Going out and making it home: on the roots, routes and homing of young queer men in Nairobi, Kenya

Woensdregt, Lise

doi:10.1080/17450101.2022.2146526

Cited by 3 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 40 publications

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“…Kanja met a woman, paid the bridewealth to her parents, and they married and soon had two children. Kanja fulfilled his family members’ expectations and, as a husband and a father, enhanced their appreciation for him, which validated his understanding of himself as a son and a responsible man (see also van Stapele 2019; Woensdregt 2023). He moved back to Nairobi so he could work and send money home, leaving his wife and children in the village.…”

Section: Doing Kinshipmentioning

confidence: 83%

“…77Our empirical findings challenge current political framings in Kenya, as seen in discourses supporting the proposal for the Family Protection Bill (2023) that depict homosexuality as dangerous due to its purported non‐reproductive, anti‐social, and anti‐kinship characteristics. Cases like the ones presented in this article illustrate how men and women in same‐sex partnerships strive to integrate their relationships into broader networks of kinship, aspire to have and raise children, and adhere to kinship norms in ways analogous to cross‐sex couples.…”

mentioning

confidence: 95%

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Family matters: same‐sex relations and kinship practices in Kenya

Andrikopoulos,

Spronk

2023

Royal Anthropological Inst

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Guided by social justice and sexual health concerns, scholars of same‐sex sexualities in Africa have mainly examined related conflicts and inequities, generating an unbalanced emphasis on homophobia. Following Stella Nyanzi's plea for a broader exploration of queer sexuality in Africa, we move beyond the strictly sexual sphere to study the kinship arrangements of same‐sex couples in Kenya. These couples rely on the different possibilities afforded by kinship – in both its inclusive and exclusive capacities – to create accommodation and acceptance. Capturing the complexities and paradoxes of social life, the ethnographic study of kinship practices in everyday life shows how homophobia and accommodation can co‐exist. Furthermore, the embeddedness of same‐sex relationships in kinship structures and the subscription of same‐sex couples to the same norms held by cross‐sex couples clearly indicates the difficulty of construing these forms of relatedness as essentially different from other kinship formations. Thus ‘queering queer Africa’ requires not only taking a broader perspective and looking beyond what is usually classified as ‘queer’ but also un‐queering what at first appears as queer and thus ‘queerying’ the barriers and the range of possibilities that characterize the lives and subjectivities of people with same‐sex desires.

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Section: Doing Kinshipmentioning

confidence: 83%

mentioning

confidence: 95%

Family matters: same‐sex relations and kinship practices in Kenya

Andrikopoulos,

Spronk

2023

Royal Anthropological Inst

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“…This article is part of a larger ethnographic study (see also van Stapele et al., 2019b; Woensdregt, 2022a; Woensdregt and Nencel, 2022a, 2022b) with a Kenya‐based sex worker‐led CBO (henceforth SWL‐CBO). The in‐depth interviews at the heart of this article were conducted with 15 professionals working in fundermediaries, who worked directly with the participating CBO in our study.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…We also contend that it is not the inclusion of voices but rather the politics of inclusion that is at stake here: who decides who is included, who is given voice and who defines the conditions of the inclusion of marginalized communities. This article is part of a larger ethnographic study (see also van Stapele et al, 2019b;Woensdregt, 2022a;Nencel, 2022a, 2022b) with a Kenya-based sex worker-led CBO (henceforth SWL-CBO). The indepth interviews at the heart of this article were conducted with 15 professionals working in fundermediaries, who worked directly with the participating CBO in our study.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

‘Fundermediaries’ in Nairobi, Kenya: Development Partnerships in the Aid Chain

Woensdregt¹,

Nencel²

2023

Development and Change

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By representing the voice of communities, community‐based organizations (CBOs) are increasingly joining development partnerships. This article explores the inherently contradictory relationship between ‘voice raising’ and the politics of listening. While academia has mostly focused on the inclusion of CBOs, few studies have approached this subject from the perspective of the listening practices of ‘fundermediaries’ (a portmanteau term combining ‘funder’ and ‘intermediary’). This ethnographic research on a CBO led by male sex workers in Nairobi, Kenya, illustrates that the listening ability of fundermediaries hinges on their position in the aid chain, and specifically on the dynamics of their own accountability. The analysis distinguishes between two partnership types. The first uses a pragmatic approach, which ultimately limits the channels for CBOs to be included and heard, resulting in them having to ‘make noise’ to ensure they are heard. The second creates more possibilities to listen, engages in constructive dialogues with partner CBOs, and includes the ideas and expertise of CBOs in development strategies; hence, CBOs feel heard and are positive about these partnerships. Improved listening practices facilitate opportunities to reconfigure the position of the different actors in development partnerships and can benefit both the positions of CBOs in the aid chain and the programmatic outcomes of fundermediaries.

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Homing desires: Transnational queer migrants negotiating homes and homelands in Scotland

Stella,

Binnie

2024

The Sociological Review

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A vast literature on the home across sociology, human geography and cognate disciplines has mapped out home as a messy conceptual terrain. Critical perspectives have theorised home as simultaneously imaginative and material, and argued for the importance to pay attention to both dimensions. Following in this tradition, empirical research has explored how ‘home’ is understood, imagined and experienced in everyday life, and how imagery and experiences of home are inflected by class, race/ethnicity, migrancy, gender, sexuality, age and able-bodiness. In the literature on home, however, migrancy and sexuality are rarely brought together. This article advances existing debates on the home though an intersectional exploration of the home/migration/sexuality nexus, drawing on research with queer migrants from Central Eastern Europe (CEE) and the Former Soviet Union (FSU) living in Scotland. Methodologically, the article draws on photo diaries and photo elicitation interviews to explore queer migrants’ sense of home: an approach that allows us to untangle the spatial, material, imaginary, affective and temporal dimensions of home. Empirically, we show how both migrancy and sexuality inform our participants’ complex experiences and understandings of home. Conceptually, the article brings into conversation literatures on the migrant and the queer home, which have hitherto been largely separate, and proposes ways to advance the exploration of the home/migration/sexuality nexus.

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Going out and making it home: on the roots, routes and homing of young queer men in Nairobi, Kenya

Cited by 3 publications

References 40 publications

Family matters: same‐sex relations and kinship practices in Kenya

Family matters: same‐sex relations and kinship practices in Kenya

‘Fundermediaries’ in Nairobi, Kenya: Development Partnerships in the Aid Chain

Homing desires: Transnational queer migrants negotiating homes and homelands in Scotland

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