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Sexuality Education in Ghana and Mozambique: An Examination of Colonising Assemblages Informing School-based Sexuality Education Initiatives

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The Palgrave Handbook of Sexuality Education

Abstract

This chapter analyses the historical and socio-political contexts of the design and delivery of school-based sexuality education for young women and men in two sub-Saharan African countries: Ghana and Mozambique. The chapter interrogates colonising tendencies within, and created through, school-based sexuality education. Emphasis is placed on the forms of knowledge and pedagogies that are promoted by Western donors in the design and delivery of school-based sexuality.

The analyses of the bodies of knowledge and pedagogies underpinning sexuality education in Ghana and Mozambique draws on African feminist, postcolonial, and anti-colonial theories. In addition, the chapter builds on scholarly work on the geographies of childhoods and youth that theorises young people as hybrid products of the complex historical geographies of former colonised nations.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Cited in USAID (2009), p. 2.

  2. 2.

    Cited in Lyons (2004), p. 6.

  3. 3.

    These being the African Development Bank, Canada, Denmark, the European Union, France, Germany, Japan, the Netherlands, Switzerland, UK, and the World Bank.

  4. 4.

    It should be noted that, while still high, the share of ODA support to the state budget was considerably lower in 2012, namely 39.6 % (Niño and Le Billon <CitationRef CitationID="CR52" >2014</Citation Ref>).

  5. 5.

    It is also believed by some people that the erosion of value and attention to puberty rites, resulting from religious and Western influence, contributed to the gradual silencing of sexuality education in the Ghanaian socio-cultural space. This is because many Christian converts refused participation in the rites, and those outside the formal education system also missed out on the subject provided by the schools.

  6. 6.

    This rate masks considerable variation: it being far higher among women and in certain regions. Data gathered for the 2009 National Prevalence Survey (INSIDA <CitationRef CitationID="CR29" >2009</Citation Ref>) reveal that in the central province of Sofala, for example, 17.8 % of women and 12.6 % of men aged between 15 and 49 years were infected by HIV compared with national gender-specific prevalence rates of 13.1 % of females and 9.2 % of males within the same age bracket.

  7. 7.

    SHEP officers operate in the Ghana Education Service at the national, regional, and district levels. They are concerned about not only HIV/AIDS issues but also all health-related issues. And three district officers were involved in the study.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Amsterdam Institute for Social Science Research, University of Amsterdam, 1001 NC Amsterdam, The Netherlands

    Esther Miedema

  2. Department of Sociology and Anthropology, University of Cape Coast, Cape Coast, Ghana

    Georgina Yaa Oduro

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  1. Esther Miedema
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  2. Georgina Yaa Oduro
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Education and Social Work, University of Auckland, Auckland, New Zealand

    Louisa Allen

  2. School of Sociology Research School of Social Sciences, Australian National University, Canberra, Australia

    Mary Lou Rasmussen

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Miedema, E., Oduro, G.Y. (2017). Sexuality Education in Ghana and Mozambique: An Examination of Colonising Assemblages Informing School-based Sexuality Education Initiatives. In: Allen, L., Rasmussen, M.L. (eds) The Palgrave Handbook of Sexuality Education. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-40033-8_4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-40033-8_4

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