Why will Serena Dankwa's monograph on same-sex desiring women in Ghana become a classic? There are myriad reasons why it should, of course. It is about a group of women who hardly figure in academic research. It is captivating, describing women's lives and using them to open up scholarly discussions. It is eloquently written. Most important, it is based on exceptional research. People's experiences and lives are centered rather than “the textual and discursive representations of contemporary Africans.”1 Even as the scholarship of queer African studies comes of age, the field boasts few empirical studies. Dankwa's book demonstrates why this matters.
It is not a question whether empirical studies are more valuable than discursive analyses based on literature, art, or popular culture. Indeed, research from the humanities has played an immense role in “freeing our imaginations” to understand and research queer sexualities.2Knowing Women: Same-Sex Intimacy, Gender, and...
