This is a book full of hope, which is surprising in view of the general impression that homophobia is rampant in Africa, and that it is intensifying – spreading all over the continent especially during the last decade and advocating ever heavier sanctions. But it is precisely Epprecht's aim to debunk this general impression. He certainly recognises that there are reasons for worry – the book is full of sombre examples – but he feels one of the most urgent tasks is to dispel this image of Africa as a continent that is uniformly homophobic. There are important variations in the way homosexuality became a public issue and there are numerous counter-voices (and -actions). Recently several others have emphasised that the emerging field of homo-studies in Africa should not be dominated by a will to denunciate homophobia but rather by emphasising variations in its emergence, thus robbing it of its self-evidence as just ‘African’ (cf. for instance the recent special issues of Politique Africaine 126 [2012] by Christophe Broqua and African Studies Review 56, 2 [2013] by Ayo A. Coli). Epprecht's specific aim – in line with the African Arguments series – is to address a broader audience and to make academic insights available in wider debates. Moreover, as a historian who has an impressive record in the study of the topic and who has for some time been most actively involved in public debates in various parts of Africa, he is particularly qualified to address these thorny issues.

The result is, indeed, a very rich book. I admire not only the consequent strategies with which Epprecht sets out to ‘engage’ – the word recurs throughout the book – homophobic ideas and spokesmen, but also the riches of the data he offers the reader in order to substantiate his arguments. The book has become, indeed, a true Fundgrube of knowledge about same sex issues throughout the history of the African continent – from same-sex as ‘wealth medicine’ in older and more recent times to colonial paradoxes, ambiguities in Bible and Quran texts or unexpected twists in post-colonial leaders’ views. As an historian Epprecht is well placed to bring out the full complexities and surprising turns in the trajectories of homophobia, that has never been a given in African thought, but is shown to be a constantly changing hybrid of all sorts of internal and external influences. And he uses this complexity to the full in ‘engaging’ with religious leaders, self-proclaimed traditionalists and political leaders.

This framework returns in the various chapters – on the need to demystify sexuality studies in Africa in general, on the role of religion and on the role of the state. For many his detailed demonstration that, for instance, neither the Bible nor the Quran are unambiguous in their condemnation of same sex will come as a surprise (despite my solid Protestant upbringing many of the Bible texts he quotes were new to me). Thus he provides data that are, indeed, very useful for nuancing the public debates that now go on in many parts of Africa. In line with this, the closing chapter addresses present-day struggles and strategies.

Instead of notes, Epprecht refers the reader to small overviews for each chapter of useful literature. This makes one sometimes wonder from where he got certain observations from. Can one, indeed, say that Protestantism, from its beginnings in Africa propagated that ‘… not only would salvation await in the next life in heaven, but prosperity would follow also in this one on earth’? (pp. 87/8 – seems to underrate the impatience of many missionaries with forms of luxury). I wonder also whether the long passages about the choice of terms – of course necessary, but already at the beginning of the book (pp. 20–36) somewhat long – will not put off the non-academic readers whom the author wants to address most explicitly. But such questions are a bit futile because the panache with which Epprecht places present-day struggles in wider historical contexts (from Dona Beatriz in Congo's old capital Salvador around 1700 to present-day issues of HIV and the broader effects of ignoring ‘men who have sex with men’ in health programmes) really works. The main merit of the book might be how the author shows most convincingly that the struggle about homosexuality is not an issue concerning only a small minority but touches most directly on central issues for society at large.