Afroqueer Assemblages: An Aesthetic of Resistance in ‘Real’ and ‘Virtual’ Worlds.

• Applicant: Aminata Cecile Mbaye, Ph.D.
• Subject Area: General and Comparative Literature and Cultural Studies ; African, American and Oceania Studies ; Theatre and Media Studies
• Term: from 2020 to 2023
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 442316037

• Final Report Year: 2023

Final Report Abstract

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. While same-sex intimacy began making recent headlines in African media and became the focus of political and religious authorities, LGBTQ+ groups have emerged in several African countries. From human rights to HIV/AIDS prevention, these communities advocate for the rights of LGBTQ+ people and intend to change current representations of same-sex intimacy throughout the continent. Despite the creation of several networks of solidarity during the past decade, there has been little discussion on how African LGBTQ+ groups create and produce transnational networks of solidarity across the continent and abroad. Building on transnational approaches to sexuality, my research focused on how the emergence of transnational LGBTQ+ pan-African communities redefines notions of ‘Africanness’, ‘gender’ and ‘sexuality’ through artistic practices and the use of communication technologies. This study not only examined LGBTQ+ networks in Africa, but also investigated the interlink between LGBTQ+ people from the global South and the global North. Certainly, LGBTQ+ people of color living in the global North face issues other than those living in Africa and the global South. According to the findings collected and critically analyzed during the period of the present DFG scholarship (May 2021-April 2023), I came across and explored four main points related to the activities, practices and discourses produced and enacted by transnational and translocal networks of Afro- LGBTQ+ people: 1. I observed a radical shift and change of practices and narratives of transnational and translocal networks of Afro- LGBTQ+ people during and after the COVID-19 pandemic. More precisely, the production of these narratives has been influenced by the massive use of digital tools by my research participants. 2. Many Afro-LGBTQ+ people and activists expressed and enacted the will of decolonizing notions, epistemologies and ideas of gender and sexuality. 3. Additionally, I came across the need, expressed by many of my research participants, of overcoming formal and more ‘traditional’ channels and ways of producing their artistic and aesthetic products through the establishment of independent and selffinanced publishing houses. 4. Finally, I uncovered alternative and new forms of aesthetic production to combat against LGBTQ+ people of color experiences of social stigma for racial, gender and economic reasons.

Publications

• Afterword. Sex, Sexuality and Sexual Health in Southern Africa, 187-194.
  Epprecht, Marc & Mbaye, Aminata Cécile
  
• New studies of sexual orientation, gender identities and expression in Africa south of the Sahara: complicating the narrative. Canadian Journal of African Studies / Revue canadienne des études africaines, 57(2), 479-488.
  Mbaye, Aminata Cécile & Epprecht, Marc
  
• The Power of the “Knowing Women”. Comparative Studies of South Asia, Africa and the Middle East, 42(3), 671-675.
  Mbaye, Aminata Cécile
  
• ‘‘Futurité queer et afrotopia dans Rafiki de Wanuri Kahiu, Crépuscule du tourment 1 et Rouge impératrice de Léonora Miano.’’ Stichproben 42: 23-40.
  Mbaye, A. C.
  
• The Decolonial Aesthesis of Recentering: Politics of the Past, Ecology, and Gender in Léonora Miano's Rouge Impératrice. Africa Today, 70(2), 3-21.
  Mbaye, Aminata Cécile
  
• ‘‘Migratory assemblage: life trajectories of Senegalese LGBTQ+ migrants in France’’ In. “Quaderns Biennale (Biennale di Venezia. 18th Venice International Architecture Exhibition), edited by A. Simone and R. Bishop
  Mbaye, A.C.