A bold foray into self-discovery, sexual pleasure and African traditions from the acclaimed author of The Sex Lives of African Women.
On her quest for sexual liberation, preeminent feminist Nana Darkoa Sekyiamah has heard the wildest dreams and spiciest realities of women around the world. But so often, something holds these women back from achieving full, unfettered freedom. Through sankofa, learning from the past to inform the future, Sekyiamah seeks to reclaim a more joyful and free sexual practice.
Travelling from Senegal to Tanzania and beyond, Sekyiamah trains with gurus, witches and aunties-guides through puberty rites and marital training-and explores the spiritual, fluid nature of traditional African religions. Embracing these age-old practices and questioning how we’ve come to lose them, Sekyiamah challenges our warped ideals of beauty, shame, internalised racism and violence to lead us on our own personal journeys to rediscover sexual freedom through practical advice and prompts.
Part-manifesto, part-travelogue, part-workbook, Seeking Sexual Freedom is the powerful and bold call to joy and liberation that women of all backgrounds need today.
On her quest for sexual liberation, preeminent feminist Nana Darkoa Sekyiamah has heard the wildest dreams and spiciest realities of women around the world. But so often, something holds these women back from achieving full, unfettered freedom. Through sankofa, learning from the past to inform the future, Sekyiamah seeks to reclaim a more joyful and free sexual practice.
Travelling from Senegal to Tanzania and beyond, Sekyiamah trains with gurus, witches and aunties-guides through puberty rites and marital training-and explores the spiritual, fluid nature of traditional African religions. Embracing these age-old practices and questioning how we’ve come to lose them, Sekyiamah challenges our warped ideals of beauty, shame, internalised racism and violence to lead us on our own personal journeys to rediscover sexual freedom through practical advice and prompts.
Part-manifesto, part-travelogue, part-workbook, Seeking Sexual Freedom is the powerful and bold call to joy and liberation that women of all backgrounds need today.
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Reviews
A vital treasure.
Fascinating.
Overflowing with candour, vulnerability, and juiciness, this collection of raw, tender stories that Sekyiamah has so lovingly gathered will upend all of your assumptions and stereotypes.
This is the intimate, insightful read that I didn't know I needed. Just brilliant.
Extraordinarily dynamic . . . Here is a book like none you will have read before.
Nana Darkoa Sekyiamah is officially our pleasure fairy godmother! In Seeking Sexual Freedom, she scours the African continent and its diaspora, learning about sexuality in all its forms, so that we can truly liberate ourselves. A generous and important book.
Seeking Sexual Freedom strikes at the heart of what we all deserve: full bodily autonomy, deep relationality, and reclamation of traditions that are rightfully ours. Today's global struggles against fascism will be strengthened by Sekyiamah's insights and brilliance. We cannot afford another century of radical movements that fail to account for people as sexual beings, this book will help us reimagine what is possible.
Seeking Sexual Freedom anchors itself through the Akan word and symbol, Sankofa, reminding us that erotic agency is not only ancestral but also the conduit to futurity. This sacred text is an offering of sexual porosity that transcends colonial narratives-a challenge against dismemberment, a pathway to wholeness.
A stunning exploration of how pleasure, ritual, and inherited wisdom can transform the way we understand ourselves. This book travels across borders and generations to reveal how intimacy becomes a site of healing, resistance, and freedom. A fresh and necessary perspective on sexuality, tradition, and liberation.
Intimate and radical . . . Sekyiamah takes us on a journey across Africa and its diaspora - to Vodoun temples in Benin, kitchen parties in Tanzania, Candomblé ceremonies in Brazil - searching for the sexual wisdom colonization attempted to erase. With the vulnerability and clarity of a seasoned feminist, she weaves together ancient practices and contemporary struggles. Sekyiamah shows that the path to liberation requires an unflinching look backward to move forward. Frank, fearless, and deeply personal, Seeking Sexual Freedom is Sekyiamah's invitation to join her in the revolutionary act of reclaiming pleasure.