A “Vortex of Identities”: Freemasonry, Witchcraft, and Postcolonial Homophobia

Geschiere, Peter

doi:10.1017/asr.2017.52

Cited by 17 publications

(16 citation statements)

References 27 publications

(19 reference statements)

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Since the explosion of a violent political and social homophobia that has rocked most African countries over the past decade (see Geschiere 2017; Epprecht 2013; 2008; Hoad 2007; Kaoma 2012; 2009; Bosia and Weiss 2013; van Klinken 2014; 2011), people who are declared to be or suspected of being ‘homosexual’ have become the new recluses in a number of African communities. Even public medical institutions have been turned into places of medical discrimination, effectively excluding patients whose unconventional sexual identity does not fit the heteronormative values promoted by many postcolonial African governments (cf.…”

Section: Homo Sacer: the Untouchables The Spectres And Ungrievable Dmentioning

confidence: 99%

Death without mourning: homosexuality,homo sacer, and bearable loss in Central Africa

Ndjio¹

2020

Africa

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Contemporary societies in Central Africa are known for their mourning ethos: communities often engage in endless lamentation upon the death of their loved ones. Yet people experience the death of a family member differently, depending on the deceased's sexual identification. While the death of a person identifying as heterosexual is generally felt as unbearable, that of a person identifying as homosexual is experienced as bearable. Based on field research conducted in Cameroon, this article analyses the way in which contemporary Central African societies experience the death of persons identifying as homosexual. Drawing on Giorgio Agamben's notion of homo sacer, the article argues that, as a result of the pervasiveness of anti-homosexual ideologies and procreationist doctrines promoting vitalis moralis or the ethics of life, childless persons identifying as homosexuals have become ‘homines sacri’ whose deaths arouse little grief from the community because their existence was perceived as ‘bare’ or useless even before their death.

show abstract

Section: Homo Sacer: the Untouchables The Spectres And Ungrievable Dmentioning

confidence: 99%

Death without mourning: homosexuality,homo sacer, and bearable loss in Central Africa

Ndjio¹

2020

Africa

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Apparently, this link has an obvious quality in African imaginaries on same-sex practices that is all the more notable since it is clearly not derived from the West. A few examples must suffice here (see also Geschiere 2017). In 1988, Quality , a Nigerian magazine, warned its readers in more general terms: They [the homosexuals] are getting more and more aggressive and courageous by the day and are made up of the top brass in the society – successful lawyers, doctors, swanky businessmen, military men, ex-politicians, diplomats, and university graduates – all with a passion for men … One bizarre yet interesting feature of homosexuality in the country is that it is cult-oriented and is making millionaires out of those who belong … After every love session Quality learnt, the big shots who normally play the aggressor role, rush home keeping mum.…”

Section: Same-sex Practices and Enrichment: Examples From Elsewherementioning

confidence: 99%

Anusocratie? Freemasonry, sexual transgression and illicit enrichment in postcolonial Africa

Geschiere¹,

Orock²

2020

Africa

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Cameroonians recently invented a new word to characterize the state of their country: anusocratie (the rule of the anus). This became central in the moral panic from 2000 onwards over a supposed proliferation of homosexuality. Anusocratie links such same-sex practices to illicit enrichment by the national elites and their involvement with secret associations of Western provenance, such as Freemasonry, Rosicrucians and the Illuminati. This article tries to unravel this conceptual knot of homosexuality, the occult (Freemasonry) and illicit enrichment: first, by historicizing it. Of interest in the Cameroonian case is the fact that a similar link is mentioned in one of the first ethnographies, Günther Tessmann's Die Pangwe. Freemasonry is clearly a colonial imposition on the country, but the link between same-sex practices and enrichment has a longer history. Second, a comparison with similar ideas elsewhere on the continent can also open up wider perspectives. The link with illicit enrichment does not figure in classical conceptions of ‘homosexuality’ as developed in Europe, yet it strongly emerges from examples from all over Africa. Both Achille Mbembe and Joseph Tonda show that this image of the anus – anal penetration – articulates popular concerns about staggering inequalities. Yet, this aspect is ignored in debates about growing ‘homophobia’ in Africa. A confrontation with classical texts from Western queer theory (Bersani, Mieli) can help us discover other layers in African discourses, notably an emphasis on sexual diversity as an answer to homophobia. It can also serve to relativize the linking of sexual practices to sexual identities, which is still seen as self-evident in much queer theory of Western provenance.

show abstract

“…It is akin to evangelical renderings of homosexuals as unable to reproduce and so needing to “recruit,” a logic that Euro‐American right‐wing conservatives have long employed (Angelides 2019, 86). Gayism, like any ‐ ism , is a trend, a current that proliferates through conversion, which explains, for example, why homosexuality is often associated with Freemasonry in West Africa (Geschiere 2017). It posits men who desire receptive penetration as feeding off the bodies of others.…”

Section: Homophobia Diapers and Displacementsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…For Cameroon, see Peter Geschiere (2017, 11); for Ghana, see Nathanael Homewood (2020, 114–17); for Nigeria, see Benedict Hart (2014); for Uganda, see J. Lester Feder (2014). …”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Underlayers of Citizenship: Queer Objects, Intimate Exposures, and the Rescue Rush in Kenya

Meiu

2020

Cult. Anthropol.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

In Kenya in recent years, diapers have played a central role in anti-homosexual discourses, suggesting that anal sex results in chronic bodily incontinence. But rumors about adults in diapers do not pertain only to homosexuality. They also describe bodily ruptures resulting from sex work, illicit moneymaking practices, and “immorality,” more generally. This article explores how the resonances between different deployments of diapers help constitute the homosexual body as a target of outrage, violence, and exclusion. I argue that rumors about adults in diapers identify and expose national threats in the hidden layers of intimate life to produce good citizenship. Drawing on Sara Ahmed’s work, I approach diapers as “queer objects,” because they offer an alternative entry point into discussions of intimate citizenship: they bracket the reified category of the homosexual and demonstrate how sentiments associated with homophobia emerge in a wider set of struggles with bodies, work, respectability, and progress. Muhtasari Katika mazumgumzo juu ya kuzuiia gayism (ushoga) nchini Kenya, imekuwa kawaida kusema kwamba ngono ya nyuma inasabibisha watu wazima wavae ‘pampers’ (nepi). Lakini uvumi huu hauhusu gayism peke yake tu. Uvumi juu ya nepi hurejelea pia nyufa za mwili zinazosabibishwa na ukahaba, mazoea ya kutafuta pesa haramu, na aina zingine za "uasherati." Makala hii inatafiti maana tofauti ya nepi katika mazumgumzo ya kila siku kwa ajiji ya kuelewa vile maana hayo yanaathiri maoni kuhusu gayism. Ninaonyesha vile uvumi juu ya watu wazima wanaovaa nepi wanafunua mahatari katika “tabaka zinazofichwa” za maisha ya kila siku nchini. Nepi ndiyo vitu vinavyotusaidia kuelewa uhusiano kati ya uraia na ujinsia. Kwa sababu hayo, ninafuata maandishi ya Sara Ahmed kusema kwamba nepi kuwa “vitu queer:” yaani, vitu vinavyoonyesha kwamba mapambano na afya ya miili, kazi, heshima, na maendeleo yanaweza kuunda chuki ya ushoga.

show abstract

A “Vortex of Identities”: Freemasonry, Witchcraft, and Postcolonial Homophobia

Cited by 17 publications

References 27 publications

Death without mourning: homosexuality,homo sacer, and bearable loss in Central Africa

Death without mourning: homosexuality,homo sacer, and bearable loss in Central Africa

Anusocratie? Freemasonry, sexual transgression and illicit enrichment in postcolonial Africa

Underlayers of Citizenship: Queer Objects, Intimate Exposures, and the Rescue Rush in Kenya

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About