Paper short abstract:

This paper examines queer life in Ghana, focusing on the political practices and experiences of working class queer men, or 'sasoi'. The paper highlights the moments of hope, solidarity and resistance that make up everyday saso politics and, in so doing, troubles narratives of 'African homophobia'.

Paper long abstract:

Recent queer scholarship from Africa has challenged narratives of 'African homophobia', depicting instead the diverse and multifaceted ways queer Africans are coming together to organise and assert their rights. This paper builds on and expands this literature by examining the lived experience of working class queer men in Accra, locally referred to as sasoi, who work as HIV peer educators for Men who have Sex with Men (MSM). It draws on 13 months of ethnographic research conducted among queer community networks and two human rights NGOs in Accra in 2014-2015. The paper finds that, caught in between public health discourse and interventions on HIV and sexual rights, local understandings and practices of queer sexuality, and structures of heteronormativity, sasoi fashion a pragmatic, hybridised approach to queer sexual politics and activism. While homophobia and heteronormativity profoundly shape saso experiences, working class queer lives are equally constituted through quotidian acts of solidarity and resistance that go against the grain of political, cultural, and religious homophobia. In this way, the paper seeks to depict the complex realities of working class queer life in Ghana, to trouble monochrome portrayals of 'African homophobia', and to centre moments of hope, strength, joy, and defiance in the struggle for queer rights and liberation.