To Live Freely in This World

Sex worker activists throughout Africa are demanding an end to the criminalization of sex work and the recognition of their human rights to safe working conditions, health and justice services, and lives free from violence and discrimination. To Live Freely in This World is the first book to tell the story of the brave activists at the beating heart of the sex workers’ rights movement in Africa—the newest and most vibrant face of the global sex workers’ rights struggle. African sex worker activists are proving that communities facing human rights abuses are not bereft of agency. They’re challenging politicians, religious fundamentalists, and anti-prostitution advocates; confronting the multiple stigmas that affect the diverse members of their communities; engaging in intersectional movement building with similarly marginalized groups; and participating in the larger global sex workers’ rights struggle in order to determine their social and political fate.By locating this counter-narrative in Africa, To Live Freely in This World challenges disempowering and one-dimensional depictions of “degraded Third World prostitutes” and helps fill what has been a gaping hole in feminist scholarship regarding sex work in the African context. Based on original fieldwork in seven African countries, including Botswana, Kenya, Mauritius, Namibia, Nigeria, South Africa, and Uganda, Chi Adanna Mgbako draws on extensive interviews with over 160 African female and male (cisgender and transgender) sex worker activists, and weaves their voices and experiences into a fascinating, richly-detailed, and powerful examination of the history and continuing activism of this young movement.

By taking the sex worker's narratives as data, Mgbako paints a picture of a more layered landscape to sex work activism than what we normally hear about on an international level., This monograph presents the first book-length study on sex workers activism in Africa, and it makes an important contribution, not only to feminist debates about sex work, but also to the scholarship of social movements and activism in contemporary Africa., Though sex workers rights movements are globally interconnected, in practice, we are still often isolated, failing to learn from each other.To Live Freely in This Worldserves as a source text for western sex workers to study the success of their African counterparts. Certainly, it turns the Eurocentric notion that western movements are somehow more advanced right on its head., A detailed study of the history and ongoing activism of the sex workers’ movement in Africa. It shows how this young movement is blossoming – despite pervasive challenges – and contributes an African perspective to feminist debate about sex work. Based on a wide range of interviews and participant observation from fieldwork in seven focus countries (Botswana, Kenya, Mauritius, Namibia, South Africa, Uganda, and Nigeria), the author argues that African sex worker activists determine their social and political fate through strategic, informed choices … As scholars endeavor to fill literature gaps related to sex workers’ rights (in Africa, as well as centering on movements in the United States, Europe, and Asia), this book provides a critical resource for policy makers, students, and those interested in furthering their knowledge of debates related to sex workers’ rights., Mgbako contributes to closing a gap in knowledge on sex work and sex work activism in Africa. The book’s anchoring in personal stories and experiences of sex workers is an attempt to move away from the tendency of non-sex workers to speak for sex workers, and to let the latter speak for themselves. Fortunately, as is shown throughout the book, African sex workers are independently and fiercely creating more and more platforms from where to speak and be heard.

Chi Adanna Mgbako is Clinical Professor of Law and Director of the Walter Leitner International Human Rights Clinic in the Leitner Center for International Law and Justice at Fordham Law School.