Queer in Africa - LGBTQI Identities, Citizenship, and Activism (original) (raw)

2018, Vasu Reddy, Surya Monro, and Zethu Matebeni - Queer in Africa - LGBTQI Identities, Citizenship, and Activism

Sexuality in Africa is a multifaceted domain, deeply material (visceral, embodied, and politicised), and, like gender, informed by interlocking political, social, class, religious, cultural, and economic interests. ‘Sexual politics’ undergirds the circuits of power informing the shape, architecture, and patterns of African queer lives because the gendered hierarchy is sexualised by powerful cisgender men and states, anchored in patriarchy, and in turn circumscribed by heteropolar regimes of gender that make sex dangerous for sexual minorities. Therefore, to be queer in Africa is to be in effect constrained and regulated by the ‘heterosexual matrix’ ( Butler 1999 ), ‘the straight mind’ ( Wittig 1992 ), and the ‘compulsory heterosexuality’ ( Rich 1980 ) that informs the hegemonic order of heterosexuality. Gender variance in Africa is similarly constricted by compulsory gender binarism, patriarchy, and heterosexism.