Sexuality in Africa varies by region. Attitudes towards sexuality diverges between Sub-Saharan Africa and

North Africa North Africa, or Northern Africa is a region encompassing the northern portion of the African continent. There is no singularly accepted scope for the region, and it is sometimes defined as stretching from the Atlantic shores of Mauritania in ...

, with the former more influenced by

Christianity Christianity is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth. It is the world's largest and most widespread religion with roughly 2.38 billion followers representing one-third of the global pop ...

and the latter more influenced by Islam. Discussion of sexuality in Africa often revolves around

sexually transmitted diseases Sexually transmitted infections (STIs), also referred to as sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) and the older term venereal diseases, are infections that are spread by sexual activity, especially vaginal intercourse, anal sex, and oral ...

. Although there exist African communities that are accepting of female pleasure, others may repudiate against such an attitude, while others view sexual acts as primarily a path towards reproduction. Differences in genetic diversity show that in ancient African history, women were more likely than men to copulate and sire offspring, possibly due to female

hypergamy Hypergamy (colloquially referred to as "marrying up") is a term used in social science for the act or practice of a person marrying a spouse of higher caste or social status than themselves. The antonym "hypogamy" refers to the inverse: marryin ...

References

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