‘We reject attempts to prescribe to new rights that are contrary to our norms, values, traditions and beliefs. We are not gay.’ Every chapter in the book begins with a quote that highlights its main theme of the chapter; similarly, I begin my review with a quote to highlight the importance of the book in current discourses on decolonisation projects, African identity and African sexualities. In What is Africanness? Contesting Nativism in Race, Culture and Sexualities, race and cultural studies scholar Charles Ngwena attempts the daunting task of taking part in a complex and complicated conversation on what is and what is not considered to be Africanness. Described by the author as a dialogue, the book has two main objectives. The first is to ‘implicate nativism in the naming of Africans and reveal its teleology and effects’ and the second is to ‘offer an alternative understanding of how Africans can be named or can name themselves’. In other words, the author begins a conversation on how Africans can reject nativism by renaming and therefore liberating themselves by developing an alternative epistemology that is inclusive. The book is divided into three main parts. Part I comprises two chapters that set the scene by defining and rejecting nativism, and introducing an alternative epistemology of heterogeneous Africanness. The concept of ‘nativism’ is introduced, using the notions of theocratic vision and logic of identity. Ngwena lays out the existence of a ‘generic Africa’. He describes nativism as theocratic in nature in that it calls for sameness by erasing difference, and through the logic of difference that is binary and avoids ambiguity. He does not only criticise colonial frameworks of African identity (nativism from without), he also criticises the wave of emancipatory discourses as flawed due to their tendency to lean towards a ‘closed identity’ and as essentialising and nativising due to their tendency to exclude (nativism from within). From that criticism of nativism, the calls for an inclusive African identity. Borrowing Stuart Hall’s methodology for Black diasporic identity, the author responds to nativising based on equality as a normative ethic for an inclusive identity. The second chapter of Part I draws from the work of Hall, and establishes an identity based concept of Africanness that demonstrates that there is no singular or closed definition of Africanness. The three chapters in Part II question the racial and cultural naming of Africans. These chapters consider the history of the continent through its naming and how colonial versions of the African identity resulted in the ‘othering’ of Africans, which led to the view of

中文翻译：

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什么是非洲性？在种族、文化和性取向方面挑战本土主义

“我们拒绝规定违反我们的规范、价值观、传统和信仰的新权利的企图。我们不是同性恋。本书的每一章都以一句引言开头，突出了该章的主题；同样，我以一句话开始我的评论，以强调这本书在当前关于非殖民化项目、非洲身份和非洲性取向的讨论中的重要性。在什么是非洲性？种族和文化研究学者查尔斯·恩格维纳 (Charles Ngwena) 与种族、文化和性行为中的本土主义争论不休，他试图参与一项艰巨的任务，即参与关于什么是非洲性和什么不是非洲性的复杂而复杂的对话。作者将其描述为对话，这本书有两个主要目标。第一个是“在非洲人的命名中包含本土主义并揭示其目的论和影响”，第二个是“提供对非洲人如何命名或如何命名自己的另一种理解”。换句话说，作者开始讨论非洲人如何通过重命名来拒绝本土主义，从而通过发展一种包容性的替代认识论来解放自己。本书分为三个主要部分。第一部分包括两章，通过定义和拒绝本土主义来设定场景，并介绍异质非洲性的另一种认识论。引入了“本土主义”的概念，使用了神权视野和身份逻辑的概念。Ngwena 阐述了“通用非洲”的存在。他将本土主义描述为本质上的神权主义，因为它通过消除差异并通过二元和避免歧义的差异逻辑来要求相同。他不仅批评非洲身份的殖民框架（来自外部的本土主义），还批评解放话语的浪潮由于倾向于“封闭身份”而有缺陷，并且由于他们倾向于排斥而具有本质化和本土化（来自内部的本土主义）。从对本土主义的批评中，呼吁具有包容性的非洲身份。借用 Stuart Hall 的黑人散居身份方法论，作者回应了基于平等的本土化作为包容性身份的规范伦理。第一部分的第二章取材于霍尔的作品，并建立了一个基于身份的非洲性概念，表明非洲性没有单一或封闭的定义。第二部分的三章质疑非洲人的种族和文化命名。这些章节通过命名来考虑非洲大陆的历史，以及非洲身份的殖民版本如何导致非洲人的“异化”，从而导致了以下观点