Responding to Myself
I recently wrote a piece for Democracy in Africa & The Continent , dismissing the argument that queerness is alien to Africa. In it, I briefly explored the treatment of queer sexualities in pre-colonial African societies across the continent and the birth of Africa as a heteronormative continent as a result of colonialism. I explained the role colonial powers - Britain in particular - played in overwriting queer sexualities and explored the legacy of this interference. Ultimately concluding that while queerness was not alien to Africa, queerphobia was. Contrary to popular opinion, the latter is the Western import. It is the thing around our neck, that threatens to choke the lifeblood of our Republics if we allow it. This is why I wrote this piece. I wrote it to confront and challenge the idea that queerness and queer people were 'unAfrican.' As a person who has spent her entire life being told that I am not African enough, not black enough, this argument rang particularly...