates their objectificationby bystanders. This objectification is evident in Western representations that depict Africangender and sexual dissidents as living in desperate circumstances, hemmed in byoverwhelming homophobia; these depictions overlook anti-homophobic resistance in

35 different African contexts (Currier 2011, 2012; Nyong’o 2012).Focusing exclusively on the sexual victimisation of African gender and sexual

minorities is problematic, for it emphasises individuals’ suffering and forgoes seriousengagement with their social, cultural and political contributions and aspirations. How can

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Australian Feminist Studies, 2014Vol. 00, No. 00, 1–17, http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/08164649.2014.959242© 2014 Taylor & Francis

feminist and queer scholars and activists probe African gender and sexual minorities’40 experiences with rape and unwanted sex with ethical sensitivity? Two principles can guide

such an inquiry. First, it is important to remember that avoiding analyses of African genderand sexual minorities’ experiences with unwanted sex generates other quandaries.Ignoring their narratives occludes recognising rape and unwanted sex as perniciousproblems for gender and sexual minorities, theorising gender and sexual minorities’

45 perceptions of rape and unwanted sex and devising strategies to understand andeliminate rape and unwanted sex in social, cultural and political structures. Second,probing African gender and sexual minorities’ narratives of rape and unwanted sex differsfrom treating and portraying them as perpetual rape victims. Activists and scholars canapproach gender and sexual minorities’ narratives of unwanted sex without classifying or

50 regarding individuals as victims.In this article, we examine two gay men’s narratives of rape and unwanted sex

during a period of ‘political homophobia’ in Malawi. ‘Political homophobia’ refers topolitical, religious and traditional leaders’ public derogation of gender and sexualdissidence (Currier 2010). After the arrest of Tiwonge Chimbalanga, a transgender woman,

55 and Steven Monjeza, a cisgender man, in December 2009 on suspicion of committingsodomy, politicians derided same-sex sexualities and threatened to punish gender andsexual dissidents in Malawi (Chanika, Lwanda, and Muula 2013; McKay 2013). While theconvictions of Chimbalanga and Monjeza in May 2010 frightened gender and sexualminorities in Malawi, lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) rights advocates

60 continued working within and outside of Malawi (Mwakasungula 2013). Nine days aftertheir convictions, President Bingu wa Mutharika pardoned Chimbalanga and Monjezafollowing the advice of United Nations Secretary Gender Ban Ki-moon who was visitingMalawi at the time (Mlenga 2012). The pardon did not soften the government’s antigayposition. For instance, Mutharika railed against Great Britain, when Prime Minister David

65 Cameron warned him in 2011 that persecuting sexual minorities would result in halteddonor assistance (Nyasa Times 2011). Rejecting gay rights as a condition of donor funding,Patricia Kaliati, the minister of information, stated:

Malawi cannot be made to their tune. …We are poor yes, but this is very sad that[Great Britain] should use our economic status to force us to do what we do not

70 want as a country. Tell them we wish them all the best with their wealth.(Lupick 2011)

Lawmakers modified anti-sodomy legislation so that it criminalised sex between women(Resnick 2013).

The sudden passing of Mutharika and accession of Joyce Banda to the presidency in75 April 2012 changed the tenor of political debates about the legality of same-sex sexualities

(Mwakasungula 2013). In her 2012 ‘State of the Nation’ address, Banda identified antigaylaws as ‘bad laws’, among others that were eligible for review and reform (Nyasa Times2012b). Media outlets around the world characterised Banda’s speech as a promise todecriminalise homosexuality (Smith and Mapondera 2012). Later that year, Minister of

80 Justice Ralph Kasambara announced a moratorium on anti-sodomy laws and directedpolice not to enforce these laws (Nyasa Times 2012a), but subsequently denied that hemade this announcement, after a torrent of antigay criticism (Maganga 2012). Facingrenewed local opposition to the legalisation of homosexuality (Juma 2012a), by the end of

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2012 Banda tempered her public support for decriminalisation (Juma 2012b; Stringer85 2012), asserting that ‘the power to repeal or amend laws rests with the legislative

house. … I don’t have powers to make laws, all the laws are passed in parliament and thisdepends on what people want’ (Nyasa Times 2012c). Although political homophobiapersists, towards the end of 2013 diverse groups, including chiefs and an imam,announced their support for the constitutional review of antigay laws (Munthali 2013;

90 Sundu 2013).

AQ3

To understand the origins and contours of political homophobia in Malawi, Currierinterviewed 51 feminist, HIV/AIDS, human rights and LGBT activists in June and July 2012.Although Currier’s race and nationality differed from those of Malawian researchparticipants—she is a white, cisgender, middle-class woman from the USA—these

95 differences were not insuperable; she was able to interview activists from diverse classand ethnic backgrounds within Malawi. Interviews were intended to capture whether andhow political homophobia affected feminist, HIV/AIDS, human rights and LGBT move-ments. In response to questions about their involvement with the Centre for theDevelopment of People (CEDEP), an activist organisation that champions the rights of

100 LGBT persons, sex workers and prisoners in Malawi, two gay-identified men describedcoercive, unwanted sexual experiences. Initially, we considered excluding these men’snarratives because they lay outside the project’s scope.1

Conversely, we recognised that these narratives could inform the advocacy ofactivist organisations working to reduce HIV infection among gender and sexual minorities

105 in Malawi. Our comparison of these narratives shows how activist socialisation has thepotential to reshape how men who have sex with men (MSM) define rape and unwantedsex. This information could bolster CEDEP’s activist enterprises. In the past, CEDEP hascollaborated with HIV/AIDS researchers to document the relationship between sexualviolence and HIV infection rates among MSM in southern Africa (Baral et al. 2009). The

110 study’s authors, however, note that ‘using narrowly defined terms of sexual violence suchas rape … may underestimate [the] prevalence’ of coercive, unwanted sex experienced byMSM, an admission that makes room for feminist qualitative analysis of non-consensualand/or unwanted sex (Baral et al. 2009, 7). To fill this gap in existing research on Africansexual minorities’ experiences with sexual violence, we draw on feminist scholarship that

115 refines categories describing sexual encounters.Feminist research disrupts the common cultural conflation of wanted sex with

consent and unwanted sex with lack of consent (Peterson and Muehlenhard 2007). Indifferent scenarios, individuals may desire sex but decide against it, or they may not wantsex but decide to consent to sex. For instance, women may not desire sex but consent to

120 sex to preserve a relationship (Fahs 2011). Individuals may also experience both wantingand not wanting sex during a sexual encounter. Peterson and Muehlenhard (2007, 73)define wanting and consenting in the following way: ‘to want something is to desire it, towish for it, to feel inclined towards it or to regard it or aspects of it as positively valenced;in contrast, to consent is to be willing to or to agree to do something’. Separating non-

125 consensual sex from unwanted sex generates a ‘broader definition of rape’, opening upagentic space for how people interpret their experiences of sexual coercion (Peterson andMuehlenhard 2007, 74).

Although distinguishing non-consensual sex from unwanted sex constitutes animportant step for feminist and queer scholars who seek to account for the complexity of

130 sex and consent, ethical dilemmas accompany naming or looking for ‘unwanted sex’.

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These dilemmas include creating new categories of victimisation for those who do not feelinjured by unwanted sex and imposing a ‘framework of victimisation’ on respondents thatnecessitates proof of ‘psychological harm in order to take a moral stand against sexualviolence’ (Gavey 2005, 189). Rather than treating one form of sexual victimisation as more

135 horrific than others, some scholars and activists place sexual coercion on a ‘continuum ofsexual violence’ and decline to employ objective measures that adjudicate whether whatsurvivors experienced was ‘rape’ or ‘not rape’ (Fahs 2011, 187). This decision reflects thereality that some individuals deem their experiences as not constituting rape, particularly ifthey define rape as involving physical harm (Peterson and Muehlenhard 2007). Not

140 recognising unwanted or non-consensual sex as rape affords some individuals psychologicaland social protection from the debilitation that some scholars associate with victimhood(Fahs 2011).

Marshalling research about men’s experiences with rape and unwanted sex incontemporary African contexts, we explore how cultural definitions of sex and sexuality

145 affect African sexual minority men’s perceptions of rape, non-consensual sex and unwantedsex. We then analyze two divergent accounts of coercive, unwanted sex offered by two gayMalawian men. Our analysis shows how activist socialisation can intervene in and transformhow African sexual minority men perceive and name unwanted and/or coercive sex.

Men’s Experiences with Rape and Unwanted Sex in African Contexts150 A growing body of research documents how gender and sexual socialisation

structures the way in which male survivors in different national contexts deal with rape(Abdullah-Khan 2008). Cultural associations of men and masculinity with invulnerabilityprevent many men from labelling their experiences as rape (Weiss 2010). In addition,homophobia deters some men from naming and reporting coercive, unwanted sex. These

155 men fear that if they report that another man or group of men forced them to have sex,they will be labelled ‘gay’ and lose their masculine privilege (Rumney 2009). Within Africancontexts, it is rare for men or boys to report rape, due to gender and heterosexual normsthat discourage recognition of same-sex sexualities (Epprecht 2008). Research examiningAfrican men’s experiences with rape tends to focus on prison rape (Gear 2007; Ghanotakis

160 et al. 2007), but recent publications have begun documenting the prevalence of male rapein South Africa (Dunkle et al. 2013; Ron and Hugo 2013; Sikweyiya and Jewkes 2009).Yandisa Sikweyiya and Rachel Jewkes (2009) outline the contours of the same-sex sexualcoercion to which some South African men were subjected. Age discrepancy structuredsome rapes, as older men or boys used their seniority to compel younger men to submit

165 to their sexual advances; close ‘sleeping arrangements’ also put young men at risk for rape(Sikweyiya and Jewkes 2009, 532). Additionally, research conducted by Kristin Dunkle andher colleagues (2013) suggests that South African MSM are vulnerable to being raped byother men, putting them at risk for HIV infection. First, men who had consensual sex withanother man in the past were more than ‘seven times more likely than other men’ to

170 report being raped another man (Dunkle et al. 2013, 5). Second, MSM experienced more‘severe violence’ than men who reported no history of consensual sex with men (Dunkleet al. 2013, 5).

Cultural definitions of sex condition how Africans perceive particular forms ofintimacy. Kendall (1999), a white lesbian researcher from the USA, notes that her efforts to

175 locate ‘lesbians’ in Lesotho yielded little at first because Basotho women in Lesotho did

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not recognise same-sex sexual desire outside the context of friendships. Basotho womendid not identify same-sex sex acts as ‘sex’ because sex referred only to penile-vaginalpenetration (Kendall 1999, 166). Similarly, Philippe Talavera suggests that, in Ovahimbaand Ovaherero communities in Namibia, cultural definitions of ‘“real” sex’ as penile-vaginal

180 penetrative intercourse affect perceptions of unwanted sex and who can be raped (2002,73; original emphasis). These definitions exclude the possibility that boys and men can beraped because oral or anal sex between men does not count as ‘sex’. Homeless male youthin Tanzania did not regard oral and anal sex between boys or men as ‘sex’ (Epprecht 2008;Lockhart 2002).

185 Chris Lockhart (2002) traces the complexity of the sexual repertoires of Tanzanianboys and young men living on the street. Lockhart documents boys’ engagement inkunyenga, a group of same-sex sexual practices that describes non-consensual andconsensual sex (2002, 302–304). Non-consensual forms of kunyenga involved coercive analsex, anal penetration of a sleeping boy and the forced initiation of a new boy into same-

190 sex sexual activity by a group of boys (Lockhart 2002). Consensual forms of kunyengaentailed ‘play’, mutually satisfying erotic contact with another boy that did not necessarilyinclude anal penetration (Lockhart 2002, 304). Some boys and young men who engaged inkunyenga also participated in sexual relationships with girls or young women. Lockhartobserves that boys and young men classified kunyenga as distinct from ‘“real sex”

195 (heterosexual encounters)’ and ‘homosexual’ sex and believed that once a boy begandating a girl, participating in kunyenga was no longer appropriate, suggesting that boysanticipated that they would grow out of same-sex sexual activity (Lockhart 2002, 304). Inthese examples, heteronormative definitions of sex influence what many Africans perceiveas coercive or unwanted sex. Only women and girls can be raped, and penile-vaginal

200 penetrative sex is the only way in which rape occurs, according to these heteronormativecultural logics.

Cultural and legal definitions of rape constrain how African women and menunderstand non-consensual and unwanted sex. Talavera (2002) explains that rape is aconcept that women and men in Ovahimba and Ovaherero ethnic groups in Namibia

205 rarely use. In these communities, women must comply with men’s demands for sex. ‘If shedoes not, the man is permitted to use force to make her submit to’ sex (2002, 71). Manywomen in these ethnic groups view rape as ‘something that happens “somewhere else” [inWindhoek (the Namibian capital), for instance]’ (2002, 71). According to this logic,although women know what ‘rape’ means, what they experience can never be classified

210 as ‘rape’ in their cultures because ‘rape’ is a foreign logic.Penal codes in different African nations define rape narrowly as non-consensual

penile-vaginal penetrative sex. Gendered rape laws identify women and girls as rapevictims, excluding men from consideration as rape victims, although a notable exception isSouth Africa which criminalised male rape in 2008 (Bonthuys 2008; Stemple 2008). In

215 countries that criminalise same-sex sex acts, police can arrest men who report being rapedby another man or group of men for sodomy because many anti-sodomy laws do notdifferentiate between consensual same-sex sex and rape. In other words, sex betweenmen, whether it is consensual or not, is punishable under anti-sodomy laws, which someAfrican nations inherited from their colonial predecessors (Human Rights Watch 2008).

220 Men who report being raped by another man thus risk being revictimized by a state thatpunishes sexual dissidents.

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Heteronormativity contributes to the quotidian invisibility of same-sex sexualitiesand sexual coercion of gender and sexual minorities in some African societies, includingMalawi. Heterosexist ideologies buttress heteronormativity. These ideologies include the

225 perception that same-gender-loving people are subhuman, demonic or psychologicallystunted and childish (Izugbara and Okal 2011; Kabwila 2013). In Queer Malawi, a collectionof first-person accounts from LGBT Malawians, Josephine discusses the content of localhomophobia. Malawians ‘think being gay is not common. It’s abnormal and that gaysfollow Satanism. People swear at us and call us all sorts of names. … Gays are ridiculed in

230 so many ways’ (CEDEP and GALA 2010, 64). Research on adolescents’ sexual knowledgereveals how young Malawians are socialised into heterosexist ideology. Cultural moresencourage Malawian male youth to view same-sex sexualities as ‘both rare and aperversion’ (Izugbara and Okal 2011, 24). Many boys believed that same-sex sexualitieswere not indigenous but were brought to Malawi by white visitors and pornography.

235 Homophobia structures the sexual coercion African gender and sexual minoritiesface. Gay Malawian men have been threatened with sexual violence and blackmail whenacquaintances discover that they are gay (Chibwezo 2011). Amanda, a feminine gay man,recounts in an account published in Queer Malawi how a crowd combined homophobicinsults with detailed threats to rape him:

240 People try to embarrass you by saying things like, ‘How could be you fucked at theback? I will take a maize cob, I will put it there, may be you can enjoy that’. And ifyou are at a bar they say, ‘What about a bottle? I know you can handle a Kuche[Malawian beer]. It’s a big bottle!’ The things they say are hurtful. (CEDEP and GALA2010, 40)

245 Homophobic threats of sexual violence transform gender and sexual minorities’ bodiesinto public objects of abjection, as homophobic observers speculate about the boundariesof sexual minorities’ bodily pleasure with menacing intent. Homophobic threats imaginefeminine gay men, in particular, as welcoming any sexual advances that promisepenetration and erase the agency of gay men to refuse sex with men. Their visible

250 femininity associates gay men with the submissive status that some African men assign tothe women in their lives, putting some feminine gay men at risk for violence motivated byhomophobia and sexism (Geoffrion 2013). Homophobic taunts render African gay menhypervisible, while concomitantly veiling the category of male–male rape.

Compounding the invisibility of male–male rape in some societies is the fact that255 social movements often overlook male–male rape as a social problem. Sandesh

Sivakumaran (2005) discusses the failure of feminist and LGBT movements around theworld to take up the issue of male–male rape. Explaining how both movements possessthe skills and strategies for addressing the racist, sexist and homophobic dynamics of rape,Sivakumaran queries activists’ silence on male–male rape. Feminist movements typically

260 frame women as the gendered targets of sexual violence, excluding men and boys fromconsideration as rape victims, although some feminist movements increasingly includemen and boys in anti-rape campaigns (Whittier 2009). Some LGBT activists shy away fromaddressing male–male rape because the issue reinforces the harmful misconception thatgay men are sexual predators and rapists (Sivakumaran 2005). When framing homophobic

265 violence, some LGBT activists treat male–male rape as a type of gay bashing, ignoring thesexual content of male–male rape (Jenness and Broad 1994). Sivakumaran’s critique shows

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how the invisibility of male–male rape as a strategic priority for feminist and LGBTmovements can unintentionally disadvantage movement constituents. Male rape survivorsmay feel betrayed when movements they support and communities to which they belong

270 fail to address rape as a pressing social problem (Rumney 2009).Although Sivakumaran perceptively diagnoses the disempowering dynamics pro-

duced by feminist and LGBT movements’ silence on male–male rape, he does not considerhow social movements indirectly expand and enhance constituents’ abilities to perceiveand respond to varied injustices. For instance, lessons from feminist organising inspire

275 some feminist activists to merge antiracist strategies with feminist principles (Twine andBlee 2001). In this way, activists’ capacity to perceive and label injustice can exceednarrowly defined movement priorities, producing new, unanticipated opportunities foractivist intervention and collaboration. Even though movements may not specificallyidentify particular social problems facing constituents as strategic priorities, movement

280 socialisation and education projects processes can sharpen how constituents perceiveinjustice and acquaint them with new ways to identify themselves and social ills. Vinh-KimNguyen’s (2005) ethnography shows how HIV/AIDS organising in Abidjan, Côte d'Ivoire,provided MSM not only with knowledge about sexual technologies and HIV prophylaxisbut also with the opportunity to socialise in a homosocial environment that induced some

285 men to identify as ‘gay’. Thus an unintended by-product of HIV/AIDS organising in thiscontext was the adoption of ‘gay’ identities by Ivoirian MSM. For constituents to benefitfrom this expanded ability to diagnose injustice or to reshape their subjectivities, regularcontact with activist organisations may be necessary. In particular, constituents in the orbitof activist organisations profit from knowledge that can transform how they understand

290 sexual consent. As our analysis of two different gay Malawian men’s narratives ofunwanted and/or forced sex reveals, exposure to activist knowledge can alter andenhance how gay men view unwanted and non-consensual sex.

Gay Malawian Men’s Experiences with Coercive and Unwanted Sex

During interviews conducted in 2012, two gay Malawian men divulged that they had295 unwanted sex when they were younger, yet each man describes these unwanted sexual

encounters differently. When explaining how an older boy pressured him to have sex, Alexdoes not use the term ‘rape’.2 Ambivalence, ambiguity and uncertainty permeate how henarrates this sexual encounter. Unlike Alex, Stanley clearly narrates a time when he refusedto have sex with another man but was forced to have sex. Stanley weaves themes of

300 sexual autonomy into his account of coerced sex, pausing occasionally to comment on theviolation he experienced. His narrative suggests an enhanced understanding of sexualagency derived from his time working as a peer sex educator.

Alex: ‘I Just Kept Quiet’

As a peer educator for CEDEP, Alex, a gay Malawian man in his 20s, teaches MSM305 how to protect themselves from HIV/AIDS and sexually transmitted infections (STIs),

training them to use male condoms and lubricants properly. When asked about how helearned about CEDEP’s existence, a question intended to elicit information about how theorganisation recruited and reached constituents, Alex responded by discussing his firstsexual encounter, which was forced. This encounter took place when Alex was between

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310 13 and 15 years old and a student at a ‘“boys” primary school’ (Interview, Lilongwe,Malawi, 7 July 2012).3 Alex became involved with CEDEP several years after this coercivesexual encounter.

Alex begins his narrative by emphasising his young age when an older boyapproached him about having sex:

315 Eh, it’s not so easy [because at] that time I was so young. I was in primary school …and it was a boys’ primary school. … So, there was this other person who was olderthan me. He used to come to me, tell me, ‘You know what? You’re so cute. I wantyou to be mine’. … At first, I didn’t understand him because I didn’t know what hewas talking about. And then after a few encounters … he took me. He found me.

320 I was at the toilet. He found me there. He just took me inside. And he was like, ‘Youknow what, I want to do this with you’. I was like, ‘What do you mean?’ [The otherperson said,] ‘You know what, you’re so cute’.

And he started touching me and all that. Then, uh, it happened. … I felt pain, but I couldnot tell, I could not tell anybody [because] to me it was all new. I was feeling, failing to

325 understand it myself, so I did not even know somebody who could understand it. So, I justkept quiet.

Alex’s confusion comes through clearly in his narrative. The older boy conveys hissexual interest in Alex several times in different ‘encounters’, but Alex is unable to graspwhat the older boy wants of him sexually. After the older boy expressed his sexual desire,

330 Alex states: ‘At first, I didn’t understand him because I didn’t know what he was talkingabout’. During the interview, Alex did not mention having access to information aboutsame-sex sexualities or conversations with other Malawian adolescent boys who discussedsex and sexuality frankly (Izugbara and Okal 2011). Public conversations about sexualitywere rare in Malawi. Cultural sexual mores and Christian discourses of sexual modesty

335 discouraged forthright conversations about sex and sexuality, although some Malawiansdeployed euphemisms to discuss sexual pleasure discreetly (Tavory and Swidler 2009).However, in recent public debates, political and religious leaders’ condemnations ofhomosexuality have contributed to the public negative visibility of sexual diversity inMalawi, and some advocate punishing those in same-sex relationships (Kabwila 2013). If

340 Alex had encountered messages about same-sex sex or relationships, they likely wouldhave been negative and would have dissuaded him from raising this unwanted same-sexsexual experience with a trusted peer or elder.

Alex’s narrative involves ambiguous references to the unwanted encounter, whichmakes sense within a cultural context that expects silence about sex. As he relates how the

345 older boy touched and ‘took’ him, his narration becomes disembodied, a feature thatother researchers have identified in survivor narratives (Fahs 2011). This encounter‘happened’ to Alex and seemed beyond his control. His confusion persisted after theunwanted sexual encounter because not only was he unable to articulate what he hadexperienced, but he also knew no one he could tell about sex with an older boy, which he

350 intuited was prohibited. To Alex ‘it was all new’ and, ultimately, he ‘just kept quiet’ aboutthe experience. Social isolation and lack of information about sex structured his responseto unwanted sex with the older boy.

Alex’s connection to the older boy continued after the unwanted sexual encounter.After some time passed, the older boy approached and apologised to Alex, saying, ‘What I

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355 did to you that day was very bad; so I’m sorry’. It is unclear from Alex’s narrative whetherthe older boy was apologising because he coerced Alex to have sex with him or because itwas a same-sex sexual encounter. Alex’s ambivalence emerges when he explains whathappened next with the older boy:

He gave me some money and some things, right. Now, I was so young; I just took360 the things. And then, I don’t know if I can say I was interested in him or not, that I

can’t say. But we became friends right there and then. Then we [would] go outtogether. He [would] come to my room. And then it happened again. See, then thattime he didn’t force me. It just happened [because], at that time, you know, I wasyoung.

365 The older boy’s apology confirmed that he knew he coerced Alex into having sex, whichAlex subsequently describes as ‘force[d]’ sex; later, the older boy ‘didn’t force’ Alex to havesex, suggesting Alex’s willingness to have sex with him. The older boy’s presentation ofmoney and gifts complicates the experience for Alex, who says, ‘Now, I was so young; I justtook the things’. This statement suggests that, in hindsight, Alex questions whether he

370 should have accepted the money and gifts from the older boy. As a younger boy, he wasnot aware of the social implications of taking the gifts. These material goods connectedAlex to the older boy, positioning Alex as a supplicant receiving gifts from a benefactor.This episode resembles examples of ‘transactional sex’ in which women or men have sexwith better-resourced partners who provide them with money or gifts or perform services

375 for them, such as giving them rides into town (Swidler and Watkins 2007). In transactionalsex, a less privileged individual consents to sex in exchange for money, goods or servicesfrom a more privileged partner.

Material incentives structured some young African men’s unwanted sexualexperiences with other men. In research on young black South African men’s experiences

380 with unwanted sex, Sikweyiya and Jewkes (2009) report that some older African menpromised younger boys or men gifts or money if they complied with their sexualdemands. Alex’s connection to the older boy could easily have become a sexualrelationship structured by dependency wherein he acquiesced to the older boy’ssexual advances. Alex admits to feeling conflicted about accepting ‘some money and

385 some things’ from the older boy, an association in the present that complicates for Alexwhat happened in the past. At some point, he began consenting to sex with the older boy,although it is unclear if the boy kept giving Alex money and gifts; Alex states, ‘I don’t knowif I can say I was interested in him or not’. Alex ends his story ambivalently, expressinguncertainty and confusion about his sexual connection to the older boy.

390 Stanley: ‘I Deny You’

Stanley, a gay man in his 20s, benefited from CEDEP’s sex education, which taughthim to use condoms and lubricants when having sex with other men and about HIV/AIDSand STIs. Eventually, CEDEP appointed Stanley as a peer educator who encouraged otherMSM to be discerning about with whom they had sex. During the interview, Stanley

395 revealed that a man forced him to have sex when he was in his early 20s.

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There was a man who came to my house. He phoned me and just say, ‘I want to talkto you, and I’m going there [to your house]’. I said, ‘What is it?’ He said, ‘I need you tobe my boyfriend’. I said, ‘No! I have already one. I don’t have to have more [than oneboyfriend] because you know what, this, this is not sure [it is not good]’. When

400 another man says, ‘I want to sleep with you’, that is not good. (Interview, Lilongwe,Malawi, 6 July 2012)

Stanley emphasises his vehement rejection of the man’s attempt to initiate a sexualrelationship. He was already in a relationship with another man and opposed to non-monogamy. In the interview, Stanley stresses that he practices sexual exclusivity as a way

405 to avoid becoming infected with HIV.Stanley repeats how he refused this man’s sexual advances in person: ‘I said, “Okay,

I deny you. I object to sleep[ing] with you”’. Ignoring Stanley’s rejection, the man ‘touched’Stanley and ‘forced me to sleep [with him]’. Stanley speculates that his rejection excitedthe man, a logic that he shared with his attacker. ‘I said [to him], “Look, you want to fuck

410 me because I deny to sleep with [you]”’. But I said, ‘That is not good to [for] me. This … isbad’. Unwanted, coercive sex with the attacker not only violated Stanley’s will but alsoincreased his risk for contracting HIV, which greatly worried him. Educating MSM aboutHIV was a priority for CEDEP because these men were at increased risk of contracting HIV.A recent study in which CEDEP participated concludes that about 21% of MSM in Malawi

415 are HIV positive (Fay et al. 2011).After this man forced Stanley to have sex with him, he sought out the friend who

introduced him to CEDEP and told his friend about this unwanted, non-consensual sex. Hisfriend insisted on speaking to the assailant on the telephone. When Stanley’s friend calledthe attacker and expressed his anger, the man described how Stanley was sexually

420 alluring: ‘He’s a handsome man. I can’t sleep. Even all night I dream about him’. DespiteStanley’s refusal to have sex with this man, he kept pursuing Stanley and threatened todrop by the house he shared with his parents. According to Stanley, the man stated, ‘WhatI want is to sleep with you. Can I?’ When Stanley rejected him once again, the man stated,‘“Okay, I’m coming tomorrow”, [meaning] today at night to my home’, which worried

425 Stanley. He explains that he feared that repelling this man’s sexual advances would angerthe man, who, in retaliation, might reveal Stanley’s gay identity to his parents. Like othergay and bisexual men, Stanley was troubled by the possibility that the man wouldblackmail him into having sex in exchange for his silence about his gay identity (Chibwezo2011). Like other gender and sexual minorities in Malawi, Stanley was financially

430 dependent on his parents, due to the high rates of poverty and joblessness amongMalawians. Despite the risks Stanley faced in rebuffing the attacker, sexual agency suffuseshis narrative, as he recounts the various ways he rejected unwanted sexual advances.

Discussion

Alex’s narrative remains confined temporally to the sequence of sexual encounters435 he experienced as a younger man, detached from his subsequent sexual experiences and

sex education at CEDEP. He seems to process unwanted sex with the older boy throughthe lens of a young man who lacked access to information about sex, consent and same-sex sexualities. Given the social and political barriers to discussing homosexuality inMalawi, it is unsurprising that Alex was not equipped to understand the older boy’s

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440 professed sexual interest. He was sheltered from information about the mechanics ofsame-sex sex, like many other sexual minority men in Malawi. In a survey of 202 MSM inMalawi, a little more than half (56.5%, N = 113) of these men had received sex educationabout how to protect themselves from contracting HIV from sex with men, leaving asignificant number of MSM without access to this information (Fay et al. 2011, 1092). Safer-

445 sex education for MSM typically involved discussing sexual consent and safer-sexpractices. Without this crucial information about the contours of safer sex, the youngAlex was incapable of voicing the forceful rejection that Stanley registered as an adult withhis attacker. Both Stanley’s acquired knowledge about HIV transmission and empower-ment as a sexual agent enabled him to reject his attacker.

450 Later in the interview, Alex outlines the work he performs as a peer educator withCEDEP. Alex precisely describes his work in terms of persuading men to change theirsexual practices so that they ‘learn better ways to protect themselves. We encourage themto have safe sex and that whenever they feel like they can’t hold it [their sexual desire]anymore, they’re supposed to use condoms and … lubricants’. Peer educators also warn

455 MSM about having ‘multiple concurrent partners’, a term that describes how a ‘web’ or‘chain’ of multiple sexual partners may pass HIV and other STIs to others, ‘spreading [them]at an alarming rate’. His discussion of sex education is segmented from his narrative ofunwanted sex. His account of peer sex education remains grounded in a public-healthapproach promoting the transformation of individuals’ sexual behaviours (Nguyen 2005).

460 Unlike Alex, Stanley draws inspiration from CEDEP’s sex education programmes,which sensitised him to categories of unwanted and non-consensual sex. In interactionswith other MSM, he tells them that they can ‘can take [their] time’ deciding about whenand with whom to have sex. MSM can also ‘choose … when you’re going to sleep with aman’, ‘not when a man force[s] you’ to have sex. CEDEP’s catholic approach to sex

465 education workshops indirectly taught gender and sexual minorities about sexual consentand their ability to refuse sex with others. Gender and sexual minorities’ exposure tomodels of sexual agency presented them with additional ways to perceive and managesexual initiation and interactions. Stanley was already involved with CEDEP at the time hewas coerced into having sex with another man. Participating in peer sex education and

470 CEDEP safer-sex workshops introduced him to a vocabulary of sexual agency: he couldchoose when, how and with whom to have sex, and he did not have to have sex if he wasnot so inclined. In contrast, Alex’s experience with unwanted sex occurred before hisinvolvement with CEDEP, which may have contributed to his interpretation of unwantedsex without reference to sexual agency and consent.

475 By juxtaposing the two narratives offered by Alex and Stanley, we do not suggestthat one narrative is superior to the other. Both narratives suggest productive responses toprocessing unwanted or coercive sex. Stanley unequivocally manifests his rejection ofanother man’s sexual proposition, suggesting that he has found resources at CEDEP tocope with this violation. His activist work with CEDEP promoted awareness of sexual

480 agency and autonomy, which he incorporates into his narrative of unwanted sex. Inaddition, Stanley has integrated this episode of unwanted, forced sex into his repertoire ofactivist knowledge; he does not seem troubled about discussing his experiences. LikeStanley, Alex does not seem traumatised by volunteering information about his unwantedsexual experience during the interview. Although Alex does not use the term ‘rape’ or

485 ‘violation’ as he relates the first encounter with the older boy, he clearly did not want tohave sex with the older boy. This experience seems formative for Alex’s sexual subjectivity,

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evidenced by the fact that he starts his narrative about how he came to work for CEDEPwith this encounter.

Each man expresses little difficulty relating these episodes, which serves as a490 reminder that not all women, men and gender and sexual minorities ‘are enduringly

traumatised by rape’ and that it may be unsettling to label some men’s experiences as‘rape’ (Gavey 2005, 182). For instance, the fact that Alex and the older boy had arelationship after the episode of unwanted sex could cause psychological distress if Alexwere to classify this episode as a sexual violation; he could begin to doubt his sexual

495 relationship choices, an example of psychological harm. Contextualising African gay men’sexperiences with unwanted and/or non-consensual sex can avoid labels that inflictpsychological damage on individuals. The narrative accounts offered by Alex and Stanleyalso suggest the need for feminist and queer scholars and activists to formulate a multi-pronged analysis that considers how and why African gender and sexual minorities will

500 develop different responses to unwanted or non-consensual sex.

Conclusion

Feminist and queer scholars and activists have expressed concern about how Africangender and sexual minorities are represented (Epprecht 2008; Tamale 2011). Theseconcerns become more acute when addressing African gender and sexual minorities’

505 experiences with rape and unwanted sex. Many African LGBT activist organisationsstruggle with the dilemma of portraying constituents as powerless victims. On the onehand, images of African queer ‘victimage’ can benefit activist organisations whendiplomats pressure African leaders to abandon antigay persecution (Hoad 2007, 86).Transnational solidarity can translate into financial, material and non-material resources

510 from foreign supporters (Bob 2005). On the other hand, presenting LGBT Africans aspitiable victims can disadvantage constituents and endanger their lives (Nyong’o 2012).Although these are sobering reminders of the visibility dilemmas that accompany AfricanLGBT organising (Currier 2012), scholars and activists can find appropriate ways todocument gender and sexual minorities’ experiences of unwanted and/or non-consensual

515 sex, enabling activist organisations to respond meaningfully to constituents’ needs.A middle ground involves documenting the range of gender and sexual minorities’unwanted sexual encounters without imposing stigmatising labels on those whoexperienced them, a strategy we try to implement with the narratives offered by Alexand Stanley. Such narratives can enrich LGBT activist organisations’ strategies for

520 responding to unwanted sex and rape as matters of public health and political urgency.Feminist and LGBT activist organisations can also begin to recognise how existing sex-education campaigns allow constituents to deploy and maximise strategies of sexualagency and autonomy.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

525 We thank activists who spoke with Ashley Currier about their activist experiences andCEDEP’s staff and volunteers who kindly offered research guidance and assistance. Kim YiDionne and Tara McKay generously shared their knowledge about Malawian politics andsupported data collection. We also thank Charles Sisya, Augustine Harawa and other staff

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at Invest in Knowledge Initiative for their crucial research support. We are grateful for the530 constructive comments that Lisa Featherstone, Amanda Kaladelfos and two anonymous

reviewers for Australian Feminist Studies provided on this article.

FUNDING

Funding from Texas A& M University supported data collection for this project.

NOTES

535 1. Currier (2011) made a similar ethical choice when studying LGBT organising in southern

Africa because she was not collecting information about activists’ personal tragedies.

When researching LGBT organising in Malawi in 2012 and in Namibia and South Africa in

2005–2006, Currier found that a number of gender and sexual minorities she interviewed

answered questions about how they became activists or learned about a particular LGBT540 movement organisation by discussing how and when they first acknowledged their same-

sex sexual desires or gender-variant subjectivity. Some interview respondents recounted

their first sexual experiences or intimate relationships. Currier interpreted this tendency as

African interview respondents suturing their gender/sexual and activist subjectivities

together.545 2. We assigned pseudonyms to research participants to protect their identity.

3. Girls must be 14 years old to consent to sex, according to Malawian law (Kamyongolo and

Malunga 2011, 13). The law appears to apply exclusively to girls.

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Ashley Currier is an associate professor of women’s, gender and sexuality studies at the

University of Cincinnati. Her research focuses on LGBT organising in southern and

West Africa.

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Rashida Manuel is a recent graduate of the University of Cincinnati women’s, gender and705 sexuality studies graduate programme. Her research interests include racial

formation, the role of the reproductive labour of women of colour in the global

economy and transnational feminist alliances.

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