The authors address questions such as: What is the meaning of gender in an African context? Why does gender usually connote women? Why has gender taken hold in Africa when feminism hasn’t? Is gender yet another Western construct that has been applied to Africa? They show gender as an applied rather than theoretical tool and discuss themes such as the performance of sexuality, lesbianism, women’s political mobilization, the work of gendered NGOs, and the role of masculinity in a gendered world.