On Monday’s edition of Amanpour and Company, the PBS and CNN International show found time to cover a topic that virtually nobody cares about: the sex lives of African women. The segment not only found way to shoehorn anti-Dobbs comments, but also embrace polygamy as a perfectly valid type of relationship.
Guest host Sara Sidner introduced the segment, “The rollback of women's reproductive rights in America has dominated headlines after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade. But a new taboo-busting book is focusing our attention on the rights and freedoms of women across the continent of Africa.”
That book was written by “The Ghanaian feminist author, Nana Darkoa Sekyiamah” who “traveled the continent to celebrate their stories of love, desire, and liberation. The result is The Sex Lives of African Women and Christiane sat down with Nana to discuss her fascinating investigation of women owning their sexuality and self-discovery.”
At one point in the interview, Amanpour lamented the stereotyping on the issue and teed up a clip of her own Netflix documentary, Christiane Amanpour: Sex and Love Around the World, where a woman was shown declaring that, in her country, sometimes love has to be shared when a man has more than one wife.
Back in studio, Amanpour asked, “So, on the one hand, love is love and all of us all over the world feel the same way. On the other hand, she brought up you know, quite an African characteristic that you also write about. Polygamy and polyamory. How much of those kinds of stories were people willing to share, because you have a very patriarchal society, obviously?”
Sekyiamah replied by declaring polygamy to be perfectly acceptable, “Yes, people are actually really willing to talk about different types of relationship structures including polygamy, including polyamory, as well as, obviously, monogamy, you know. And I think, actually for me, it was really helpful is for us to recognize that there are several valid forms of relationship structures.”
Not only is polygamy acceptable, for Sekyiamah it is preferable, “I don't really believe in privilege and, you know, monogamy over polyamory, for instance. I'm personally more in favor of polyamory because it gives people more options and choices. But that's my personal bias, you know.”
If one were to follow Amanpour’s logic, is it now racist or culturally insensitive to believe in commitment to one person?
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Here is a transcript for the July 18 show:
PBS Amanpour and Company
7/19/2022
11:44 PM ET
SARA SIDNER: The rollback of women's reproductive rights in America has dominated headlines after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade. But a new taboo-busting book is focusing our attention on the rights and freedoms of women across the continent of Africa. The Ghanaian feminist author, Nana Darkoa Sekyiamah traveled the continent to celebrate their stories of love, desire, and liberation. The result is The Sex Lives of African Women and Christiane sat down with Nana to discuss her fascinating investigation of women owning their sexuality and self-discovery. Here's their conversation.
(....)
CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR: So, on the one hand, love is love and all of us all over the world feel the same way. On the other hand, she brought up you know, quite an African characteristic that you also write about. Polygamy and polyamory. How much of those kinds of stories were people willing to share, because you have a very patriarchal society, obviously?
NANA DARKOA SEKYIAMAH: Yes, people are actually really willing to talk about different types of relationship structures including polygamy, including polyamory, as well as, obviously, monogamy, you know. And I think, actually for me, it was really helpful is for us to recognize that there are several valid forms of relationship structures.
I don't really believe in privilege and, you know, monogamy over polyamory, for instance. I'm personally more in favor of polyamory because it gives people more options and choices. But that's my personal bias, you know. What I'm not a fan of is what my friend (INAUDIBLE) called (INAUDIBLE) called falnogamy, you know, which is false monogamy. What people think they're in a monogamous relationship but really they're not, which I think is quite dangerous when it comes to like sexual health and just your own well-being in general.
