Transafrica
The Languages of Postqueerness
Published on 20. February 2025
Book
Paperback/Softback
248 pages
978-1-350-40076-4 (ISBN)
Description
Transafrica explores this new lexical culture in cultural materials (novels, poetry, testimonies/life stories, interviews, film, visual art) in English, French, Arabic and other selected African languages, and the meanings which Africans have transnationally conferred upon "queer" and "transgender"-from North to South. Gender nonconformity and sexual dissidence on the African continent has produced a lexical culture at the crossroads of Western discourse and local African naming practices.
Transafrica is an unprecedented attempt at identifying the new vocabularies which queer and transgender Africans have used in the first two decades of the 21st century to refer to themselves and narrativize their desire, in the face of official narratives by medical doctors, and legal and religious authorities that have often been prioritized over a gender-variant (queer, trans, non-binary) individual's lived experience, resulting in a systemic disempowerment.
Using case studies from Morocco, Egypt, Somalia, Nigeria, Uganda, Madagascar, Botswana, South Africa and more, Transafrica draws conclusions for a culture-specific and history-specific type of gender diversity outside of Western epistemic borders while confronting Euro-American models, thereby auguring a turn-of-the-third-millennium postqueer set of African open-ended identities.
Transafrica is an unprecedented attempt at identifying the new vocabularies which queer and transgender Africans have used in the first two decades of the 21st century to refer to themselves and narrativize their desire, in the face of official narratives by medical doctors, and legal and religious authorities that have often been prioritized over a gender-variant (queer, trans, non-binary) individual's lived experience, resulting in a systemic disempowerment.
Using case studies from Morocco, Egypt, Somalia, Nigeria, Uganda, Madagascar, Botswana, South Africa and more, Transafrica draws conclusions for a culture-specific and history-specific type of gender diversity outside of Western epistemic borders while confronting Euro-American models, thereby auguring a turn-of-the-third-millennium postqueer set of African open-ended identities.
Reviews / Votes
From a "post-queer" perspective, this interdisciplinary collection makes an invaluable contribution to LGBTQI African studies through a wide variety of thematic and theoretical approaches. Offering broad coverage of the continent and its languages, its chapters work through the multiple meanings contained in and promised the Trans in its title. * Jarrod Hayes, Monash University, Australia * Let us welcome this newest stake into the heart of that zombie idea, "homosexuality is un-African." Pioneers of the study of literary representations of same-sex desire in Africa, Dunton and Zabus have brought together an always fascinating and sometimes fun collection of essays focused primarily on lexical cultures around the continent. How do Africans express sexual nuance or dissidence, or adapt meanings to French and English terms, in Arabic, Somali, Malagasy and other indigenous languages? From critical assessments of the proliferation of queer(ish) characters in literature, film and poetry by African creators, to close case studies of the cultural production of meanings, this is a wide-ranging and powerful intervention. And dire as the sexual rights situation may sometimes seem in much of Africa and indeed around this currently oft-demented world, the gist of the book and the works it considers is positive, verging on optimistic. * Marc Epprecht, Queen's University, Canada * This original and agenda-setting anthology, assembled by two leading scholars of the literary and cultural representations of gender identity and sexual orientation in and of the African continent, showcases new and established voices in the field. While no single anthology could be exhaustive, this one provides fresh insights into what's happening now and charts new courses for the future. * Neville Hoad, University of Texas at Austin, USA *More details
Language
English
Place of publication
United Kingdom
Publishing group
Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
Target group
College/higher education
Professional and scholarly
Dimensions
Height: 230 mm
Width: 154 mm
Thickness: 14 mm
Weight
376 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-350-40076-4 (9781350400764)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Persons
Chantal Zabus is Professor of Postcolonial and Gender Studies at the University Sorbonne Paris Nord, France. She is the author of Out in Africa (2014) and Between Rites and Rights (2007; 2016). She is the Editor-in-Chief of Postcolonial Text.
Chris Dunton has worked at universities in Nigeria, Libya and South Africa, and was most recently Professor and Dean of Humanities at the National University of Lesotho, Lesotho. He is the author of e.g. Make Man Talk True: Nigerian Theatre in English since 1970 (1992); (with Mai Palmberg) Human Rights and Homosexuality (1996); Nigerian Theatre in English (1998). Dunton was the first Anglophone scholar to publish work on homosexualities in African literature.
Chris Dunton has worked at universities in Nigeria, Libya and South Africa, and was most recently Professor and Dean of Humanities at the National University of Lesotho, Lesotho. He is the author of e.g. Make Man Talk True: Nigerian Theatre in English since 1970 (1992); (with Mai Palmberg) Human Rights and Homosexuality (1996); Nigerian Theatre in English (1998). Dunton was the first Anglophone scholar to publish work on homosexualities in African literature.
Content
Acknowledgments
Introduction
Chantal Zabus and Chris Dunton
CASE-STUDIES
I.Islamic Africa
1.Powers of resistance and the Lexicon of Post-Queer Sexuality in Muhammad Abdelnabi's In the Spider's Room
Omar Boukhatem, Universite Sorbonne Paris Nord, France
2.Visualising Transgender Morocco: Daoud Aoulad-Syad's Bye-Bye Souirty (Adieu Forain)
Todd W. Reeser, University of Pittsburgh, USA
3.Diasporic Trans/Forming in Diriye Osman's The Butterfly Jungle, Afdhere Jama's Being Queer and Somali, Tofik Dibi's Djinn, and Lamya H's Hijab Butch Blues
John C. Hawley, University of Santa Clara, USA
II.West Africa
4.'Dare Speak Their Name': The Poetry of Logan February
Chris Dunton, formerly of National University of Lesotho
5.'Deliver us from Evil': Pentecostal Christianity, Queer Sexualities and the Language of Deliverance in Nigerian Literature
Adriaan Van Klinken, University of Leeds, UK, and Abenathi Z. Makinana, Stellenbosch University, Cape Town, South Africa
6.Non-Genealogical Radical Queerness: On A Schizophrenic Reading of Frieda Ekotto's Chuchote pas trop
Naminata Diabate, Cornell University, USA
III.Southern Africa
7. Translects: Post-Queering Transgender in South African and Nigerian Autofictions
Chantal Zabus, Universite Sorbonne Paris Nord, France
8.'The Sarimbavy of Madagascar: Beyond Semantic Boundaries and the Politics of (In)visibilisation
Alyette Rajaofera Andriamasinalivao, University of Paris-Diderot, France & Universite d' Antananarivo, Madagascar
9.The Eco-Queer Tree of South African Constitutionalism
Francois Lion-Cachet, University of Cape Town, South Africa
TESTIMONIES
10.1995, Reading the Signs of the time
Philippe-Joseph Salazar, University of Cape Town, South Africa
11.'Transafrica: Joan Hambidge to Chantal Zabus
Joan Hambidge, University of Cape Town, South Africa
12.O: An Essay on Pronouns and Power Among the Yoruba
Logan February, Purdue University, USA
13.'After Queer, After Decriminalization: Botswana: John McAllister and Katlego K. Kolanyane-Kesupile in Conversation'
John McAllister, formerly of the University of Botswana, Gaborone, and Katlego K. Kolanyane-Kesupile
Introduction
Chantal Zabus and Chris Dunton
CASE-STUDIES
I.Islamic Africa
1.Powers of resistance and the Lexicon of Post-Queer Sexuality in Muhammad Abdelnabi's In the Spider's Room
Omar Boukhatem, Universite Sorbonne Paris Nord, France
2.Visualising Transgender Morocco: Daoud Aoulad-Syad's Bye-Bye Souirty (Adieu Forain)
Todd W. Reeser, University of Pittsburgh, USA
3.Diasporic Trans/Forming in Diriye Osman's The Butterfly Jungle, Afdhere Jama's Being Queer and Somali, Tofik Dibi's Djinn, and Lamya H's Hijab Butch Blues
John C. Hawley, University of Santa Clara, USA
II.West Africa
4.'Dare Speak Their Name': The Poetry of Logan February
Chris Dunton, formerly of National University of Lesotho
5.'Deliver us from Evil': Pentecostal Christianity, Queer Sexualities and the Language of Deliverance in Nigerian Literature
Adriaan Van Klinken, University of Leeds, UK, and Abenathi Z. Makinana, Stellenbosch University, Cape Town, South Africa
6.Non-Genealogical Radical Queerness: On A Schizophrenic Reading of Frieda Ekotto's Chuchote pas trop
Naminata Diabate, Cornell University, USA
III.Southern Africa
7. Translects: Post-Queering Transgender in South African and Nigerian Autofictions
Chantal Zabus, Universite Sorbonne Paris Nord, France
8.'The Sarimbavy of Madagascar: Beyond Semantic Boundaries and the Politics of (In)visibilisation
Alyette Rajaofera Andriamasinalivao, University of Paris-Diderot, France & Universite d' Antananarivo, Madagascar
9.The Eco-Queer Tree of South African Constitutionalism
Francois Lion-Cachet, University of Cape Town, South Africa
TESTIMONIES
10.1995, Reading the Signs of the time
Philippe-Joseph Salazar, University of Cape Town, South Africa
11.'Transafrica: Joan Hambidge to Chantal Zabus
Joan Hambidge, University of Cape Town, South Africa
12.O: An Essay on Pronouns and Power Among the Yoruba
Logan February, Purdue University, USA
13.'After Queer, After Decriminalization: Botswana: John McAllister and Katlego K. Kolanyane-Kesupile in Conversation'
John McAllister, formerly of the University of Botswana, Gaborone, and Katlego K. Kolanyane-Kesupile