Paper short abstract:

In this paper, I explore the ways in which social media configure Pentecostal constructions of heterosexual masculinity in South Africa in the context of civil society driven programs to fight sexual and gender-based violence and the spread of HIV.

Paper long abstract:

In this paper, I explore the ways in which social media configure Pentecostal constructions of heterosexual masculinity in South Africa in the context of civil society driven programs to fight sexual and gender-based violence and the spread of HIV. Critically engaging with the concept of hegemonic masculinity and the sociological literature on gender relations in conservative Christian communities, I examine how Pentecostal communities in the townships of Cape Town negotiate their model of masculinity in the context of the prevailing hegemonies of "traditional" and "liberal" masculinity. Such negotiations occurred, for instance, in the context of sexual scandals involving Pentecostals pastors that led to law suits and the mobilization of diverse political, cultural and religious constituencies. Based on ethnographic observations and qualitative interviews with Pentecostal men I specify the mechanisms whereby Pentecostalism both contributes to transform but also to reproduce rather than undermine hegemonic masculinity, and the ways in which social media shape such processes.

Paper short abstract:

This paper analyses the online personae of three urban South African queer performance artists. It argues that the construction and performance of these online identities are locally specific iterations outside of homonormative and universalizing narratives of globalized “queerness”.

Paper long abstract:

Instagram has provided a space for the promulgation of niche queer interests and subcultures. This social medium can be seen as a significant mode of queer subcultural consumption and production. This online platform encourages the construction of various queer identities and practices - albeit in hyperreal form. This paper examines the online activities of three gender non-conforming and queer performance artists from Johannesburg, South Africa. It examines online Instagram posts by Umlilo (vocal artist), BlackPearl Leeroy Alexis Kubeka (drag female impersonator) and Kieron Jina (dancer). It analyses the online constructions of each artists' persona, and their urban queer aesthetics. This paper discusses the nuanced, and sometimes overlapping, ways through which critical questions about "queerness", race, sexuality, gender, class, cosmopolitanism and urbanity are explored on these artists' Instagram pages. It undertakes a discourse analysis of their photographic images, online discussions, as well as their responses from interviews about their desires, tastes, ideas, and artistic performances. Moreover, this paper posits that their aesthetics provide an alternative to homonormative representations about queer subjectivity and identity construction.

Paper short abstract:

This paper reads everyday practices and interactions of queer individuals in selected city spaces in Nairobi, Kenya in ways that make it possible to read, and locate queer subjectivities that ultimately betrays a queer ‘tolerance’ against a backdrop of a violent legal framework and religious rhetoric

Paper long abstract:

In recent times, Kenya has become visible as a site of and frame for the contradictions of queer livability on one hand and queer visibility on the other. While the legal framework denies queer existence, there exist dynamic lived experiences that betray a queer 'tolerance' that is at odds with both the political and religious logic in the country. To unpack these contradictions, this paper reads the everyday practices and interactions of queer individuals in the city spaces in Nairobi, Kenya. Specifically, I select three spaces in the central business district of Nairobi to juxtapose these contradicting anxieties. In this paper, I wonder how the selected city spaces in Nairobi -the nightclub, the tavern, and the cruising spot - enable its users, the queer individuals, to animate and reanimate the space. I concern myself with two main thoughts: First, I read the several disparate spaces in how they structure themselves in ways that allow queer, queering and queered flows by its queer users. Secondly, I analyze how queer individuals in occupying such spaces invert or subvert the spaces in ways that make it possible to read, locate and recognize queer subjectivities and allow a reading of queer 'tolerance'. Through this, I contend that queer individuals attach and re-attach subjective meanings to these spaces and generate new understandings of the multiple and various queer selves against a backdrop of a violent and repressive nationalist and religious rhetoric.

Paper short abstract:

This paper will bring into picture recent challenges to homosexual tolerance in Tanzania by the state as represented in the social media.

Paper long abstract:

The politics around same-sex relationships in Africa has turned into legal debates and there is a lot of ongoing negative speeches and homophobic actions directed towards homosexuals. This is the same case in Tanzania where homosexuality is considered illegal and there is a strict law of 30 years imprisonment for anyone involved in any form of same sex relationship. This paper aims at bringing into picture the challenges facing tolerance of towards gay men by the state as represented in the social media. Social media in Tanzania has not just helped gay men in forming their own communities as well as well as providing a platform for sharing different issues but also has created new forms of openness increase possibilities for activism, countering homophobia and gender based violence. The recent years have experienced the state presenting a number of discriminatory speeches, activists getting arrested and banning of NGOs as well as programs providing services targeting gay men in Tanzania. All these created a number of debates in the social media and this paper will basically analyze social media responses towards homosexuality among men by capturing people's responses from Facebook pages and groups as well as Instagram pages and websites. These responses will be presented in terms of public discourse, political strategy, and legal argument.

Paper short abstract:

This paper will offer insight into the ways gender complexity and same-sex intimacy are integral to the richly nuanced, inherently progressive Mami Wata Vodun while demonstrating how the internet can both help and hinder non-conforming individuals seeking spiritual refuge within Mami Wata.

Paper long abstract:

Mami Wata, a pantheon of Vodun sea spirits, is known as a source of religious and economic prosperity. She represents wealth, beauty, seduction, desire, fidelity, femininity, human anomolies, and modernity. Mami Wata and her avatars are often portrayed in the form of Hindu deities, known as India Spirits, who help devotees navigate life's previously unfamiliar circumstances such as birth control, abortion, prostitution, homosexuality, and transsexuality.

Known to be non-judgmental, inclusive, and progressive, Mami Wata can provide safe haven for people with non-conforming biological, emotional, or psychological conditions or identities. The gender-fluid Mami Wata spirits identified with gender-changing and androgynous Hindu deities have garnered attention on social media.

Increased visibility of Vodun on Facebook has provided a platform for Vodun priests/priestesses to fill the Western demand for African spiritual connection through selling services ranging from cyber-healing to full-scale cyber-initiations. There are also opportunistic priests/priestesses who prey upon vulnerable people during times of crisis using successful cult recruitment tactics. A strategically curated Facebook page featuring gender-ambiguous images, statues, and shrines of Hindu-Vodun spirits, has attracted gender non-conforming clientele searching for spiritual identity. Once pulled into the cyber-system, the initiates are encouraged to recruit others offering often fraudulent and expensive ceremonies to anyone seeking guidance via Facebook.

Through case studies, this paper will offer insight into the ways gender complexity and same-sex intimacy are integral to this inherently progressive Mami Wata Vodun spiritual system while demonstrating how the internet can help or harm non-conforming individuals seeking spiritual refuge within Mami Wata

Paper short abstract:

This paper is a reflection on the use of intersectionality by feminist student activists at the University of the Witwatersrand. I explore the conditions or viability for intersectionality to queer friendship and solidarity in activist spaces.

Paper long abstract:

I observe that the various bodies of feminist student activists at the University of the Witwatersrand use intersectionality ad a tool with which to address questions of solidarity and difference, since 2015 when Fees Must Fall at Wits entered the national scale. Some African feminist and queer scholars have offered intersectionality as a tool or method that bears the potential of rupturing the category 'woman', or perhaps queering feminist spaces that might otherwise be homogenising and essentialising. Under these conditions, solidarity and 'safety' comes at the cost of silencing desire. The use of intersectionality has coincided with the ways that the student movement has more generally involved the use of visual tactics or methods. The body, and more specifically, the queer body (and not uncontested) has been one of the visual idioms of feminist protest, coming to circulate as the principle or practice of intersectionality. My questions here press both the method/ tactic of intersectionality here related through the display of the queer body as the scene of political assembly, as well as the viability of encounters of friendship, intimacy and desire within this space.

Paper short abstract:

In what astute ways do Kenyan activists self-censor in order to align with trends in national politics and debates and does this have an influence on media coverage of homosexual tolerance in response to public opinion and events that shape national politics?

Paper long abstract:

Direct and indirect effects of criminalization and public visibility of sexual minorities in Kenya is extensively invoked when discussing tolerance and violence experienced by LGBTI persons. Religious and political leaders have evoked anti homosexuality rhetoric - as a means to 'protect' traditional and religious values further excluding and to some extent instigating violence. The Kenyan media has played a role both in sensationalizing stories related LGBTI issues, fueling the anti LGBTI rhetoric and as a platform for LGBTI activists and allies to offer counter-narratives to this exclusionary discourse.

Going against the widespread claims that visibility of sexual minorities in public domain has provoked conservative and political backlash, the LGBTI community in Kenya is in court seeking decriminalization of homosexuality. This comes amidst an election year and a president who has clearly stated that 'gay rights' are a non-issue. This paper therefore seeks to analyze the astute ways in which Kenyan activists self-censor and time their activities- either making them public or remaining silent in order to align with trends in national politics and public debate. It will also look at media coverage of homosexual tolerance in contrast to the rarely critiqued nor elaborated ways in which media adjust own messaging and presentation of sexual and gender minorities in response to public opinion and events that shape national politics.

Paper short abstract:

This paper examines the ways young South African feminists employ social media to resist sexual violence, often revealing personal experiences and questioning the implicit acceptance of a gendered status quo by politically powerful women of preceding generations.

Paper long abstract:

The rise of digital activism has transformed the nature of political protests in South Africa. Not only has it changed the way in which political protests are organized and actualized, it has also become a space for young black women to vocalize their dissent. Some of the most attention-grabbing protests that took place in 2015/16—#RapeAtAzania, #RUReferencelist and #RememberKhwezi—were led by young feminists contributing to the ongoing public discourse against sexual violence in the country. Analyzing media articles and twitter posts related to these hashtags, we examine the voices of young feminists as they speak out against sexual violence and seek to identify the challenges facing them as they attempt to articulate their positions. Further, we ask what implications might such actions have on existing anti-violence and feminist movements in South Africa. Are these new forms of feminist activism indicative of an emerging clash between younger and older women and an effort to redefine the boundaries of feminist activism among the post-apartheid generation? Or, are they an attempt by young women to articulate opposition to particular women affiliated to the African National Congress Women's league and the ruling party more generally? We argue that although sexual violence has long plagued South African society, young feminists are engaging and identifying with the issue on a more personal level, often revealing their own encounters with sexual violence, and questioning the politically powerful women of their mothers' and grandmothers' generations implicit acceptance of the gendered status quo.