Alternative Sexualities in Africa Project (ASAP)

ASAP is a Global South-led research initiative that seeks to advance rigorous, inclusive, and ethical research and scholarship on alternative sexualities, both within Africa and globally, anchored in African perspectives.

 

 

The policing of African and Global South sexualities is deeply rooted in colonial projects that imposed rigid heterosexual and cisnormative mores. These legacies endure, often shaping contemporary legal frameworks, social attitudes, and political rhetoric that weaponise sex and sexuality as a tool of control, shame, and exclusion. In this context, queer, kink, and other non-normative sexualities have been pathologised, criminalised, and erased.

 

ASAP is dedicated to advancing advance rigorous, inclusive, and ethical research that explores the richness of sexual and gender diversity across and outside of Africa; creating networks of collaboration and learning that connect scholars, activists, and communities; and challenging stigma, invisibility, and harm by amplifying voices, lives, and knowledge systems that are often silenced by shame or violence.

 

ASAP is a research initiative geared towards rigorous, inclusive, and ethical research on alternativesexualities, including queer and kink identities, practices, and communities. The focal areas of research within this initiative are: (1) Intimacy; (2) Health and Wellbeing; and (3) Community.

 

 

Alternative sexualities are an umbrella term that refers to sexual identities, practices, desires, and relational formations that exist outside dominant heterosexual and cisnormative frameworks. This includes, but is not limited to, Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans, Queer, Intersex, and Asexual (LGBTQIA+) identities; kink and BDSM (Bondage, Discipline, Dominance, Submission, Sadism, and Masochism) practices; fetishism; polyamory and other forms of consensual non-monogamy; and other culturally and linguistically specific or emergent sexual and gender expressions.

 

The term is intentionally expansive, resisting rigid categorisation and acknowledging that sex, sexuality, and erotic life and community is dynamic, diverse, and deeply shaped by social, cultural, historical, and political contexts.

 

The logo brings together several symbolic elements:

 

Together, the logo represents research that is rooted in Africa yet in dialogue with global movements for queer, kink, and sexual justice.

 

ASAP was officially launched on 04 September 2025, in celebration of World Sexual Health Day and as aresponse to the theme Sexual Justice: What Can We Do? ASAP marks a commitment to sexual justice, health, rights, and pleasure for people who identify with or participate in alternative sexualities. In doing so, the initiative seeks to challenge shame, prejudice, and violence by building a body of rigorous, inclusive, and ethical scholarship on queer, kink, and diverse sexualities, erotic lives, and intimacies.

 

 

As a nascent research initiative, ASAP invites scholars, activists, practitioners, and community members to join us in building inclusive, collaborative, and impactful networks of and for research.

 

For enquiries email Dr Jarred H. Martin (ASAP Research Leader): [email protected]