Paper short abstract:

Considering a range of LGBTQIA2S+ expression from more formal collective trans-performances in Puerto Rico to less formal individual trans-performances on a beach in Kenya, we investigate the matrices that shape and are shaped by non-cis-hetero-normative people of African descent.

Paper long abstract:

In this presentation, we take our cue from a broad array of LGBTQIA2S+ performances across Africa and its diasporas to envision temporal, spatial, socio-cultural and political trans-locations and super-positions that unsettle the neat discursive boundaries that are normally taken for granted between such notions as: 1) colonial vs. postcolonial vs. neo-colonial ‘eras’; 2) Atlantic vs. Indian Ocean contact ‘zones’; 3) Old vs. New ‘Worlds’; 4) chattel enslavement vs. wage ‘labor’; 5) pure/authentic vs. hybrid/corrupted ‘blood’ and ‘traditions’; 6) rights vs. power ‘struggles’; and 7) active vs. passive ‘resistance’. The indomitable, contradictory and shape-shitfting Atlantic-Saharan-Indian Ocean, colonial-neocolonial-decolonial, and other trans-dynamics that are propelling Africa toward a renewed demographic, economic and cultural centrality on the planet are perhaps nowhere better evidenced than in the daily efforts of non-cis-hetero-normative Africans to survive and lead fulfilling lives. By considering a wide range of LGBTQIA2S+ expression from more formal collective trans-performances on an urban stage in Puerto Rico to less formal individual trans-performances on a beach in Kenya, we acknowledge and investigate some of the multiplex texts and textualities that constitute the matrices that shape and are shaped by non-cis-hetero-normative people of African descent.