Kim Molenaar, Godly Gays? Sexuality and a Pentecostal Morality in Gaborone

The research takes as a starting point the friction between Christian ethics and morality and sexual rights as present in the current sexual rights debate in Botswana. Building on ethnographic research conducted in and around Gaborone, Kim Molenaar analyzes how imaginaries about being a good Christian, Motswana, and African lead to everyday ethical questions for people involved in the sexual rights debate as well as the general public, and how these ethical ponderings inform people’s actions. Based on in-depth interviews, reports of social gatherings, shorter informal conversations and a media analysis she aims to explore and to create a better understanding of the everyday Christian moralities that surround sexuality and gender roles in Botswana. How these ethics interact with ideas about Botho and African personhood  that inform Batswana on these issues, albeit in different ways, is the focus of this research.