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

Abstract

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.

African Studies Keywords: Queer

“…Although this field has been characterized by a strong focus on South Africa as an apparent key site of “the dream of love to come” (Munro 2012; see also Spurlin 2006; Tucker 2009; Livermon 2012; Morison, Lynch & Reddy 2019; Sizemore-Barber 2020; Riley 2021), recent years have witnessed an increasing body of scholarship on queer subjectivities and politics in other parts of the continent, such as Democratic Republic of Congo (Hendriks 2018, 2022), Ghana (Dankwa 2021; Otu 2022), Kenya (Ombagi 2019a; van Klinken 2019), Nigeria (Gaudio 2009; Munro 2016; Onanuga 2021), Mozambique (De Araújo 2021a, 2021b), and Uganda (Rodriguez 2019; Rao 2020). Methodologically and thematically, the focus is wide-ranging, from social movements and community organizing (Broqua 2012; Guéboguo 2008; Mbaye 2018; Nyeck & Epprecht 2013; Lorway 2015; Vrede 2020) to creative forms of visibility and activism, such as through arts (Meiu 2022), literature (Adenekan 2021; Azuah 2009, 2019; Mwangi 2017; Ofei & Oppong-Adjei 2021; Zabus 2013), film (Johnstone 2021; Ncube 2020, 2021; Ndjio 2021; Otu 2021; Scott 2021; Green-Simms 2022), social media (Gunkel 2013; Mwangi 2014; Onanuga 2021), sports (Ndjio 2022), autobiographical storytelling (Baderoon 2015; Oloruntoba-Oju 2021; Ombagi 2019b; Stobie 2014; van Klinken & Stiebert 2021), and material objects (Meiu 2020). Other studies foreground how, in fact, invisibility, silence, and secrecy can afford strategic possibilities of negotiating queer expressions in ways that counter expectations of queerness as defined by overt resistance and protest (Nyanzi 2015; Oudenhuijsen 2021).…”

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

“…Lastly, a focus on kinship illuminates not only the paradoxes of sociality but also the discrepancy between authoritative discourses and everyday practices. In homophobic discourses, for example, 'homosexuality' is perceived as an unreproductive sexual behaviour that endangers families, communities, and the social order in general (Meiu 2020;Ndjio 2020;Nyeck 2013). As such, homosexuality is construed as a social threat that has to be policed and eradicated.…”