Around the turn of the century homophobic protests erupted all over Africa, but the politicization of homosexuality as a public issue followed different trajectories in each country. In Cameroun and Gabon popular worries about a supposed proliferation of same-sex practices were linked to the dominant position of Freemasons among the national elite. The homosexuals targeted by popular anger were Les Grands accused of corrupting the nation’s youth. People see in many parts of the continent a link between transgressive sex and illicit enrichment. Notions of the person as double play a crucial role in this, coloring people’s perceptions of homosexuality.

Peter Geschiere is emeritus professor for the Anthropology of Africa at both the University of Amsterdam and Leiden University. He was also co-editor of ETHNOGRAPHY (SAGE, 2007 - 2021). Since 1971 he has undertaken historical-anthropological fieldwork in various parts of Cameroon and elsewhere in West and Central Africa. His publications include The Modernity of Witchcraft : Politics and the Occult in Post-colonial Africa (University of Virginia Press, 1997); and (with Rogers Orock) Conspiracy Narratives from Postcolonial Africa: Freemasonry, Homosexuality and Illicit Enrichment (Univ. of Chicago Press, 2024). 

The mission of the Yves Oltramare Chair for Religion and Politics in the Contemporary World is to provide a major scientific contribution to the analysis of the impact of the relationship between religion and politics, on the evolution of societies and the international system.