Sex work is often framed as a situation from which laborers need to be “rescued.” While there some people are trafficked and forced into sex work, advocacy organizations too often hold up those experiences as universal within the industry. However, to bridge that gap, she does the work of centering the voices of sex workers to guide her research. This allows readers to understand from the get-go that she herself is not a sex worker, and therefore her research is limited by personal inexperience. Like all good feminist researchers, Mgbako declares her social identities and positionality: a Black woman human rights legal professor and advocate who works in solidarity with sex worker activists. Chi Adanna Mgbako’s To Live Freely in this World (January 2016, NYU Press) compiles data during nine years from over 200 interviews with sex workers across Africa to detail the histories and current realities of sex worker activism. Until now, there has not been extensive research published on sex worker activism on the African continent.
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