Christianity, Globalization, and Protective Homophobia


Book Description

This book examines how socio-political assumptions inform and shape the contestation of sexuality on the African continent. Across Africa, the idea that homosexuality is un-African, un-Christian, un-natural, and un-cultural is now well established. This book analyzes politically- and religiously-inspired protective homophobia within the context of Africa’s socioeconomic and political place in the global community. The author builds upon on-the-ground research and his groundbreaking previous studies on the cultural politics of globalization in Africa to present a wide, complex, and interdisciplinary understanding of Africa’s sexual politics.




Christianity and Controversies over Homosexuality in Contemporary Africa


Book Description

Issues of homosexuality are the subject of public and political controversy in many African societies today. Frequently, these controversies receive widespread attention both locally and globally, such as with the Anti-Homosexuality Bill in Uganda. In the international media, these cases tend to be presented as revealing a deeply-rooted homophobia in Africa fuelled by religious and cultural traditions. But so far little energy is expended in understanding these controversies in all their complexity and the critical role religion plays in them. Complementing the companion volume, Public Religion and the Politics of Homosexuality in Africa, this book investigates Christian politics and discourses on homosexuality in sub-Saharan Africa. The contributors present case studies from various African countries, from Nigeria to South Africa and from Cameroon to Uganda, focusing on Pentecostal, Catholic and mainline Protestant churches. They critically examine popular Christian theologies that perpetuate homophobia and discrimination, but they also discuss contestations of such discourses and emerging alternative Christian perspectives that contribute to the recognition of sexual diversity, social justice and human rights in contemporary Africa.




Public Religion and the Politics of Homosexuality in Africa


Book Description

Issues of same-sex relationships and gay and lesbian rights are the subject of public and political controversy in many African societies today. Frequently, these controversies receive widespread attention both locally and globally, such as with the Anti-Homosexuality Bill in Uganda. In the international media, these cases tend to be presented as revealing a deeply-rooted homophobia in Africa fuelled by religious and cultural traditions. But so far little energy is expended in understanding these controversies in all their complexity and the critical role religion plays in them. This is the first book with multidisciplinary perspectives on religion and homosexuality in Africa. It presents case studies from across the continent, from Egypt to Zimbabwe and from Senegal to Kenya, and covers religious traditions such as Islam, Christianity and Rastafarianism. The contributors explore the role of religion in the politicisation of homosexuality, investigate local and global mobilisations of power, critically examine dominant religious discourses, and highlight the emergence of counter-discourses. Hence they reveal the crucial yet ambivalent public role of religion in matters of sexuality, social justice and human rights in contemporary Africa.




Love, Honor & Respect


Book Description

A soldier is bludgeoned to death by a baseball bat. A college student is beat and hung on a fence to die. A young man in West Virginia is run over several times after being beaten to death. Hate crimes against gays and those perceived to be sexual minorities are growing at an alarming rate. How has the church contributed to this atmosphere of violence and intolerance? What can be done about it?




Exposing the Right and Fighting for Democracy


Book Description

This book celebrates the life and work of scholar-activist Chip Berlet. His contributions over four decades have had broad-ranging impacts on activists, independent intellectuals, and academics, from think tanks and social movements to generations of scholars. Berlet’s work over the decades has covered a wide range of topics, from the Christian Right, armed militias, social movement theory, and white supremacy to conspiracism, civil liberties, and government surveillance. This book features contributions reflecting on many of these topics by leading scholars and activists who have been inspired by his work and example. This book will be of great interest to scholars, students, and activists within anti-racist, anti-fascist, and progressive social movements.




The Routledge Handbook of Material Religion


Book Description

The Routledge Handbook of Material Religion places objects and bodies at the center of scholarly studies of religious life and practice. Propelling forward the study of material religion, the Handbook first reveals the deep philosophical roots of its key categories and then advances new critical analytics, such as queer materialities, inescapable material entanglements, and hyperobjects that explode the small-scale personal view on religions. The Handbook comprises thirty chapters, written by an international team of contributors who offer a global perspective of religious pasts and presents, divided into four thematic parts: Genealogies of Material Religion Materializing the Terms of the Study of Religion Entanglements, Entrapment, Escaping Hyperobjects, or How Ginormous Things Affect Religions In these four parts, the study of material religion is redirected towards systematic, critical interrogations of the imbrication of religious structures of power with racial, economic, political, and gendered forms of domination. From Spinoza’s political theology to African philosophies of ubuntu; from the queer materialities of Mesoamerican religion to the Satanic Temple of the United States; from Islamic love and sacrifice in human-animal entanglements to Shia militants’ attachment to weaponry; from epidemic cataclysm in Latin America to vast infrastructures and the gathering of millions in India’s Kumbh Mela, the study of material religion proves to be the study par excellence of the human condition. The Handbook is essential reading for students and researchers in religious studies, anthropology, history, and media studies, and will also be of interest to those in related fields such as archeology, sociology, and philosophy.




Sacred Queer Stories


Book Description

An invaluable insight into the narrative politics and theologies of LGBTQ+ life-storytelling, a key text for those in African Humanities, Queer Studies, Religious Studies, and Refugee Studies.Presenting the deeply moving personal life stories of Ugandan LGBTQ+ refugees in Nairobi, Kenya alongside an analysis of the process in which they creatively engaged with two Bible stories - Daniel in the Lions' Den (Old Testament) and Jesus and the Woman Caught in Adultery (New Testament) - Sacred Queer Stories explores how readings of biblical stories can reveal their experiences of struggle, their hopes for the future, and their faith in God and humanity. Arguing that the telling of life-stories of marginalised people, such as of Ugandan LGBTQ+ refugees, affirms embodied existence and agency, is socially and politically empowering, and enables human solidarity, the authors also show how the Bible as an authoritative religious text and popular cultural archive in Africa is often used against LGBTQ+ people but can also be reclaimed as a site of meaning, healing, and empowerment. The result of a collaborative project between UK-based academics and a Nairobi-based organisation of Ugandan LGBTQ+ refugees, the book provides a valuable insight into the narrative politics and theologies of LGBTQ+ life-storytelling. A key text for those in African Humanities, Queer Studies, Religious Studies, and Refugee Studies, among others, the book expresses an innovative methodology of inter-reading queer life-stories and biblical stories.be reclaimed as a site of meaning, healing, and empowerment. The result of a collaborative project between UK-based academics and a Nairobi-based organisation of Ugandan LGBTQ+ refugees, the book provides a valuable insight into the narrative politics and theologies of LGBTQ+ life-storytelling. A key text for those in African Humanities, Queer Studies, Religious Studies, and Refugee Studies, among others, the book expresses an innovative methodology of inter-reading queer life-stories and biblical stories.be reclaimed as a site of meaning, healing, and empowerment. The result of a collaborative project between UK-based academics and a Nairobi-based organisation of Ugandan LGBTQ+ refugees, the book provides a valuable insight into the narrative politics and theologies of LGBTQ+ life-storytelling. A key text for those in African Humanities, Queer Studies, Religious Studies, and Refugee Studies, among others, the book expresses an innovative methodology of inter-reading queer life-stories and biblical stories.be reclaimed as a site of meaning, healing, and empowerment. The result of a collaborative project between UK-based academics and a Nairobi-based organisation of Ugandan LGBTQ+ refugees, the book provides a valuable insight into the narrative politics and theologies of LGBTQ+ life-storytelling. A key text for those in African Humanities, Queer Studies, Religious Studies, and Refugee Studies, among others, the book expresses an innovative methodology of inter-reading queer life-stories and biblical stories.




Queer lawfare in Africa: Legal strategies in contexts of LGBTIQ+ criminalisation and politicisation


Book Description

About the publication This book focuses on the strategies that activists for LGBTIQ+ equality in Africa deploy to challenge deep seated homophobia and transphobia, as well as the politicisation of LGBTIQ+ issues. It is a peer-reviewed, edited volume with scholarly contributions from lawyers, anthropologists, and LGBTIQ+ activists. It covers different country situations – those where equality is taking root, as the case is in South Africa, Botswana and Mozambique; those where homophobia reigns and LGBTIQ+ rights are politicised such as, Ghana, Kenya, Malawi, Nigeria, Senegal, Uganda, and Zambia; and those where traditional LGBTIQ+ activism is almost a nonstarter, such as in Ethiopia, Sudan and The Gambia. Table of Contents Acknowledgments Acronyms and abbreviations Introduction Queer lawfare in Africa: Introduction and theoretical framework Siri Gloppen, Adrian Jjuuko, Frans Viljoen & Alan Msosa PART I: LAWFARE IN THE CONTEXT OF LIBERALISATION AND PROTECTION OF THE SEXUAL RIGHTS OF LGBT PEOPLE IN AFRICA Chapter 1 War by other means: The law and politics of sexual minority freedom in post-apartheid South Africa Jaco Barnard-Naudé & Pierre de Vos Chapter 2 Progressive legislation in the context of generalised conservative public opinion: The case of LGBT rights in Mozambique Carmeliza Rosário & Camila Gianella Chapter 3 Queer lawfare in Botswana Monica Tabengwa & Anthony Oluoch PART II: LAWFARE IN THE CONTEXT OF ACTIVE POLITICISATION Chapter 4 Queer lawfare in Kenya: Shifting opportunities for rights realisation Nicholas Wasonga Orago, Siri Gloppen & Matthew Gichohi Chapter 5 Court focused lawfare over LGBT rights: The case of Uganda Adrian Jjuuko & Stella Nyanzi Chapter 6 LGBT+ rights lawfare in Malawi Alan Msosa & Chrispine Gwalawala Sibande Chapter 7 Against ‘the order of nature’: Towards the growth of queer lawfare in Nigeria Ayodele Sogunro PART III: LAWFARE IN THE CONTEXT OF RELIGIOUS AND CULTURAL NATIONALISM Chapter 8 LGBT lawfare in response to heterosexual nationalism and the retention of the anti-sodomy laws in Zambia Landilani Banda Chapter 9 LGBTQI+ lawfare in response to the politicisation of homosexuality in Ghana Ernest Yaw Ako & Amanda Odoi Chapter 10 Senegal: Mobilising for gay rights in the shadow of HIV/AIDS Vegard Vibe Chapter 11 From a ‘crusade to root out homosexuality like malaria’ to a ‘non-issue’: The absence of sexual minority lawfare in The Gambia Satang Nabaneh Chapter 12 Digital lawfare and activism by lesbian, gay and bisexual persons in Ethiopia Getnet Tadele & Woldekidan Amde Chapter 13 Activism from the closet: Fear of a double backlash against a nascent queer movement in Sudan Liv Tønnessen, Samia al-Nagar & Samah Khalaf Allah Conclusion The kaleidoscope of queer lawfare in Africa Adrian Jjuuko, Frans Viljoen, Siri Gloppen & Alan Msosa




Cosmopolitan Cultures and Oceanic Thought


Book Description

This book imagines the ocean as central to understanding the world and its connections in history, literature and the social sciences. Introducing the central conceptual category of ocean as method, it analyzes the histories of movement and traversing across connected spaces of water and land sedimented in literary texts, folklore, local histories, autobiographies, music and performance. It explores the constant flow of people, material and ideologies across the waters and how they make their presence felt in a cosmopolitan thinking of the connections of the world. Going beyond violent histories of slavery and indenture that generate global connections, it tracks the movements of sailors, boatmen, religious teachers, merchants, and adventurers. The essays in this volume summon up this miscegenated history in which land and water are ever linked. A significant rethinking of world history, this volume will be of great interest to scholars and researchers of history, especially connected history and maritime history, literature, and Global South studies.




Queer and Trans African Mobilities


Book Description

Recent years have seen increased scholarly and media interest in the cross-border movements of LGBT persons, particularly those seeking protection in the Global North . While this has helped focus attention on the plight of individuals fleeing homophobic or transphobic persecution, it has also reinvigorated racist tropes about the Global South. In the case of Africa, the expansion of anti-LGBT laws and the prevalence of hetero-patriarchal discourses are regularly cited as evidence of an inescapable savagery. The figure of the LGBT refugee – often portrayed as helplessly awaiting rescue – reinforces colonial notions about the continent and its peoples. Queer and Trans African Mobilities draws on diverse case studies from the length and breadth of Africa, offering the first in-depth investigation of LGBT migration on and from the continent. The collection provides new insights into the drivers and impacts of displacement linked to sexual orientation or gender identity and challenges notions about why LGBT Africans move, where they are going and what they experience along the way.