TY - BOOK AU - Pizmony-Levy, Oren AU - 2024 AU - Moland, Naomi TI - Rigid Culture and Social Change: How African NGOs Educate about LGBTI Rights SN - 0010-4086 PB - Comparative Education Review KW - African NGOs KW - Homosexuality KW - Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Intersex (LGBTI) KW - LGBTI Rights KW - Culture and Social Change N2 - This article investigates the educative practices of African lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex (LGBTI) activists who contest claims that homosexuality is un- African and imported from the West. We situate this work within a theoretical framework about cultural contestation and how NGOs influence cultural change. Using data from interviews with nine NGO activists from eight African countries and a survey of 31 African NGOs, we explore the rhetorical strategies activists use to debunk claims that homosexuality is un-African. Activists cite examples of indigenous homosexuality in Africa and present examples of contemporary homosexual African individuals. These rhetorical strategies reflect a conceptualization of "African cultures" as rigid and unchanging-a conceptualization that differs from common scholarly assertions of the mutability of culture. We demonstrate how activists use this information to educate LGBTI people and their families, religious and community leaders, and the wider public through informal conversations, workshops, radio interviews, and documentaries UR - https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.1086/729665 ER -