Queer Creative Arts in Africa: Sexuality, Gender and Cultural Expressions

The field of Queer African Studies is gradually coming of age and continues to expand definitions of what ‘queer’ means in African contexts across generations. In particular, the field has emerged out of reactions to political, cultural, and religious homo- and transphobic discourses which insist that queerness is un-African. These discourses have persisted over generations and found expression within nationalist policies and anti-queer legislation. Increasingly scholars and activists have turned to creative genres to make visible the narratives African queer persons because of its potential in this context to disrupt, undo and reimagine socio-political orders and more just social worlds. The arts are a central field in which African queer communities’ express agency and engage in creative activism. The developing trajectory of scholarship that focuses on the arts in African queer studies is significant in light of the quest to decolonise scholarship because it challenges where knowledge on gender and sexuality is produced, by whom and for what purpose.
In this stream we are interested in panels and papers which seek to explore the complex and dynamic relationship between cultural production and queerness in the African context. We invite presenters to engage with questions such as: How have traditional, colonial, and contemporary influences shaped expressions of queer identities across the continent? How are social, cultural, and religious norms regarding gender and sexuality interrogated, transgressed, and reconstructed through creative arts? How are queer futures imagined and are there ways in which they have materialised across generations? What role has artistic and cultural genres in Africa critically and creatively shaped queer/black/African sexuality? We welcome a focus on various forms of cultural production including performance arts, literature, and media.

If you would like to discuss your idea with the convenors, please write to Adriaan van Klinken at A.vanKlinken@leeds.ac.uk and Megan Robertson at M.A.Robertson@leeds.ac.uk.