Introduction

Early initiatives for an Africanist contribution to queer studies launched in the 2000s sought to create more synergies between the then emerging networks of activists and university-based scholars in order to produce grounded theories and narratives that place Africanist experiences at the center of conversations about gender and sexual identity. The early fora that served as incubators for this integrated vision did not survive the test of time, and scholarship and activism seem to have grown in separate directions (though not in absolute terms) each following the pressure of its trade. More than ten years after the inception of a vision of an Africanist scholarly network on queer studies that led to the publication of Sexual Diversity in Africa: Politics, Theory, and Citizenship (McGill University Press, 2013), co-edited with Marc Epprecht, I am delighted to introduce this handbook to the public as a synergy of perspectives on matters that the contributors deem pressing.