dr. K.E. (Kim) Knibbe

Sexuality, Religion and Secularism. Cultural encounters in the African Diaspora in the Netherlands. Funded by the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO)

This project studies the different ways sexual well-being is understood and approached in the African Diaspora in the Netherlands. In the Netherlands, a secularist notion of sexual well-being is dominant. Within this understanding of sexual health, religion and tradition are often seen as obstacles for a responsible approach to sexuality. In contrast, in many African countries religion, as well as ‘traditional’ healing practices and teachings of adolescents by elders may play a large role in how sexual well-being is understood and approached. Religion is often a major link to a modern, global lifestyle. In the particular case of sexual health, different cultural trajectories emerging from Africa and Europe encounter each other. Central to this project is the question how these approaches intersect, clash or find common ground in the African Diaspora in the Netherlands.

The project is sub-divided into three sub-projects, corresponding to three different (sometimes overlapping) groups of actors and positions from which to view the intersections of these different approaches: organisations working from within a sexual health paradigm, both secular and religious, religious actors in the African Diaspora, and African migrants in the Netherlands themselves.