Paper short abstract:

Efforts to eradicate Female Genital Mutilation/Cutting (FGM/C) and child marriage are mired by narrowly Eurocentric models of gender, empowerment, and feminism. I counter these models with postcolonial critiques and decolonial alternatives, particularly those advanced by African feminists/womanists.

Paper long abstract:

Decolonial literature argues that major organisations working in the fields of global health and gender and development have the implicit ideological function of maintaining power structures rooted in colonial legacies. Their discourses and policies reflect a Eurocentric worldview reinforced by powerful epistemic communities of practice, comprising academics and policy-makers, who act as gatekeepers of knowledge production by excluding other worldviews.

Nowhere is such coloniality of knowledge more evident than in efforts to eradicate Female Genital Mutilation/Cutting (FGM/C) and child marriage. Ostensibly designed to reduce so-called ‘harmful traditional practices’, these programmes’ objectives are far more extensive. The bodies of Black and Brown girls become the battleground for whole-scale social engineering, underpinned by Eurocentric constructions of gender, sexuality, and modernist notions of progress.

I support my argument with data from a postdoc project on two recent trends within FGM/C and child marriage eradication efforts, namely ‘Gender Transformative Approaches (GTAs)’ and the turn among donors and INGOs towards ‘local feminist movements’ as partners. Based on discourse analysis of policy documents, and interviews with practitioners, I show how these approaches promote narrow Eurocentric models of gender, gender equality, empowerment, and feminism. I contrast these models with postcolonial critiques and decolonial alternatives, particularly those advanced by African feminists/womanists, who challenge Eurocentric models of gender and gender equality, and promote feminist strategies aligned with local family and community structures.

I also reflect on my positionality as a white, Northern-based scholar-practitioner, and my use of transnational feminist praxis methodology involving project co-design with local practitioners.

Paper short abstract:

In a context where sexualities in urban Africa are construed as reproductive health issues rather than complex phenomena with various desires, practices, and imaginaries, how can junior scholars build research designs that disrupt dominant cis-heteronormative, ethnocentric and moralistic narratives?

Paper long abstract:

Historically, the womb of African women has been cast as a problematic issue following Malthusian developmentalist discourses promoting demographic control in the global South. As the challenges posed by the environmental crisis and demographic growth seem particularly salient in African cities, the western/colonial gaze still prevails in (inter)national policies and academic circles alike. As a result, sexualities in urban Africa are narrowly construed as a reproductive health issue rather than the complex political, historical and social phenomena reporting on various desires, practices, and imaginaries.

How then, can (junior) scholars studying these issues build research designs that interrogate and disrupt these dominant cis-heteronormative, ethnocentric, and moralistic narratives? My work explores the socio-political complexity of ‘dissident’ sexualities’ manifestations in public spaces in Kinshasa and Abidjan by questioning (1) the dichotomy between public and private spaces in both social and biological bodies, (2) the urban spatial inscriptions of dissident sexualities, and (3) their broader entanglements with state power/violence.

My goal is to discuss epistemic violence, exploratory methodologies, and processes of theorizing dissident sexualities in urban spaces. In light of my topic and the existing literature, I seek novel and critical approaches to addressing the ethical and semantic difficulties I will face as I inquire into the politics of ‘dissident’ sexualities and intimacy in African cities. In so doing, I hope to examine the promises of a feminist, queer and decolonial sexual futures’ analysis through concrete research devices, including discussions on my positionality as a western ‘activist-researcher’, participatory fieldwork/methods and collaborative dissemination strategies considered.

Paper short abstract:

The paper is based on narratives of queer people from northern Ghana who ‘speak back’ to dominant narratives that are based on English speaking, metropolitan and/or activism mediated coverage and research. Speaking back is about responding to power and taking agency in redirecting representations.

Paper long abstract:

Over the last decades, queer sexualities in Ghana have been making it to global media outlets such as the BBC, CNN, The Guardian, as well as non-governmental organisations such as HRW and Amnesty International. Particularly the discussion of the ‘anti-gay bill’ in parliament in 2021 has drawn considerable interest. Regarding academic research, there is literature on queer lives through the lens of public controversies and debates, activism, violence and discrimination, and health. Both the reporting and the research are dominated by coverage and studies located in Accra or the urban south. In this paper, we take up the question of who represents whom and based on what? from the perspective of queer women and men in northern Ghana. By way of their practices and perceptions, they speak back about certain (mis)representations, but they also comment directly on certain matters such as LGBT politics, and thus create different futures. We use the term ‘speaking back’ by showing their narratives. It signals responding to power and, in the same act, taking agency in redirecting representations or knowledge production. They ‘speak back’ to dominant narratives which a) constrain the available ways of thinking about queer lives in their breadth, by discursively constructing queer lives as LGBT+ -identity constructed, privileging and reifying sexuality, as vulnerable and prone to violence and b) to knowledge based on English speaking, metropolitan and/or activism mediated research. The paper seeks to demonstrate the complexity and inherent ‘messiness’ of queer lives and of the way tolerance and intolerance coexist.

Paper short abstract:

How do silenced and erased subjectivities, processes, practices and peoples in present queer feminist representations of genders and sexualities in Africa feature in future envisioning, imaginations and scholarship? I analyse politics of knowledge creation, academic freedom and taboo breaking.

Paper long abstract:

How do silenced, invisibilised, erased and othered subjectivities, processes, practices and peoples in present queer feminist representations of genders and sexualities in Africa feature in future envisioning, imaginations and scholarship? In what ways can future academic scholarship and artistic creativity transcend current silences, invisibilisations and erasures within diverse bodies of knowledge produced about African genders and sexualities? To redress ongoing silencing and erasure, one must first delineate what/ who is excluded or left out. For each identified category of excluded form, one must subsequently answer the questions, why is it left out, where is it left out, who is leaving it out, how is it left out, and when is it left out? In this paper, I reflect on possibilities of practically transcending the silencing and erasures of othered aspects of genders and sexualities in Africa, by drawing from the politics of knowledge creation, limitations of academic freedom, lack of intersectional analyses and structural/ systemic factors that enhance tabooed domains. I think through and with the prisms of gender, generation, geography, class, ability, decriminalisation and digital democracy to enhance future representations of otherwise presently tabooed others.

Paper short abstract:

This paper offers an ethnographic account of spaces in Nairobi that queer women and non-binary folk create for themselves, with particular focus on the political possibilities of cultivating queer joy as a form of resistance

Paper long abstract:

"When entering the space, I want it to feel like a whole another universe where anything is possible - like escaping the Matrix.", an organizer of a women-only party described her vision for the event she was planning. This paper offers an ethnographic account of spaces in Nairobi that queer women and non-binary folk create for themselves, with particular focus on the political possibilities of cultivating queer joy as a form of resistance - a recurrent theme during my 12-month fieldwork in Nairobi (over the years 2019-2022). Various Nairobian queer groups, collectives and individuals engage in creating informal queer spaces that focus on cultivating joy, including parties, picnics, artistic performances and hangouts. These spaces are temporary in nature and take place in varying locations and venues. The boundaries of queer spaces are not fixed, but are constantly negotiated through different understandings of inclusivity, safety and target audiences within the queer communities, as well as in relation to the wider society.

The importance of having spaces for celebration, joy and "breathing freely" (Ahmed 2010) is highlighted, as the recent cases homophobic violence remind of the vulnerability and risk associated to living queerly in Kenya. Joyful moments offer, not only a momentary escape from homophobia and hetero-centric norms, but also an opportunity to imagine full, fleshy and fun queer lives, that can thrive despite the obstacles, and refuse "miserable fates", often associated to queer lives. Spaces organized by and for queer people represent hope by allowing the exploration of possibilities for a queer future.

Paper short abstract:

In this presentation, I look into young people’s experiences of sexual, romantic, and material exchanges with older men (blessers) in Cape Town, South Africa, and its connections with their future aspirations in relation to love, family and money.

Paper long abstract:

In this presentation, I share part of my ethnographic material, assembled from interviews with young South African university students in Cape Town about their impressions and/or experiences regarding the so-called “blesser phenomenon”, in which men of more resources engage in affective, material and sexual exchanges with younger people. It is a morally charged topic. On the one hand, public health officials, political parties, and religious groups campaign against the practice, often associated with a higher risk of HIV infection for young women, on the other hand, countless social media content associate the practice with female empowerment.

I try to make connections between the blesser phenomenon and young people’s aspirations for the future regarding love, family, and money, by building on the efforts of sexuality scholars in Brazil and South Africa who look at similarly morally charged scenarios and produce nuanced work that will resist sexualizing and/or exoticizing inequalities.

This paper is part of my ongoing Ph.D. research which aims to investigate the landscape of intimacy among young people in Cape Town and looks at the intersections between the economic and affective spheres, and their relation to a material reality marked by economic crisis and unemployment, often within cultural dynamics that foresee material exchanges in the formalization of affective and family ties.

Paper short abstract:

Pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) is an HIV prevention pill provided to transgender women and men who have sex with men. The paper demonstrates how PrEP users navigate their gendered appearances in the context of a PrEP study, and the gendered and sexuality discourses at the study site

Paper long abstract:

Pre-exposure prophylaxis, or PrEP, have been touted by WHO and UNAIDS as an essential tool in ‘ending AIDS’ by 2030, holding the promise of a future where HIV is no longer endemic. At a study site in Dar es Salaam, transgender women and men who have sex with men come to gain access to the novel pill, which, when taken daily, is proven to be up to 99% effective in reducing new infections of HIV. In this paper, we present the case of one PrEP user, Ibada, who performed a noticeable change in their appearance during fieldwork. Exemplified by Ibadas’ transformation and analysis of their transformation, this paper demonstrates how PrEP users may manage and negotiate gender expressions at the study site and in other areas of life, such as in sex work, dating or search for employment as a peer educator. As an inclusion in the PrEP program depends on gender, sexual practices and eligibility for PrEP, discussions of the motivation for participation and appearance frequently occurred among staff at the study site. The data presented in this paper draws on a 10-month of ethnographic fieldwork between January 2021 and April 2022. Methods used were participant observation at the study site and a secondary health clinic and interviews with Ibada, research staff, health care workers and peer educators. The paper provides insight into gender discourses at a PrEP study site and how non-hetero-normative persons may navigate gender expression in creating a future for themselves.

Paper short abstract:

Guided by critical discourse analysis, the study presents the discursive strategies employed by social media users in constructing heterosexuality and homophobia against the social, political, cultural and historical realities of the Kenyan society.

Paper long abstract:

On 6th January 2023, Edwin Kingetich Chiloba, a Kenyan activist for LGBTQ rights as well as a fashion designer and model, was brutally murdered at the tender age of 25. While his murderers were apprehended and held in custody awaiting prosecution, the commentaries on popular social media networks such as Facebook and Twitter by both politicians and ordinary citizens regarding his sexual orientation trivialized his death. Guided by critical discourse analysis, which aims to explore the link between language use and social practice, this study examines the discursive strategies employed by social media users in constructing heterosexuality and homophobia against the social, political, cultural and historical realities of the Kenyan society. The data analysed is collected from purposively selected posts by Kenyans on Facebook during the period between Chiloba’s death on 6th January and his burial on 17th January. Among the findings of the study is the euphemistic reference of homosexuals as the alphabet people, in reference to LGBTQ and homosexuality assigned the epithets: foreign, unafrican, sinful, demonic, unchristian, ungodly, dirty, sickening, unnatural and deserving of death. The language used reflects the societal, cultural, and social meanings of sexuality and gender in the Kenyan society. Despite these, it is concluded that while lexical choices made by social media users in constructing homophobia abound, there are a few comments that express tolerance and acceptance which is indicative of progress in the fight against discrimination and prejudice especially in a context where homosexuality is criminalized and punishable under the Penal Code.