Abstract
To Live Freely in This World is a richly detailed story about intersectional movement building and organizing of diverse groups of sex worker and nonsex worker activists to demand sex work to be recognized as a form of labor in Africa and decriminalization of sex work between consenting adults. Based on fieldwork in seven African countries, which includes personal interviews with 163 adult female and male (cisgender and transgender) sex workers and 48 United Nations (UN) officials, academics, non-governmental organizations (NGO) workers, lawyers, and health workers, Mgbako argues that sex work be recognized as work. She writes, “By understanding sex work as an economic activity and sex workers as laborers deserving of protections, including fair wages, access to healthcare, and protection from abuse and institutionalized discrimination, we move beyond the tired debates regarding morality and sex work that have resulted in misguided laws and policies that harm sex workers” (p. 32–33).
The book is divided into seven chapters, plus an introduction as well as an epilogue. The major contribution of this book lies in the last four chapters, as together these chapters provide an understanding of how intersectional movement building with marginalized communities, including feminist, lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, HIV/AIDS, labor, harm reduction, and antipoverty activists, can advance the cause of the sex workers movement globally. The most informative chapter is Watering the Soil: Key Organization Strategies and Law Reform. Mgbako not only provides some interesting examples of how grassroots mobilization and alliance with groups outside of the sex worker community can be forged through service provision and public outreach activities but also examines the impact of varied policy positions in prostitution/sex work, such as legalization, partial criminalization (Nordic/Swedish model), and decriminalization of sex work between consenting adults on the lives of sex workers. A human rights lawyer herself, Mgbako argues that “decriminalization of sex work between consenting adults is a first step, not a final one” (p. 157) in advocating for the human rights of sex workers. She provides an engaging narrative of the problematic and harmful effects of the “rescue and rehabilitative” agenda pursued by the antiprostitution activists’ organizations in Africa. By requiring women to stop engaging in sex work to become eligible to receive the benefits, these organizations further perpetuate stigma and shame about sex work among the women and fail to recognize that women choose sex work over other livelihood opportunities because sex work pays more.
This book is refreshing on many counts. First, it negates the long-standing presumed assumption of homogeneity among sex workers found implicit in most books on prostitution, by beautifully portraying the diversity that exists within the African sex industry. It broadens the understanding of sex workers as constitutive of diverse gendered identities, as it includes female and male (cisgender and transgender) sex workers. Second, the pictures and personal narratives of sex worker activists interwoven throughout the book render visible the historically marginalized “voices” that are often elided from the mainstream discourse about prostitution and work to underscore the extent of heterogeneity that characterizes the sex worker community in Africa. Third, the depiction of the multiplicity of voices within the sex workers’ movement in Africa as a source of strength enables the reader to reject the dominant notion of “single story”/master narrative present in the narratives of antiprostitution activists/abolitionist feminists.
This book should appeal to all social work educators in general, but it is particularly relevant for courses in diversity, sexuality, gender inequality/women’s issues, social welfare policy, and social justice. It would make a compelling read for advanced year social policy course, as there is much to learn about advocacy skills from the sex worker’s movement in Africa. The strategies of informal and formal political resistance and intersectional movement building illustrated in this book can be applied to organize and energize any social movements. It is also an excellent resource for social work practitioners who want to understand how issues of gender and sexuality intersect with the issues related to HIV prevention, sex work, and trafficking.