Activism and Agency: Reflections on Emergent Queer Life Writing from Sub-Saharan Africa

Wesley Macheso

doi:10.25159/2663-6565/11768

Authors

Wesley Macheso Stellenbosch University

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.25159/2663-6565/11768

Keywords:

queer, autobiography , sub-Saharan Africa, homophobia, activism, agency

Abstract

This article examines how queer authors from sub-Saharan Africa use writing about their lives to expose the vulnerabilities that they face in their specific communities and how they try to elude the restrictions of homophobia in their activism. I read Siya Khumalo’s You Have to be Gay to Know God (2018) and Brian Pellot’s edited collection Hopes and Dreams that Sound Like Yours: Stories of Queer Activism in Sub-Saharan Africa (2021) as autobiographical testimonies that explore means of queer activism in sub-Saharan Africa’s homophobic publics to challenge the sustenance of homophobia by dismantling its systematic ideological structures of power differentials in these societies. By championing activism, African queer writers engage in a process of creating new subjectivities that demand rights and visibility for their unthreatened presence on the continent. I argue that these life stories suggest that queer activism in sub-Saharan Africa ought to be multidimensional, inclusive, and cross-sectional to circumvent the prohibitions and restrictive forces of heteropatriarchy. The narratives also reveal that activism can become therapy and a source of resilience in the face of homophobia.

Metrics

Metrics Loading ...

Author Biography

Wesley Macheso, Stellenbosch University

University of Malawi

Stellenbosch University

References

Althaus-Reid, M., and L. Isherwood. 2007. “Thinking Theology and Queer Theory.” Feminist Theology 15 (3): 302–14. https://doi.org/10.1177/0966735006076168. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/0966735006076168

Andrews, G. 2021. “YouTube Queer Communities as Heterotopias: Space, Identity, and ‘Realness’ in Queer South African Vlogs.” In “The Possibilities and Intimacies of Queer African Screen Cultures,” edited by Lindsey Green-Simms and Z’étoile Imma, special issue, Journal of African Cultural Studies 33 (1): 84–100. https://doi.org/10.1080/13696815.2020.1792275. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/13696815.2020.1792275

Angelides, S. 2001. A History of Bisexuality. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.

Athumani, H. 2019. “Uganda Police Confirm Arrest of 120 LGBT People.” VOA, November 11, 2019. Accessed April 22, 2020. https://www.voanews.com/africa/uganda-police-confirm-arrest-120-lgbt-people.

Butler, J. 2005. Giving an Account of Oneself. New York, NY: Fordham University Press. https://doi.org/10.5422/fso/9780823225033.001.0001. DOI: https://doi.org/10.5422/fso/9780823225033.001.0001

Couser, G. T. 2012. Memoir: An Introduction. Oxford: Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:osobl/9780199826902.001.0001. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:osobl/9780199826902.001.0001

Currier, A., and T. Migraine-George. 2017. “‘Lesbian’/Female Same-Sex Sexualities in Africa.” Journal of Lesbian Studies 21 (2): 133–50. https://doi.org/10.1080/10894160.2016.1146031. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/10894160.2016.1146031

Currier, A., and J. Moreau. 2016. “Digital Strategies and African LGBTI Organising.” In Digital Activism in the Social Media Era: Critical Reflections of Emerging Trends in Sub-Saharan Africa, edited by B. Mutsvairo, 231–47. Cham: Palgrave Macmillan. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-40949-8_11. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-40949-8_11

Foucault, M. 1998. “Different Spaces.” In Aesthetics, Method, and Epistemology: Essential Works of Foucault, edited by J. D. Faubion, 175–86. London: Penguin.

Gigie. 2021. “Beautiful Pieces of Art.” In Hopes and Dreams that Sound Like Yours: Stories of Queer Activism in Sub-Saharan Africa, edited by B. Pellot, 83–86. Cape Town: Taboom Media.

Khumalo, S. 2018. You Have to be Gay to Know God. Johannesburg: Kwela Books.

Lallmon, N. T. 2021. “#Reform53—Together for Legal Equality.” In Hopes and Dreams that Sound Like Yours: Stories of Queer Activism in Sub-Saharan Africa, edited by B. Pellot, 91–93. Cape Town: Taboom Media.

Lewin, T. 2019. “Queer Visual Activism in South Africa.” In The Aesthetics of Global Protest: Visual Culture and Communication, edited by A. McGarry, I. Erhart, H. Eslen-Ziya, O. Jenzen and U. Korkut, 39–58. Dublin: Amsterdam University Press. https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctvswx8bm.7. DOI: https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctvswx8bm.7

Macheso, W. P. 2021. “Vulnerability and the (Im)Possibilities of Becoming: Transgenderism in Contemporary South African Life Writing.” African Identities 19 (4): 473–86. https://doi.org/10.1080/14725843.2020.1803044. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/14725843.2020.1803044

Marais, B., and C. Stobie. 2014. “Constructing the Autobiographical Self, Collective Identity and Spiritual Spaces in South African Queer Autobiography.” Literator 35 (1): 1–9. http://doi.org/10.4102/lit.v35i1.1081. DOI: https://doi.org/10.4102/lit.v35i1.1081

Matabeni, Z., S. Munro, and V. Reddy, eds. 2018. Queer in Africa: LGBTQI Identities, Citizenship, and Activism. London: Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781138400214. DOI: https://doi.org/10.4324/9781138400214

Mohammed, A., C. Nagarajan, and R. Aliyu, eds. 2018. She Called Me Woman: Nigeria’s Queer Women Speak. Abuja: Cassava Republic.

Muñoz, J. E. 2009. Cruising Utopia: The Then and There of Queer Futurity. New York, NY: New York University Press.

Nest Collective. 2015. Stories of Our Lives: Queer Narratives from Kenya. Nairobi: Nest Arts Company.

O’Brien, J. 2004. “Wrestling the Angel of Contradiction: Queer Christian Identities.” Culture and Religion 5 (2): 179–202. https://doi.org/10.1080/143830042000225420. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/143830042000225420

Ochara, D. 2021. “Just Knock and You Can Enter.” In Hopes and Dreams that Sound Like Yours: Stories of Queer Activism in Sub-Saharan Africa, edited by B. Pellot, 21–24. Cape Town: Taboom Media.

Okwany, S. 2021. “Overcoming Abuse through ‘Artivism’.” In Hopes and Dreams that Sound Like Yours: Stories of Queer Activism in Sub-Saharan Africa, edited by B. Pellot, 67–70. Cape Town: Taboom Media.

Olaoluwa, S. 2018. “The Human and Non-Human: African Sexuality Debate and Symbolisms of Transgression.” In Queer in Africa: LGBTQI Identities, Citizenship, and Activism, edited by Z. Matabeni, S. Munro and V. Reddy, 20–40. London: Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781138400214-3. DOI: https://doi.org/10.4324/9781138400214-3

Osinubi, T. 2020. “African Queer Autobiographics: Drama, Disclosure, and Pedagogy.” a/b: Auto/Biography Studies 35 (3): 749–70. https://doi.org/10.1080/08989575.2020.1766202. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/08989575.2020.1766202

Pellot, B., ed. 2021. Hopes and Dreams that Sound Like Yours: Stories of Queer Activism in Sub-Saharan Africa. Cape Town: Taboom Media.

Reid, G. 2003. “‘It Is Just a Fashion!’ Linking Homosexuality and ‘Modernity’ in South Africa.” Etnofoor 16 (2): 7–25. https://www.jstor.org/stable/25758053.

Robertson, M. 2017. “Queerying Scholarship of Christianity and Queer Sexuality: Reviewing Nuances and New Directions.” African Journal of Gender and Religion 23 (2): 125–44. https://doi.org/10.14426/ajgr.v23i2.31. DOI: https://doi.org/10.14426/ajgr.v23i2.31

Sebastião, P. 2021. “Building a Body, Telling Our Story.” In Hopes and Dreams that Sound Like Yours: Stories of Queer Activism in Sub-Saharan Africa, edited by B. Pellot, 29–32. Cape Town: Taboom Media.

Smith, S., and J. Watson. 2001. Reading Autobiography: A Guide for Interpreting Life Writing. Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press. https://doi.org/10.5749/minnesota/9780816669851.001.0001. DOI: https://doi.org/10.5749/minnesota/9780816669851.001.0001

Stryker, S. 2006. “(De)Subjugated Knowledges: An Introduction to Transgender Studies.” In The Transgender Studies Reader, edited by S. Stryker and S. Whittle, 1–18. New York, NY: Routledge:

Tan, K. 2021. Foreword to Hopes and Dreams that Sound Like Yours: Stories of Queer Activism in Sub-Saharan Africa, edited by B. Pellot, 7–8. Cape Town: Taboom Media.

Theron, L., J. McAllister, and M. Armisen. 2016. “A Call for Critical Reflection on Queer/LGBTIA+ Activism in Africa.” Pambazuka News: Voices for Freedom and Justice, May 12, 2016. Accessed February 10, 2022. https://www.pambazuka.org/gender-minorities/where-do-we-go-here.

Van Der Vlies, A. 2012. “Art as Archive: Queer Activism and Contemporary South African Visual Cultures.” Kunapipi 34 (1): 94–116. https://ro.uow.edu.au/kunapipi/vol34/iss1/10.