Politics and Violence in Burundi: the language of truth in an emerging state by Aidan Russell Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2019. Pp. 330. $99.99 (hbk).

Abstract

more expansive concept of Christian love. Van Klinken reads the video as a 'political and theological text' () that 'provides insight into the intersection of Kenyan, Christian, and queer identities and politics' and its contribution to 'an African queer theology of love' (). Chapter  presents an anthology of some  life history interviews with LGBTQ Kenyans, framing them as counter stories, 'that resist dominant narratives of sexuality' () and that promote a Kenyan brand of sexual politics. Van Klinken's analysis is at its most powerful when it highlights the instability of self-signifiers in the narratives of participants, through, for example, their coming out stories. From these stories emerges a complex version of intimate citizenship that Van Klinken rightfully acknowledges is 'far from homogenous' (). They both challenge the violence of Kenyan heteronormativity and reveal localised strategies for 'dealing with sex, love, relationships, marriage, and family' (), unsettling oversimplified accounts of African LGBTQ lives. Chapter  provides a thick description of how the Nairobi-based Cosmopolitan Affirming Church (CAC) 'negotiates lgbt identities and Christian faith in the Kenyan context' (). With its connections to emerging forms of radical inclusivity within the African American Pentecostal movement, the church offers a critique of socio-political homophobia on the continent, suggesting that there has been a 'spiritual colonization of Africa' (). Van Klinken shows how the church functions as much as a space for 'queer religious world-making' (). For example, he describes a drag-queen contest in which the congregation is invited to envision a society in which LGBTQ people and queer practices are religiously sanctioned and celebrated, bearing witness to a theological statement on queer empowerment. Van Klinken intersperses these case studies with four ethnographic interludes that address his experience as a researcher occupying a queer, white European subject position. For example, in 'Bodywork' he reflects on a sexual experience with a queer Kenyan to 'illustrate the complex situation of power and vulnerability' () of sex during fieldwork and to challenge taken-for-granted norms about ethnographic research ethics. These interludes raise 'ethical, methodological, and political' () questions related to fieldwork and, he hopes, contribute to a 'queerworld making in academia' () that affirms, rather than avoids, the embodied humanity we share with our research participants. Kenyan, Christian, Queer will serve as an important resource for students and scholars of religious, queer and African studies. Its intervention in these three overlapping fields make it an exciting contribution to scholarship on the role of religion in queer African lives.