Religion, LGBT Activism and Queer Politics in Africa

Call for Papers for AASR Conference Panel

Ezra Chitando (World Council of Churches/University of Zimbabwe) and Adriaan van Klinken (University of Leeds)

The African Association for the Study of Religions holds its biennial conference on the theme “Revisiting Religion, Politics, and the State in Africa and the African Diaspora”, in Lusaka, 1-4 August, 2018. Please find the general Call for Papers here.

As part of this conference, we plan to convene a panel on the theme of “Religion, LGBT Activism and Queer Politics in Africa”. Moving beyond a focus on the politicisation of homosexuality and LGBT rights by the state as well as by religious actors, in this panel we draw attention to the counter-mobilisations of LGBT activists and allies. We solicit papers that examine the strategies and methods of LGBT activism in various parts of the continent, specifically exploring the ways in which LGBT actors appropriate, negotiate and reclaim religious beliefs, practices and symbols. Papers not only investigate the relationship between African LGBT activism and faith, but also explore the underlying queer political and religious imaginations informing. Hence the panel as a whole seeks to make a twofold intervention: putting the category of religion central in the emerging field of African queer studies, and putting matters of sexual diversity and queer politics central in the field of African religious studies.

Anyone interested in being part of this panel: please submit a 300 words abstract, as well as your contact details (name, position, institutional affiliation, email address, and phone number), to the conveners by email (chitsa21@yahoo.com and a.vanklinken@leeds.ac.uk) by 15 January, 2018.