Creaturely lives and sexual exposure in African prison writing

Prison same-sex sexualities in the context of politicized homophobia in Malawi

“…In addition, this essay attempts to advance a dialogue about prison sex within African queer and sexuality studies by analyzing the invisibility of prison sex during a time of heightened scrutiny of same-sex sexualities. Although some queer African studies researchers have initiated a scholarly conversation about prison sexual cultures in analyses of African prison memoirs and fiction (Munro, 2012;Osinubi, 2014Osinubi, , 2018, there is a pressing need to document and theorize African same-sex sexualities in all the spaces they emerge, including in prisons. This research is especially urgent considering that incarcerated same-sexpracticing men are at increased risk of contracting HIV/AIDS and other sexually transmitted infections.…”

“…Until recently, prison sex has remained decoupled from popular and scholarly conceptions of same-sex sexualities (Kunzel, 2010). Although research documents prison sex and rape in African societies (Agboola, 2015;Egelund, 2014;Gear, 2007;Moolman, 2015), queer and sexuality studies scholars seem reluctant to explore the links between prison sexualities and same-sex sexualities, with a few exceptions (Achmat, 1993;Munro, 2012;Osinubi, 2014Osinubi, , 2018. Despite scholars' interest in documenting state regulation of nonheteronormative, nonprocreative sex and queer communities and practices in the global South (Alexander, 2005;Puri, 2016), this research has not made much room for the case of prison sex, isolating this practice within prison spaces.…”