A history to remember: “Who says being queer is unAfrican?”

by Sokari on February 11, 2012

in African History,Film,HIV/AIDS,LGBTIQ,Queer Politics,South Africa

 

In “The frightful development of this vice amongst the Natives”: Who says being queer is unAfrican?” Zackie Achmat traces the role of missionaries and the colonial state in the control and disciple of the African male body. He begins with a brief account of his own imprisonment at the age of 16 where he was first placed in a cell with a group of adult men including murderers and rapists. Expecting unimaginable acts of violence against him, the experience changed his own perception of prison gangs.

I could hardly understand the language they spoke. Two or three words were derived from Afrikaans, but the rest was from a mixture of African languages I could not identify at the time. Cups instructed one of the younger lads to call the other cells: “Ons wil met die Generaal tjaizana.” (“We want to talk to the General.”)

Within minutes all the toilet bowls in the Remand Section were flushed and all the water was removed from the one in our cell. In this way, the sound was carried through the entire sewage system of the block. This system allowed prisoners to communicate with each other illegally, with a diminished threat of punishment and discovery by the warders. When we arrived the 28s had to report to their General – they had to account for the loot gained from the newly arrived prisoners. MaPinda and Cups took turns talking into the “phone.” Basil, known in the cell as “die Moffie,”4 spoke to me in a grave tone: “Hulle discuss nou vir jou. MaPinda en Cups wil altwee vir jou he en nou vra hulle virrie Generaal wat hulle moet maak.” (“They are talking about you now. Both MaPinda and Cups want you, and they are asking for the General’s guidance.”) I had not had sex since my detention and felt deprived, but Mapinda was not my idea of a sex partner. Basil interrupted these thoughts with the verdict: “Die Generaal se die rules moet apply. Cups is jonger en is nie die baas nie, maar hy is MaPinda se luitenant. Mapinda het nourie dag ‘n wyfie gekry wat Cups wil gehad het en nou is dit Cups se kans/’ (“The General says the rules must apply. Cups is younger and is not the cell boss. He is MaPinda’s lieutenant. And, the other day MaPinda took a young wife (boy) Cups wanted so now it is Cups’ turn.”)

The post begins with a review of the film “Apostles of Civilised Vice”: ‘Immoral Practices’and ‘Unnatural Vice’ in South African Prisons and Compounds, 1890-1920 Zackie Achmat (1992) 

For, to one native on whose heart the good seed has fallen, who returns to the kraal in native garb and with the glowing message of an apostle in his heart, there are ten thousand who by their speech and countenance are apostles of civilised vice, who through their bodies spread the diseases of the white man over the face of wild Africa.(1) “Ethelreda Lewis (1934).

Continued. …..

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Call for Papers: Murderous inclusions: International Feminist Journal of Politics

by Sokari on February 10, 2012

in LGBTIQ,Queer Politics

Call for Papers: Murderous inclusions special issue

Guest editors:

Jin Haritaworn, Helsinki Collegium for Advanced Studies
Adi Kuntsman, The University of Manchester

Silvia Posocco, Birkbeck, University of London

Sexual citizenship is usually examined though the lens of inclusion – into rights, legal and political subjecthood – through sexuality. What has received less scholarly attention is the problem of inclusion itself, and its costs. Instead of focusing on the inclusion and incorporation of sexual minorities as a certain pathway to progressive politics, this special issue explores inclusions that are murderous: it aspires to decouple the link between inclusion, queer politics and justice. The special issue seeks to critically examine parameters of sexual citizenship that accompany – or work hand in hand with – violent regimes of coloniality, ‘wars on terror’, ‘development’ and structural adjustment, criminalisation, pathologisation, border enforcement and neoliberalism. What new techniques of governance can be mapped in a context of power which increasingly speaks the language of sexual and gender rights, protection and diversity? What challenges arise from these complicities and convergences of queer inclusions, and how are they best addressed? What are the spaces of difference between situated and ever shifting regimes of legal regulation, and the ethical domain of queer politics and justice?

In examining the deadly logic of inclusion into (some) modes of queer citizenship, this special issue turns to the notion of ‘queer necropolitics’ to critically interrogate the political formations of both sexuality and inclusion itself. Moving away from the narrow focus of sexual citizenship as coterminous with ‘rights’, and from the idea of inclusion as positive and desirable, it attempts to create space for new kinds of feminist and queer politics that are not premised on more death. Informed by Achille Mbembe’s concept of ‘necropolitics’ – a concept he develops when analysing the centrality of death in subalternity, race and war and terror (Mbembe 2003) – by Puar’s insightful elaboration of ‘queer necropolitics’ (Puar 2007), and by broader debates on deadly formations of sovereign power, we invite contributions to reflect on topics such as the following:

 

  • Rethinking sexual citizenship: who is envisioned as worthy of inclusion, and what are thecosts?
  • Theoretical and analytical challenges to account for the relations between sexuality, violence and the constitution of ‘community’, ‘neighbourhood’, or ‘nation’ through a specific focus on processes of inclusion.
  • Queer necropolitics and the ‘wars without end’ (Mbembe 2003:23): regimes of policing, border control, colonial conflict or the ‘war on terror’; militarised intimacies, the militarisation of urban spaces and queer and trans communities in the name of safety and security.
  • LGBT identitarian claims to sovereignty, rights and protection, acquisitive forms of sociality and assimilationist logics, and their intersection with ongoing histories of settler colonialism, genocide and slavery.
  • Analyses of the articulation of ‘community’ and ‘belonging’ through ‘immunitarian dialectics’ (Esposito 2008) that strengthen sovereign power to immunise the community against the prospect of conflict; discussions of the implications of these processes and the instantiation of collectivities through ‘immunitarian apparatuses’ which allow a range of gendered, racialised and sexualised Others to exist in segregated proximity, as ‘the outside of the inside’ (Esposito 2008:8), through processes of introjections of negativity geared towards the preservation of life.
  • Queer necropolitics and international relations: the inclusion of homosexuals in state militaries, the heteronormativity of the international relations of weapon production, the deployment and tying of ‘queer’ development aid, and other forms gay imperialism.
  • Queer necropolitics, migration and citizenship: the problematic of conditioning asylum and citizenship testing on exceptionalist regimes of gender and sexuality.
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Uganda Anti-Homosexuality Bill Back in Parliament: Still doubts on the Death Penalty

by Sokari on February 9, 2012

in LGBTIQ,Uganda

The Anti-Homosexuality Bill which was first introduced in 2009 and included the death penality has been tabled for debate in the 2012 parliamentary session. The Bill which did not get a reading in last years session is carried over. The Bill is being read in it’s original form  and it is unclear whether it will  include the death penalty [Section 3] . Melanie Nathan who has been in contact with the Bill’s promoter, David Bahati interviewed him about the Bill and he claimed it would be “more moderate” implying that the death penalty will be dropped.  He insisted the reasons behind the bill was to protect children of Uganda but when questioned about consenting adults responded “they were doing the wrong thing”.  He reiterated the usual rhetoric that the west was exporting homosexuality and Uganda would not be blackmailed by the West.

I called David Bahati last night before this morning’s meetings and the Ugandan member of parliament who authored the Kill the Gays Bill told me today that the Bill is being introduced and read in its original form. He said the committee changes made will be incorporated later. He confirmed that the Bill is being decided by the committee as to when it will come to the House floor.

I asked about the death penalty and he told me that the Bill will be first introduced in its original form. What happens after that, he said, “would please you people as it would be more moderate.” Yet he could not confirm what would be changed.

He told me that the most important thing is that once the Bill passes there can be no more “promotion of that behavior” in Uganda. That the government will clamp down on organizations and NGO’s which promote homosexuality.

He said, “but don’t worry the bill will not be harmful to you people; and it will protect the children of Uganda. “ We cannot mess up the future of our children.”

He told me that Ugandans will not be blackmailed by the West. He said that the West is bringing the idea of homosexuality to Ugandan and telling Africans what to do about homosexuality and that he said is “Imperialism; we will not be blackmailed by your few dollars.”

I asked Bahati about tourism, “are you concerned people will stop visiting Uganda if you pass the Bill?” He said, “no Uganda has been voted the best destination in Africa last year. I am not worried about that.”

He told me that the purpose of the Anti-homosexuality Bill is to “protect our children from promotion of that behavior.” I then asked what about consenting adult in private. He said that is outlawed “because they are doing the wrong thing.”

I asked him to explain how that fell into the reasoning of promotion and he was unable to answer, instead changing back to the same repetitive rhetoric: “We cannot debate the freedom of our country to make laws to protect our children.”

I asked Bahati to name me one case of harm caused to children by homosexuality. He could not answer me. I cited the Xmas deaths of 14 women in childbirth asking if that surely is harm and he said “we are dealing with those problems.” I was answered with the same rhetoric.

When questioned about the process, Bahati was vague and seemed to want to avert attention from the Bill at this time.

Given the timeline for the Bill it is hard to see how it will not be passed this time round however Ugandan activists have already begun a campaign to stop this Bill from passing. Please sign the petition here.

The Nigerian Same Sex Marriage Bill has yet to be passed by the Lower House and of course the President needs to sign the Bill.   The government has no doubt been distracted by the Fuel Subsidy protests and ongoing media and civil society focus on corruption particularly in the oil cabal.   From their point of view this would be an excellent time to return to the Bill and I am sure the tabling of the Ugandan Bill will not go unnoticed.

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2012 Elections in Africa

by Robtel Pailey on February 8, 2012

in Africa ,Elections,Podcasts,Politics

Listen to the podcast here

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When ‘i’ means ignorance

by Rumbidzai Dube on February 6, 2012

in Media,Social Media

I was sitting amongst a bunch of teenagers in an internet café when the things I observed inspired this article. I peeped at the screens of the computers they were using and made some interesting observations. Two were playing games. One was hiding his screen and from the corner of my eye I saw naked women, probably he was watching porn. The other two were comparing pictures of celebrities. Another one was complaining about how slow the internet was as he was trying to stream a video of one of Lil Wayne’s songs. So I sat there, busy looking for information on human trafficking on Google and I wondered if this was a generational thing.

Indeed the advent of technology with i phones, i pads and ido not know what else will follow has brought forth new dynamics in communication. The era of letters when we would run like mad puppies to the gate to collect letters from the postman or the age of landlines when at the first ring you would run to make sure that no one else picks up the phone in case it was your boyfriend and you did not want your mother or father to pick up are over. Even the use of cellphones’ has metamophorsised from a mere tool to receive calls and send sms’s to become an i(nnovative) tool of technology, where you surf the net, you skype and do all sorts of innovative things.

We live in the era of i pads and i phones

Yes the internet is a Revolution and communication will never be dull again. I love the emoticons on Skype, enjoy chatting on Gtalk, Nimbuzz, Facebook, Whatsapp and everything else that I know which is available. With a multitude of passwords, I am even amazed at myself and wonder how I keep up with all these different technologies. And if I, at my age, am such an addict surely teenagers can be forgiven for burying their heads in this technology.
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A city of loneliness disguised – if YOU disappeared would anyone miss you?

by Sokari on February 5, 2012

in Journal,RIP

How do you lie dead for three years in a London flat? In 2006, a 38 year old black woman, Joyce Carol Vincent was found dead or rather her skeleton sitting in front of a stlll blaring TV, wrapping Christmas presents. She was wrapping presents. She had lovers, friends even family. How did this happen? Could it happen to one of my [ex]lovers, friends and family members? Could it happen to me? This isnt the first story of dying alone in London’s flatland or England or anywhere else. But somehow this was different. She was young, she had a life of people. How come no one came round, no one called, emailed? Where did all the letters go, why was the electricity and gas not cut off for three years? Why did it take three years for the flat to be repossessed? Where were the neighbours? What kind of people are we that anyone can die alone wrapping Christmas presents? Is this the meaning of loneliness? I am haunted as many are by thoughts of Joyce Carol Vincent. I think of myself alone in my London flat on Kilburn High Road on a cold winter’s night. What if I stopped breathing, who would come to look for me and how long would it take? I shudder at the thought. We all ask the same questions but it happened.

Last year a man was found dead after lying undiscovered for three years on a tiny island in St James Park. The Guardian reports more than 21,000 people a year die alone in the UK without family or friends to bury them. Most of them are elderly and poor abandoned shamefully by community and the state.

Dreams of Life - a film on Joyce Carol Vincent

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The Oh My God farce!

by Mia Nikasimo on February 3, 2012

in Poetry,Queer Politics

The house in the middle of our street is open again…
Why are the windows so wide open? Been round back?
Why? What’s happened round back? Tell what, Gems?
We were hanging out on our veranda trying to see trying
What were you trying to see? Happened round back?
What? What happened? Laughter, suspense, alright!
One moment nobody would move in; the next. No blinds.
Just like that. We met eye to eye. Three of us and it…
We don’t know what, did we, Guys? A glimpse was all.
That was the last “in-sight” we got. What’s happening?
Does anyone know who moved in? Who lives below?
This is killing me. Fuck that. Who moved in that house
That’s not the question to ask. How long do they have?
What? Why? Do you know something? What, why? How?
Stop fucking about! If you know something, share with us
You know us. We’ve lived here longest? How long? Share.
I know the guy in the flat below, init? He told me five.
Five raving loonies: one’s a lesbian, one’s a gay, one bi, on
Go on, go on go on. Two are trans and ones intersex see.
When we went back there to get a closer look; it was blocked off!
The windows round back were blocked up. Doubled up on
Doubled up on net curtains, cutting our view off; hiding?
What? Hiding? What goes on in there? You or you, whom?
I’m the originator of our inquiries so it’ll have to be yous!
Oh my hog oh my God oh my gawd oh my, oh my GOD
Decide? Who’s going in there? Who among you lot, whom?

2

The house in the middle of our street is open again…
Oh my Dog oh my hog oh my God our neighbourhood
Our neighbourhood is going to the dogs under our noses
My friend in the flat below knows one of them. Does he?
Does he? What? What are you waiting for? A name praise
All your own? Tailor made just for your whimsical mien?
Out with it or you are on your own, traitor! Out with it.
Oh my oh my God; oh my oh my God who let the freaks in?
Apparently lives in there Ambiguity too and a Lovable one
Gays are like that; lovable darlings and this one could pass
Could pass for a woman? That’s alright isn’t it? Stay away
From my hubby is all. I’ll kill you with my own hands if you
(Action: a sigh) just stay away from him and we’d get on fine.
He already looks at you with a smile I saw ages back before
I slapped him for looking at you like that. He stop giving.
Oh well you can’t live with them you can’t dream without
Just stay away from Jim mincing and brow flirting. I know
But that’s in the past now. I’ll even forget what I heard.
What? What did you hear? We were only playing; honest?
As long as it doesn’t happen, again! What’s with the woman?
She’s so buff and all? Why she don’t speak to no one why?
It’s only I’m happily married but one look at her and I…
My legs, they buckled right from underneath me, didn’t they?
He’s a man that thinks he’s a woman or something I heard
Oh my hog oh my God oh my gawd oh my, oh my GOD
Decide? Who’s going in there? Who among you lot, whom?

3

The house in the middle of our street is open again…
Oh my God oh my flipping Gawd did you just say? What?
Never mind, whatever I fancy her. Can you? Say somink?
Tell me you are joking. It’s a transwoman. I’ve seen better!
Not like her heft? Just taking about her made me wet
What if your hubby finds out? I’ll deny it. Don’t go there
Oh my oh my Gawd. See you later babes. Got to, got to go.
Oh my gosh. Away she goes like a bitch on heat. Gosh!
If only she knows its already shacked up with Mumsy.
Diva of Divas. “I don’t know what she sees in him myself”
I didn’t even get a chance. “I swear we saw him that day”
I’m going to have that woman, she; out of no where; I???
It’s like she’s stolen the words off my tongue she was fast
Mama de mama, Mumsy or for the wet behind the ear
Mummy mummy mummy and o so camp about it & I
I thought I was camp I thought until I met her, him the
Queen -mumsy’s best friend. And what a gorgeous arse
I beg your pardons I meant fit. He’s the fittest queen ever
Any who any who any who get this right he does do trannies!
Either… Oh my, oh my fucking, sexy Gawd oh my oh my…
I’ve got to too. Wait until I tell Miss Hermaphrodititis just
Just then the intersex, Pammy in her full glory in train.
No no no I’m not bisexual oh hell no I’m a boy I’m a girl
Both married in a unity of one me. Eat your heart out.
Oh my hog oh my God oh my gawd oh my, oh my GOD
Decide? Who’s going in there? Who among you lot, whom?

4

The house in the middle of out street is open again…
Pete here’s my chief of security and Dean and Jerry Divas
Mincing, mincing, mincing see how they go femme trans
Foot soldiers with 9 dan black belts a piece so watch it.
My train of butch and femme ladies, gentlemen; hands off!
Let the party take control. Keep those arses humping o
O is that the time? Snap, snap! Cars. Three black benzs &
Away away away they went leaving questions in trail
Oh my oh my oh my gawd oh my gawd oh my gawd oh my
Fuck your arse fuck your pussy imagine that in public?
That’s typical Mumsy. I go to work alway and you cosh in.
Just sitting there couch potato with a notebook & a pen
Get off your arse, get off your arse, get a fucking job, contribute!
You are a disgrace. Where do you come from where? :)
I’m not prepared to cater for you & the many mouths back home
The many mouths back home in Africa. I can’t do it I can’t
Oh my oh my God oh my oh my gawd oh my oh my gawd.
At the end of her tether the transwoman says her Om mani
Padme hom Om mani padme hum Om mani padme hum
What are you saying? What are you saying? No repeat it…
Nothing? You always saying nothing nothing nothing here’s
Something for your jobless arse, get a job or something? Fee!
My fee for putting up with you trans-whatever you are?
Get over yourself you fucking ignorant bitch, arrogant bitch!
Oh my hog oh my God oh my gawd oh my, oh my GOD
Decide? Who’s going in there? Who among you lot, whom?

5

The house in the middle of our street is open again…
I live in that house. What is it to you? You are the bi one
I live in that house. What is my sexuality to you, nosy?
The house in the middle of the street always takes freaks
The house in the middle of the street, the house, our house
The house in the middle of the street where all evils abide
Oh my, oh my God oh my, oh my God oh by Gawd, oh my?
Report, report, report! Oh my god, oh my God I wont rest
I won’t rest until the entire world knows he’s not a woman
I won’t, I won’t, I can’t if I tried; my religion won’t let me!
Oh my God oh my god oh my God and the farce went on
The farce went on. Every ones’ happy doing God’s work
Judging judging judging sitting in judgement over each other
Claiming authority in the authority of doing God’s bidding
Praying self-righteously, “God heavenly so and so I’m doing
Your bidding father save your own save your own I’m doing
I’M DOING YOUR BIDDING FATHER I’M DOING YUR
The house in the middle of our street is open again…
I live in that house. What is it to you that we are creating space
For queers of all convictions, and GQ, what is it to you, nosy?
The house in the middle of the street always takes freaks
The house in the middle of the street the house the house
The house in the middle of the street where all evils abide
Oh my, oh my God oh my, oh my God oh by Gawd, oh my?
Oh my hog oh my God oh my gawd oh my, oh my GOD
Decide? Who’s going in there? Who among you lot, whom?

Mia Nikasimo (c) November 2011

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From Lifting Liberia to Lifting Liberians: Second Term Challenges for Ellen Johnson Sirleaf

by Robtel Pailey on February 1, 2012

in African Women,Elections,Liberia,Politics

 Born in Monrovia, Liberia, Robtel Neajai Pailey is an activist/writer who spent her formative years in Washington, D.C.  Robtel moved to Liberia in July 2007 to work in the Office of the President, Republic of Liberia, as special assistant for communications, where she was engaged in speech writing and managing the Office of the President’s website.  Robtel is currently pursuing her Ph.D. in Development Studies at the University of London’s School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS)

In an annual message to the National Legislature on Jan. 23, 2012, just a week after her second-term inauguration, incumbent Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf proclaimed, “In our first term we lifted Liberia; now we will lift Liberians!” The President was alluding to the tenets of Liberia’s first post-war three-year medium term development agenda, the Lift Liberia Poverty Reduction Strategy (PRS), aimed at enhancing peace and security, revitalising the economy, strengthening justice and the rule of law, and restoring infrastructure and basic social services.

In asserting that Liberia had been lifted, the President was referring to key achievements in her first term, including but not limited to: renewing diplomatic ties with a number of international partners and multilateral agencies such as the United States, China, the 15-member Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), the African Development Bank, the World Bank, and the International Monetary Fund; refurbishing pot-holed ridden roads and constructing new ones; building hospitals and clinics, elementary, junior and secondary schools and community colleges; securing US$16 billion in concessions in iron-ore, mining, forestry, rubber, and oil palm; and devolving power to Liberia’s 15 sub-political divisions through political and fiscal decentralisation, amongst others.

Although some scholars and practitioners would argue that post-conflict reconstruction follows a ‘one-size-fits-all’ pattern of political and economic manipulation and engineering by the West[i], the Liberian president would certainly not agree with this assertion, having worked for the World Bank and United Nations in a previous life. Following the Lift Liberia PRS is an ambitious goal to make Liberia a middle income country by 2030, as articulated in the country’s 18-year Liberia Rising 2030 agenda, due to be crafted following nation-wide consultations beginning February 2012. Despite these lofty goals, there are a number of socio-political and economic challenges ahead in the next six-year term.

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Interview with the cast of Pray the Devil Back to Hell

by Sokari on January 30, 2012

in African Women,Elections,Feminism,Film,violence against women

“Pray the Devil Back to Hell” Robtel Pailey interviews the cast and members of the production team. The film is available in full on PBS along with four other films in the series “Women War and Peace“. Listen here

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Audre Lorde: The Berlin Years

by Sokari on January 29, 2012

in African History,Black Feminism,Film,Queer Politics

Cannot wait for this…………….

 

Scheduled to make its world premiere in the Panorama Documentary section is Dagmar Shultz’s Audre Lorde – The Berlin Years 1984 to 1992 is an untold chapter (the Berlin years) of the late writer, poet and activist, Caribbean child of immigrants from Grenada, who died rather young at 58 years old in 1992.

Specifically, the film will focus on…

Audre Lorde’s years in Berlin in which she catalyzed the first movement of Black Germans to claim their identity as Afro-Germans with pride. As she was inspiring Afro-Germans she was also encouraging the White German feminists to look at their own racism

The film will serve as a historical document for future generations of Germans, which profiles and highlights, from the roots, the African presence in Germany, and the origins of the anti-racist movement before and after the German reunification, as well as facillitates an analysis and an understanding of present debates on identity and racism in Germany.

The film can be considered a companion piece to the1994 documentary A Litany for Survival: The Life and Work of Audre Lorde by Ada Gray Griffin and Michelle Parkerson, which also screened at the Berlin Film Festival.

Via Shadow & Act

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