
On Thursday 6 February, the Gender, Diversity and Global Justice Platform organises the seminar ‘Queer Politics in Africa’. In this seminar, Elizabeth Amarukhor Omoruyi, Aminata Cécile Mbaye (both Utrecht University) and Rantimi Jays Julius-Adeoye (Redeemer's University) will discuss queer culture in Nigeria and political demands and discourses related to homosexuality in Senegal.
Programme
Elizabeth Amarukhor Omoruyi (Utrecht University, ICON Research Institute for Cultural Inquiry) and Rantimi Jays Julius-Adeoye (Redeemer's University). Chair: Sandra Ponzanesi (Utrecht University).
In Nigeria, queer is defined from a religious moralist perspective which borders around social taboo and what is unacceptable. Therefore, in a nation that is evenly divided along Christianity and Islamic religious lines, discussions around LGBTQ is considered a 'sin' and members of the group often meet with violence. Nevertheless, there are some notable advocates for the LGBTQ community that have become famous, even in the face of oppression and police harassment.
Since the enactment of laws against homosexuality and same sex marriage in January 2014 in Nigeria, many members of the LGBTQ community have either fled the country, been arrested or even murdered. However, there is a growing community of crossdressers and transgenders, like Bobrisky and James Brown who have attained celebrity status. While some countries in the Global South have laws that allow for diversity in sexual orientation and association, Nigeria and many African countries stipulate severe punishments for anyone who has a sexual orientation which does not follow what is considered normal. Therefore, it is pertinent to ask the question: what is normal? What is abnormal? Who defines normal? And how does religion, culture and the Nigerian law intersect in Queer culture?
About Elizabeth Amarukhor Omoruyi
Omoruyi obtained both a Bachelor's and a Master's degree (in English) from the University of Ibadan, Nigeria, and completed a PhD under the supervision of Sandra Ponzanesi and Ernst van Alphen at Utrecht University. She lectures at the International Business School The Hague (IBSH) and is an Adjunct Lecturer at the Centre for Gender and Humanitarian Studies, Redeemer’s University, Nigeria. She has also attended international conferences in Nigeria and the Netherlands. Omoruyi has published numerous articles in peer-reviewed journals and edited books. She currently serves as editor of Ede: Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences.
About Rantimi Jays Julius-Adeoye
Julius-Adeoye is a professor of Theatre, Film, Media, and Cultural studies at Redeemer’s University, Nigeria. He has been widely published in journals and edited books and has delivered lectures at international conferences in Africa, Asia, Europe, and North America. Julius-Adeoye has examined PhD and MA dissertations and has professionally participated in feature-length films in Nigeria as an assistant director, producer, and script consultant. He has also consulted for the National Institute for Legislative Studies (NILS), Abuja, on drafting a bill for indigenous films in Nigeria, as well as for the National AIDS Control Programme (NACA), Ministry of Health, Abuja, Nigeria.
Aminata Cécile Mbaye (Utrecht University, Graduate Gender Programme). Chair: Sandra Ponzanesi (Utrecht University).
Same-sex practices have been increasingly publicly condemned over the past decade in various African countries. Several scholars have attributed the recent rise of such anti-LGBTQ+ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer [or questioning]) animus in Africa to economic, political, and social changes that have affected many countries since their post-colonial independence. Homophobic rhetoric often suggests that same-sex sexualities are ‘un-African’ and consequently are imported from the West. Conversely, many authors argue that same-sex practices and intimacy have always existed in Africa and insist on the plurality of forms and meanings related to these social and subjective practices.
This presentation draws on research conducted in Senegal, examining how homosexuality has become a subject of political contestation in the country, beginning in the late 2000s and continuing to the present. The repression of same-sex sexuality reached a peak in February 2008 when the Senegalese tabloid Icône published 20 photos of an alleged gay marriage, leading to the detention of five men.
Based on fieldwork and several interviews conducted in Dakar, Thiès, and Mbour, this presentation explores the emergence of new political demands and discourses related to homosexuality in Senegal. It highlights how contemporary discussions on homosexuality are rooted in a complex set of fractured representations of togetherness and belonging.
About Aminata Cécile Mbaye
Trained in a transdisciplinary manner in philosophy, anthropology, sociology, gender studies, and literary studies, Aminata Cécile Mbaye’s scholarship and teaching reside at the nexus of critical gender/queer studies, critical race studies, African and Black feminism, as well as post- and decolonial theories. Drawing upon critical discourse analysis and ethnographic research involving Senegalese activists, filmmakers, writers, and religious authorities, Aminata’s first monograph Les discours sur l’homosexualité au Sénégal. L'analyse d’une lute représentationnelle scrutinises the emergence of new postcolonial representations, discourses, and practices concerning sexuality and same-sex intimacy in Senegal.
- Start date and time
- End date and time
- Location
- Drift 25, room 302
- Registration