The Age of Sex: Custom, Law, and Ritual in Twentieth-Century East Africa

Corrie Decker ’98

The Age of Sex: Custom, Law, and Ritual in Twentieth-Century East Africa by Corrie Decker ’98 examines connections between rites of passage and chronological age, how resulting stereotypes influenced how colonial and postcolonial court officials decided age-of-consent and other sex crime cases, and how the question of when childhood ends sparked extensive debates about gender, race, and development.

(2025, University of Wisconsin Press) 

The Age of Sex by Corrie Decker