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Sex, Death and the Fate of the Nation: Reflections on the Politicization of Sexuality in Post-Apartheid South

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 March 2011

Deborah Posel
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Abstract

Unexpectedly, sexuality has become one of the principal sites of contestation in post-apartheid South Africa. This paper demonstrates and accounts for the politicization of sex and sexuality in South Africa since 1994. The first part examines the discursive constitution of sexuality and the ways in which this has been informed by wider dimensions of the post-apartheid social order. Drawing on this discussion, the second part proposes a reading of the notorious HIV/AIDS controversy, which drew President Mbeki directly into the political fray. The paper argues that the controversy, although immediately concerned with the science and treatment of HIV/AIDS, is also a struggle over the discursive constitution of sexuality, in a form which dramatizes the ways in which recently contentious struggles over the manner of sexuality are enmeshed in the politics of ‘nation-building’, and the inflections of race, class and generation within it.

Résumé

Étonnamment, la sexualité est devenue l'un des principaux terrains de contestation dans l'Afrique du Sud post-apartheid. Ce papier démontre et rend compte de la politisation du sexe et de la sexualité en Afrique du Sud depuis 1994. La première partie examine la constitution discursive de la sexualité et l'influence qu'ont exercée sur elle des dimensions plus larges de l'ordre social post-apartheid. Partant de cette discussion, la seconde partie propose une lecture de la fameuse controverse HIV/SIDA qui a plongé le Président Mbeki dans la tourmente politique. Ce papier affirme que cette controverse, bien que traitant directement de la science et du traitement du HIV/SIDA, est aussi une lutte au sujet de la constitution discursive de la sexualité, sous une forme qui met en évidence la manière dont les luttes récentes au sujet de la sexualité sont mêlées à la politique de formation de la nation et aux inflexions de race, de classe et de génération qu/elle implique.

Type
Articles
Information
Africa , Volume 75 , Issue 2 , May 2005 , pp. 125 - 153
Copyright
Copyright © International African Institute 2005

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