#lgbti in west africa

[no-passaran]

Hi, it's Asexuality Awareness Week and I would like to share one of the reasons why it's important to raise awareness: including asexuality in legal protection.

One of the reasons why legal protections are necessary is the case of asylum seekers. Asexual asylum seekers, who are endangered in their home country, are routinely not accepted as asylum seekers because the legislation protects LGBT people but doesn't include asexuality in the acronym.

Let's see a couple of examples:

In 2018, an Algerian man applied for asylum in the Netherlands, explaining that he feared being persecuted in his country of origin for being asexual and for refusing to marry his niece.

The Netherlands, a country that accepts LGBTI asylum seekers, did not accept this man's asylum request because asexuality is not mentioned as being in the LGBTI. The court also said that asexuality is not punishable in Algeria. But not being legally called by its name and explicitly punished does not mean asexual people don't face discrimination, forced marriages, and threats of violence and rape. (Marriage itself, by the laws in most of the world, must include "consummation", whether the people involved want to or not).

This is the case of a 26-year-old woman living in Senegal, using the pseudonym Jade. Her family, across the border in Guinea, demanded that she find a man to marry. Her sister told her that if she didn’t, their parents would force her to wed a man who would rape her.

In Guinea and Senegal, forced marriages are common – the same sister who threatened Jade was in one herself. Divorce is also heavily stigmatised – when one of Jade’s cousins told her abusive husband she wanted a divorce, he said he would shoot her, her mother and himself.

Jade is a sex-repulsed asexual woman. She feared being married to someone she didn’t love and being subjected to so-called “corrective rape” until she bore children.

She considered suicide.

Her mother suggested sending her to therapy to fix her "aversion to marriage", when Jade refused, the mother said she'd "fix" her herself. She had Jade lay on the floor while she put her hand on her chest and prayed over her, asking afterwards whether she felt any different.

For a while, Jade’s last resort was escaping West Africa permanently. After she began studying in the US, it became her first choice. When researching what her options were, she found the case from the Netherlands that we've talked about before this one. She also found that legislations that aim to protect LGBTQI around the world don't include asexuality.

At present, the only piece of legislation which explicitly mentions asexuality is New York’s Sexual Orientation Non-Discrimination Act of 2003. However, that didn’t help Jade. A New York lawyer told Jade that there was no information as to whether asexuality was grounds for asylum in the US. After a long process of trying in the USA, she couldn't make it but after a year and a half she found an opportunity to do an internship in Ireland, where she lives now.

Since leaving West Africa, Jade has learned that her parents had chosen a husband for her without her knowledge, not long before she managed to escape. She says that, had she not been able to escape, she wouldn't be alive today.

This is what people mean when they say "asexuals aren't LGBTI!", "We can't have asexuals stealing our resources!". These are the kind of resources they mean: the ones that could save the life of a person being discriminated against for not being heterosexual heteroromantic and not conforming to the normative ideas of what their love and sex life should be like. An issue that is deeply shared with the rest of the LGBTQIA+ community.

[queerafricans]

LGBTI and of West African descent

CJ Run (Nigeria, Sierra Leone)

Selasie Djameh (Ghana)

Le1f (Senegal)

Moses Sumney (Ghana)

Cheryl Dunye (Liberia)

Telfar Clemens (Liberia)

HAWA (Guinea)

Tunde Olaniran (Nigeria)

Dev Hynes (Sierra Leone)

[apennyforurthots]

Queer Ghanaian Lives Matter

Ghanaians on different social media such as twitter and instagram are creating the #GhanaGetsBetter tag and changing their profile picture to this red one, which shows the bloodshed and injustice that is happening against LGBTI+people in Ghana. Queer organisations get burned down and the people themselves face beating, judging and death by the Christian church and the government. Show support for them.

[torrid-wind]

Eric Gyamfi reflects on his activism, photography, and telling the stories of West Africa’s queer communities.

Several months before I wrote about Gyamfi for “Platform Africa,” the summer issue of Aperture, I was introduced to his work at the LagosPhoto Festival. Despite the bustle of the location—a large, busy hotel in the city’s Echo Atlantic development—and despite being placed in a nook among many other works, his work stood out. And just in case I didn’t notice them, the celebrated veteran photographer Akinbode Akinbiyi made sure I would. “Watch this guy!” he said, jabbing his finger at the photographs.

My first conversation with Gyamfi took place on March 6, 2017, the day marking the sixtieth anniversary of Ghana’s independence from Britain. When he answered my message on Skype, I’d just been listening to Gyamfi’s video introduction to See You See Me (2016–17), an exhibition project at the Nubuke Foundation in Accra, which was supported by the Magnum Foundation Emergency Fund. I thought, then, that I could possibly frame my Aperture essay within the context of Ghana’s Independence Day and the poetic longings for creating and being “home.” Our conversation ended at 2:59 a.m. Accra time. It was the beginning of a dialogue that helped me understand how to best introduce readers to his body of work.

[Continue reading and view photos]

Visit Eric Gyamfi's blog (https://gyamfieric.tumblr.com/archive)

[76crimes]

LGBT in West Africa: Arrests, lynchings, discrimination, denial

LGBT in West Africa: Arrests, lynchings, discrimination, denial

West African nations display a mix of mostly abusive responses to LGBT people, including denial that they exist, lynchings and arrests even without anti-homosexuality laws. (more…)

[vicalfiheal1983-blog]

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[queermediastudies]

Mike, Matty, and Andy

1. Goltz and his colleagues argue for practicing “cultural humility” when engaging with queer non-Western identities. Please explain:

a)     what does the concept of “cultural humility” mean?

Cultural humility is an attempt by a communicator to not impose their preconceived beliefs, cultural norms, and practices. In discussion of LGBTQ concepts to foreign countries, it is important for individuals to understand various points of origin where LGBTQ concepts emerge, as opposed to assuming that all queer concepts are the same as we consider them in western culture.

b)     what are some of the cultural myths operating about LGBTI Kenyans and media representations of them?

Intergenerational tribes within Africa have beliefs in sexual deviance, demonic possession, and the more secular belief that homosexuality is “imported” to Africa from other nations. Many Kenyans interviewed also heard a story about a queer elitist cult, and while they didn’t believe the myth, it was still something of common knowledge. That women become lesbians because of negative experiences with men, and men are gay because they have an inability to have a proper relationship with women. As a nation struggling with AIDS, they continue to blame the proliferation of the disease on homosexual people.

c)     what binaries emerge in debates of the “cause” of homosexuality in Kenya?

Ironically, the connections between our western beliefs and those held by those in Kenya are quite a lot like each other. That is due to the fact that the prejudices that existed for us formed the definitions of homosexuality, yet led individuals to believe that these activities were introduced TO Africa by the west. That is why their understanding of the ills of AIDS, while largely curbed in the U.S. due to a dialogue about safe sex, continues to be a marginalizing stereotype in Kenya.

d)     how are LGBTI Kenyans engaging in their own “labelling practices” as a means of resistance?

By considering homosexuals to be a byproduct of contact of the west, it crates an easy dialogue where the assumed ills of a homosexual society can be blamed on an encroachment of the west. Thus, individuals engaging in same sex relationships are simply placed in a group where they are ‘behaving like westerners’ and the societal goal is not to accept those individuals but help them to understand their country’s more traditional values.

2. In “When Queer Theory meets Tongzhi in ‘China,’” Wong explores the possibilities and challenges of using thongzhi as both an identity category and theoretical lens to explore queer/ing and queerness in China.

a) what are some of the meanings of the term tongzhi?

Tongzhi describes the principle of male togetherness, which can be used to describe homosexuality, but also describes any male-male relationship developed through male bonding, pedagogy, or partnership. It even has a communist component, as individuals in Tongzhi can describe people of the same sex willing to work for the common good. This was the perspective upheld by individuals in China until colonization began, and more western definitions of male relationships became a greater part of the public consciousness.

b) Wong cites several examples of “queer”/ “tongzhi��� forms of activism, play, organizations, media, artists, and popular culture artifacts. Look up either one of the examples mentioned in the reading or find a different one. Submit a short post/comment on Tumblr that includes a relevant image, link, or clip.

[runaway-horses]

Love Makes A Family

May 17 is the International Day Against Homophobia, Transphobia and Biphobia. This year's theme is "Love Makes A Family." This year the central educational resource dispells the myth that homosexuality or being a LGBTQ+ person is a "Western product" which counters the primary argument against acceptance of LGBTQ+ people across Africa and around the world.

The United Nations' Free and Equal Campaign and the researchers at the Burke Center for International Relations at UCLA created this new educational resource for IDAHOT 2017.

The myth that being LGBTQ+ is “from the West” invalidates the existence and human dignity of LGBTI in their country of origin. This myth contributes to stigma, discrimination and violence. So, dispelling this myth will help to create respect and safe places for LGBTQ+ people and their families within their own communities, cultures and countries.

Here’s the link! Let’s spread the word everyone! :)

[rightsinexile]

News on Countries of Origin

Global 

Global Crisis Tracker: updates on conflicts and crises in over 80 countries

Africa

COVID to displace more than a million across the Sahel, new tool predicts

Landmines, improvised explosive devices pose deadly risks for displaced in Sahel and Lake Chad

BURKINA FASO

Caught between climate crisis and armed violence in Burkina Faso

CAMEROON

UNHCR: Victims of Suspected Boko Haram attack on Cameroon IDP camp need urgent help

MALI

UN closes two Malian refugee camps in Niger, citing security fears

NIGERIA

Nigerian migrants returned from Europe face stigma and growing hardship

SOUTH SUDAN

UN shelters 6,000 people who are escaping new violence in South Sudan

SUDAN

Recent clashes in West Darfur force 2,500 to seek safety in Chad

Americas

A dollar for sex: Venezuelan women tricked and trafficked

Violent death of a transgender asylum seeker in Guatemala highlights increased risks and protection needs for LGBTI community

Asia

Hate speech threats proliferate in Myanmar, Southeast Asia

AFGHANISTAN

EASO publishes new COI report on Afghanistan titled ‘Criminal law, customary justice and informal dispute resolution’ 

CHINA

Chinese state works to wipe out Uighur culture and identity

MYANMAR

Update: Humanitarian Situation in Rathedaung (30 June 2020)

Chin NGO reports at least 20 residents have gone missing from Chin State during armed conflict

Thousands flee in fear of Myanmar military in Rakhine State

Refugees in Pipin Yin camp in Rakhine State have not received government food assistance since May

Fifty villagers arrested, thousands flee, one police officer injured in Kyauktaw Township, Rakhine State

MENA

LIBYA

What happens to the migrants forcibly returned to Libya?

TURKEY

Torture on the rise in Erdogan’s Turkey

Turkish admiral seeking asylum in the US speaks out against Erdogan government

SYRIA

First coronavirus cases reported in Syria's Al-Hol camp

[21stcenturyteapot]

3. Biblically-based Homophobic Beliefs Inspire Real-Life Hatred

(And even Christians recognise the fact)

It’s nothing new for the Abrahamic religions to clash with the homosexual community.

Christianity, Judaism and Islam all have homophobic denominations or sects, though it would not be fair to classify any of them as wholly homophobic in their practices or even in terms of their theologies. What often seems to happen, however, is that “average” adherents express homophobic opinions, in words or actions, that negatively impact the everyday lives of LGBTQI+ people.

Homophobic Christian teaching with respect to homosexuality exacerbates already-elevated mental health and suicide rates among gay people. Suicide attempt rates, and suicide rates, are heightened among LGBTQI+ teens, particularly where they are rejected, and especially where the rejection comes from their close communities, families, persons regarded as moral/religious authorities [1]. Pew research [2] has established:

The survey shows a clear link between what people see as essential to their faith and their self-reported day-to-day behavior. Simply put, those who believe that behaving in a particular way or performing certain actions are key elements of their faith are much more likely to say they actually perform those actions on a regular basis.

It’s worth noting that the church itself is taking on explicitly Christian homophobia In other words, the need to address Christian Biblically-based homophobic hate speech is not driven by an anti-religious agenda per se. There are those combating such hate speech who do oppose religion more broadly, but it is not necessary to be anti-religion to recognise the need for activism, and the movement to address biblically-based homophobic and/or hate speech from within Christianity itself lends much objectivity to project.

In “When faith does violence - Re-imagining engagement between churches and LGBTI groups on homophobia in Africa” [3], theologians Gerald O. West, Kapya Kaoma and Charlene van der Walt note that: “African church theologies are not neutral, they are heteropatriarchal.”  Their view is that, in fact, the biblically accurate/preferable biblical theme to emphasize is one that “privileges the experience of marginalized communities.” In other words, they focus on themes like those of Exodus, where god is claimed to hear the cry of slaves and ultimately sets them free, (Exodus 3:7), leads them to a promised land and allegedly protects them from oppression by means of prophets. West, Kaoma and Van der Walt would have their readers focus on the fact that, for example, the biblical Christ is “born on the margins of a colonized and marginalized people” (Luke 2:1). They conclude that:

“It could and has been argued that within the shape of scripture God acts in specific social contexts, taking sides with the oppressed across historical time and geographical space, reminding us of the fact that marginalized communities are the springboard for Christian theology, ethics, and ministry (Croatto 1987). (p10)”

I’m not getting involved in arguments over the theological accuracy of one claim over another. I just want to build the case for countering harmful practices that are informed by beliefs which, in turn, are defined or informed by the Christian bible. In that light, I find it compelling that, even within the Christian church, harm to their LGBTQI+ sub-communities is noticed, and is being formally addressed, in both theological and academic circles. From the LGBTQI+ community’s side, the message was reinforced at an SAHRC-sponsored “In-country Meeting On Sexual Orientation, Gender Identity And Expression in November 2017”[4], by Glenton Matthyse from transgender lobby group, Gender Dynamix[5]. Matthyse expressed the view that: “Religion plays a major role as to why LGBTI members are still discriminated against today.” At its final panel, the Meeting handled the intersection of SOGI issues, religion and culture, and singled out SOGI-driven religious and cultural discrimination.

“Reverend Nokuthula Dhladla explained that this is an issue which churches have resolved to discuss due to the excessive violence and discrimination suffered by persons in the LGBT community. Materials have been developed on the role of churches in the context of violence against LBGT groups, with the purpose of training church leaders. While the process is ongoing and there continue to be challenges, the space for dialogue on religion and LGBT rights has been opened up, which represents significant strides compared to the previous status quo. Keval Harie of the Gay and Lesbian Memory in Action (GALA) posed the question of how to create spaces for young, gay and black youth in African communities. These spaces need to be safe and allow for the voices of marginalised individuals to be preeminent in the narrative. While religion is deeply private and protected by the Constitution, both the State and religious institutions tend to use religion to divert attention from important conversations around SOGIE-based discrimination.” (Pg. 26)

In other words, “it’s my faith, so don’t dare touch it” and “I’m just preaching the Word of God” are being recognised as smokescreens – even from within the Christian community. It’s time to end the harm. If you have thoughts or comments, feel free to get in touch.

 [1] John Shore, 2017, Gay Teen Suicides, Bullying and Christianity: A Talk with the Trevor Project Director (citing Massachusetts 2007 Youth Risk Survey), http://www.huffingtonpost.com/john-shore/a-talk-about-gay-teen-sui_b_745912.html)

[2] Pew Research Center, 2016, “Religion in Everyday Life”, Pg. 9.  http://www.pewforum.org/2016/04/12/religion-in-everyday-life/

[3]   The Other Foundation, Gerald O. West, Kapya Kaoma and Charlene van der Walt, 2017, “When Faith Does Violence” http://theotherfoundation.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/When-Faith-Does-Violence.pdf  

[4] South African Human Rights Commission, 2017, SAHRC and Network Of African National Human Rights Institutions’ (NANHRI) In - Country Meeting On Sexual Orientation, Gender Identity And Expression -  https://www.sahrc.org.za/home/21/files/South%20Africa%20Incountry%20Meeting%20Report.pdf

[5] Gender Dynamix - www.genderdynamix.org.za

[global-sexual-liberation]

Resisting homonationalism

The divisive societal structure which privileges monogamous heterosexuality was imposed on the Global South through colonization. Colonial rule erased indigenous sexual cultures around the world by imposing regulatory legal systems to ensure that populations adhered to the norm of the heterosexual nuclear family arrangements-- arrangements that consisted of a man who labored and a woman who carried out the work of social reproduction. The institution of a hierarchical system which privileged a specific type of heterosexuality was central to the advancement of capitalism, and the construction of indigenous sexuality as dangerous and in need of correction was one factor that legitimized the project of bringing indigenous communities into the oppressive global capitalist system. After formal colonization ended, an enduring desire to adhere to colonial respectability coupled with a need to prove legitimacy and authority has led many Southern states to more strictly regulate and police the sexuality of their citizens.

Global development agencies and organizations continue to institutionalize heterosexuality by positioning it as the only form of functional sexuality and denying the possibility of any other arrangements or preferences.

The lower levels of working class wages, weak welfare states, and high levels of inequality that have been brought about by Western-imposed neoliberal development have helped to ensure a great variety of forms of heteronormativity and sexual stigma throughout much of the Global South. Neoliberal development, with its integration of Southern countries into the global economy, privatization, economic liberalization and decentralization (coupled with ideologies of individualism and competition), has increased cultural and class tensions within existing queer communities in many countries throughout the South.

Despite the monumental role that the West has played in institutionalizing heterosexuality and creating the conditions for sexual oppression in the Global South, "developed" countries regularly demonize the "underdeveloped" for their perceived homophobia. Western development institutions and Western queer organizations are beginning to highlight the need to "teach" Southerners about the morality associated with accepting LGBTQIA+ people. It's important to note that in the US and in other Western countries, it is primarily privileged LGBTQIA+ people who have been afforded increased respect and acceptance. Despite this fact, the West continues to reproduce radicalized and necolonial images of the homophobic "other" while upholding Western moral exceptionalism regarding beliefs surrounding sexuality.

A few years back, the UK Prime Minister David Cameron considered making development aid/funding conditional upon adherence to human rights law for LGBTQIA+ individuals. African social justice activists responded with the following statement:

"The imposition of donor sanctions... does not, in and of itself, result in the improved protection of the rights of LGBTI people. Donor sanctions are by their nature coercive and reinforce the disproportionate power dynamics between their donor countries and recipients. They are often based on assumptions about African sexualities and the needs of African LGBTI people. They disregard the agency of African civil society movements and leadership... The history of colonialism and sexuality cannot be overlooked when seeking solutions to this issue. The colonial legacy of the British Empire in the form of laws that criminalize same-sex continues to serve as the legal foundation for the persecution of LGBTI people throughout the Commonwealth. In seeking solutions to the multi-faceted violations facing LGBTI people across Africa, old approaches and ways of engaging our continent have to be stopped."

When the West tries to impose the acceptance of LGBTI people onto the Global South, they are oftentimes minimizing the work being done by queer people in a number of regions while also making assumptions about the forms of advocacy that would be most liberating to queer people in the South.

In imposing the Western model of LGBTQIA+ rights, which mostly resembles individualized identity politics and progressively moving marginalized folks up the societal ladder of power and respectability which was created by neoliberal capitalism, the West is likely doing more harm than good. If powerful Westerners truly want to see more justice for sexual and gender diversity in the South, they should start by interrogating the ways in which the West continues to normalize heterosexuality in a number of ways and also by allowing Southerners to take the lead in working towards further inclusion. Southerners may be more critical of liberal rights approaches to justice, and therefore may be able to foster more imaginative approaches to reach acceptance for variance in sexuality and gender.

[torrid-wind]

Kwasi and Annertey find the Akaa Falls. Kwasi, looking to start a magazine on Ghanaian tourism, explores the eastern regional landscape of Ghana with his friend, Annertey, for new places to feature in the debut issue of his magazine. Kwasi identifies as a gay man, Annertey as a straight man. - photo by Eric Gyamfi (https://gyamfieric.tumblr.com), from the series "Just Like Us", 2016

“Just Like Us” is a series of photos that celebrates LGBTQ life in Ghana.

(***Click image or title link to view in high resolution***)

[republicstandard]

IN LAMMY’S WORLD ONLY GAY AND ABORTION ACTIVISTS CAN BE WHITE SAVIORS

Once upon a time, in the days of Rule Britannia, white saviors went to Asia and Africa and saved women and children. Today, in the era of Cool Britannia, white saviors conspire to control our former colonies with the gospel of gay sex and abortion. Progressive white saviors seek to destroy, not save—to kill unborn babies and prevent procreation.

British colonial rulers in India banned female infanticide in 1870, after Jonathan Duncan, resident in Benares, drew attention to the bizarre Hindu custom. Instead of converting Hindus to Christianity, in 1791 Duncan founded the Sanskrit College for the study of Hindu Law and Philosophy.

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After British colonial administrators prohibited child sacrifice at the Ganga Sagar festival, 19 Christian missionaries petitioned Lord Bentinck, Governor-General of India, to ban suttee—the custom forcing Hindu widows to immolate themselves on their husband’s funeral pyre.

When lecturing at Liverpool Hope University, I would ask my students what they thought of such acts performed by the British in India. Chillingly, the snowflakes were silent. Even the feminists in my class would squirm when I asked them about the rights of Hindu widows. The idea of “white savior” Lord Bentinck banning this indigenous practice through the Bengal Sati Regulation Act (1829) was colonial, racist and white supremacist.

When Prof Allan Bloom’s posed the same question to his students at Harvard, he got a similar response. “They either remain silent or reply that the British should never have been there in the first place,” he writes in The Closing of the American Mind.

I’m sure this is how the Rt Hon David Lammy, Labour MP for Tottenham, would respond. Lammy has had enough of “white saviors.” I mean, just look at all the harm they’ve done! As a Hindu Brahmin, my mother wouldn’t be alive today if Bentinck hadn’t banned suttee. I’d have to mutter a few Sanskrit shlokas and give her the heave-ho onto my dad’s barbecue.

But white people have no business monkeying around for Comic Relief in Uganda, Lammy would say to Stacey Dooley. This white Barbie doll should check her white privilege and upload pictures on Instagram of her holding only obese white children with snot running down their noses. It’s racist for her to get the optics wrong. In Lammy’s tribal world, you’re defined by the color of your skin, not by the content of your character.

“The world does not need any more white saviors. As I’ve said before, this just perpetuates tired and unhelpful stereotypes,” Lammy lamely tweeted. “It’s a kind of missionary idea, and it’s deeply problematic because what it does is it keeps the continent of Africa poor, it keeps people in their place,” explains the race hustler.

Lammy is the Al Sharpton of British politics. Twinned with Dianne Abbott, their race-baiting keeps them in the spotlight. In 2013, while debating gay marriage in Parliament, Lammy compared Christian MPs opposed to same-sex marriage to parliamentarians who defended the slave trade 200 years ago.

Lammy suffers from “racial paranoia,” which author Dinesh D’Souza defines as a “reflexive tendency to blame racism for every failure.” He pursues “the white whale of racism with Ahab-like determination.” As if he’s reading a Rorschach inkblot test, Lammy imagines colonialism and racism in the rather cute picture of eminent documentary filmmaker Stacey Dooley holding a Ugandan child.

As someone with a privileged education—The King’s School, School of Oriental and African Studies and Harvard Law School—Lammy needs to ask a few more questions about “white saviors” over the centuries. Why did the Judeo-Christian West produce these saviors? The answer lies in theology and technology.

Ancient civilizations were fiercely tribal: a person of one race would not cross ethnic boundaries to help someone of another race. The theology of the Hebrew Bible shattered this tribalism. Israel would be “a light to the nations.” From Israel came Jesus, who claimed to be the Messiah—not to a tribe, but to the world.

Israel produced a brown-skinned Saviour. Hey! Lammy, did you know Jesus was not white? Jesus was “most likely dark brown and sun-tanned,” says Princeton biblical scholar James Charlesworth. This Saviour began an obscure movement on the margins of the Roman Empire that dislodged classical paganism and became the dominant faith of the West.

Breaking with Marxist assumptions (lower classes are more religious than the rich), sociologist Rodney Stark argues that people with a degree of privilege and sophistication were attracted to the Jesus movement. In Roman society, mercy and pity were considered pathological emotions. But Jesus’ followers behaved mercifully because they had received mercy from God. Tribalism was smashed as privileged people crossed forbidden boundaries of class, color, race, and nation to share the gospel of their brown Saviour and to help those in the most life-threatening exigencies—especially during epidemics and plagues.

Jesus’s parable of the Good Samaritan climaxes in the question: “Who is my neighbor?” My neighbor is someone who is not like me and is not part of my tribe! However skeptically one views the charitable work done by Stacey Dooley and Comic Relief or other charities providing relief to the Third World, they’re doing it because the idea of serving someone who is not like me, is part of our Western DNA. “Charity” derived from the Latin Caritas is a Christian innovation.

Christianity gave birth to science and technology. Without a theology committed to reason, the world today would be where non-European societies were in 1800 with many astrologers and alchemists, but no scientists, Stark comments. “Modernity arose only in Christian societies. Not in Asia. Not in Islam. Not in a ‘secular’ society—there having been none. And all the modernization that has since occurred outside Christendom was imported from the West, often brought by colonizers and missionaries,” he adds.

Our theology motivated “white saviors” to go to Asia and Africa; our technology gave us prosperity. Because we were technologically more advanced, we had something to offer to those who were technologically less advanced.

Postmodern progressives like Lammy are profoundly ashamed of our missionary heritage. They conflate Christian mission with racism, imperialism, colonialism and white supremacy. What they are proud of is the new mission civilisatrice where “white saviors” now seek to enlighten Asia and Africa (and immigrants of color to Britain) with the gospel of pansexual liberation.

Lammy should look at the picture in Monday’s Guardian—Andrew Moffat, head of Parkfield Community School in Birmingham is reading a book to five brown/black children. “White savior” Moffat is indoctrinating colored Muslim children with LGBT+ propaganda. Their families are outraged. Such sexual grooming goes against their culture and religion, but progressives don’t regard this as cultural or ideological imperialism!

In a previous column, I pointed out how Anglican LGBT activist Jayne Ozanne has set up her own foundation with ten white saviors to civilize sexual savages. “The new foundation has been set up to help educate and advocate on LGBTI and gender rights around the world, particularly within religious organizations that are opposed to non-heterosexual relationships,” said Ozanne’s website.

The government’s Wilton Park report urges engagement with the Global South to challenge the “heteropatriarchy of Christianity brought by western missionaries” and teach queer theology, feminist theology and a theology of inclusion in seminaries to promote homosexuality, transgenderism, and intersexuality.

In 2017, our so-called Conservative government announced it would spend over £1.1billion on overseas abortions. According to a 2015 Pew Report, 92 percent Ghanaians, 88 percent Ugandans and 82 percent Kenyans say they find abortion unacceptable. In Asia, the figures are as high as 93 percent for the Philippines, 89 percent for Indonesia and 85 percent for Pakistan.

“I don’t think that any Western country has a right to pay for abortions in an African country, especially when the majority of people don’t want abortion… that then becomes a form of ideological colonization,” Obianuju Ekeocha, founder of Culture of Life Africa told the BBC World Service (who were banging the global abortion drum).

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The next time Lammy rails against “white saviors” and “poverty porn,” I’m sending him a copy of Keith Richburg’s Out of America: A Black Man Confronts Africa. Richburg, a black man, is correspondent for the leftwing Washington Post. He is “a descendant of slaves brought from Africa” and especially sensitive to the cynical and manipulative use of the race card by politicians like David Lammy.

“I’m tired of all the ignorance and hypocrisy and the double standards I hear and read about Africa, much of it from people who’ve never been there, let alone spent three years walking around amid corpses,” he writes. It’s not colonialism, or racism, or the white man; the real root of Africa’s problems, he stresses, lies in the boundless corruption of its leaders.

“Thank God that I am an American,” and “thank God my ancestor survived the voyage” which brought him to the United States as a slave, concludes Richburg.

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[queermediastudies]

Media Example

For my media example I decided to focus on a short film titled Face Off that was produced by Global Dialogues. Global Dialogues is a project that works collaboratively with youth in Africa to make films and creative projects to not only give voices  young people but to also spark social change. Face Off is a short film in which we see two narratives, one from a hyper religious white male condemning homosexuality, and one from an African mother of a gay son protecting his identity. The two narratives are juxtaposed and the film flips back and forth between them to create a stark contrast that speaks to the ideologies surrounding homosexuality in Africa. The film really speaks to the false notions of homosexuality as “sickness/perversion” and homosexuality as “spiritual/moral bankruptcy” such as Goltz et al analyze in their article on LGBTI identities in Kenya. This film was shown at the first ever Out Film Festival (OFF) at the Goethe Institute in Kenya in 2011. The film works to both draw attention to the discrimination towards the gay community in Africa while also showing the “reality” of gay people as being just people, and advocates for their treatment as so. The film also challenges this notion that homosexuality is a biproduct of the West’s entrance into Africa through globalization and colonization and is “un-African.” Goltz et al describe this connection between homophobia and globalization on page nine of their article when they state, “The Kenyan master narrative is not isolated from global homophobic master narratives” (Goltz et al) illustrating the ways that homosexuality is not a product of globalization but homophobia is. The film does a great job of depicting this idea through the use of a while man as the “condemner” and in contrast the mother’s “proud African” dialogue at the end of the film. 

Goltz, D. B., Zingsheim, J., Mastin, T., & Murphy, A. G. (2016). Discursive negotiations of Kenyan LGBTI identities: Cautions in cultural humility. Journal of International and Intercultural Communication, 9(2), 104–121. doi: 10.1080/17513057.2016.1154182

[rightsinexile]

News on Countries of Origin

Global

Coronavirus threatens to turn aid crises into ‘humanitarian catastrophes’ 

Displaced and stateless women and girls at heightened risk of gender-based violence in the coronavirus pandemic

How a coronavirus crisis would unfold in war-torn Syria, Yemen, or Libya

Africa

Coronavirus takes toll on LGBTI+ Africans

COVID-19 responses in Africa must include migrants and refugees

Growing violence in the Sahel linked to global warming and dwindling resources

Escalating horror in the Sahel has left more than a million displaced

Locust crisis worsens food insecurity in East Africa 

UNHCR steps up coronavirus prevention measures for displaced  

UNHCR steps up efforts in West and Central Africa 

BURKINA FASO: Worsening violence is forcing thousands to flee 

CAMEROON:

Election violence in anglophone regions 

Cameroon’s deepening aid crisis 

CHAD: Fears for civilians in Chad after army suffers devastating Boko Haram attack 

DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGO: More than two dozen killed in DRC armed attack

ETHIOPIA: How internet shutdowns have affected the lives of millions of Ethiopians

MAURITANIA: False promises in Mauritania  

MOZAMBIQUE: Mozambique militants occupy town in escalation of violence 

NIGER:

Hundreds of migrants stuck in Niger amid coronavirus pandemic 

Pushback and containment of migrants under COVID-19

NIGERIA: Military razes villages as Boko Haram attacks escalate 

SOUTH SUDAN: Thousands flee clashes in South Sudan 

Americas

The invisible walls of the Americas 

Venezuelans stranded across the Colombian border 

COLOMBIA: Violence in southwestern Colombia leaves people struggling to access assistance 

EL SALVADOR: El Salvador suspends deportations from US, Mexico over Coronavirus

MEXICO: Mexican crime gangs involved in human trafficking to carry out illegal logging 

NICARAGUA: Two years of political and social crisis in Nicaragua force more than 100,000 to flee

VENEZUELA: Coronavirus lockdowns across Latin America send Venezuelan migrants back to their broken homeland

Asia

CHINA: Discrimination against African-Americans in Guangzhou 

INDIA: 

Coronavirus conspiracy theories targeting Muslims spread in India

Mass protests center on a divisive question: Who has the right to be a citizen of India? 

MYANMAR: 

More than 2,200 Rohingya caught trying to leave Myanmar by sea since 2015

Myanmar authorities drop illegal travel charges against hundreds of Rohingya

Myanmar President orders officials to preserve evidence of Rakhine atrocities

Rights groups call for the protection of children in Myanmar

At least three displaced refugees killed and some 30 injured as Myanmar Army fires on Rakhine villages 

MENA

EGYPT: Children in Egypt tortured in detention: HRW

LIBYA: 

Coronavirus outbreak could be catastrophic for migrants

Humanitarian crisis worsening amid deepening conflict and COVID-19 threat 

Libya says migrants stopped at sea will not be let back in 

Man’s death in detention centre fire underscores importance of evacuating refugees

IOM has decried the return of a boat carrying 49 people to Libya 

PALESTINE: The Gaza Strip and COVID-19: preparing for the worst 

SYRIA: 

Battle rages over strategic Syrian town of Saraqeb as humanitarian crisis unfolds

EASO report on Syrian IDPs, returnees and internal mobility 

Regime offensive in northwest Syria displaces more than 800,000 

The fragmented politics of the Syrian refugee crisis jeopardizes the future of millions

Virus fears spread at camps in Syria’s northeast

YEMEN:

Briefing on the humanitarian situation in Yemen for the UN Security Council

Yemen can’t survive war on two fronts, top UN envoy tells Security Council, as coronavirus outbreak looms

[nofomoartworld]

Hyperallergic: Perspectives on Female Identity, Inspired by Nancy Spero

Zanele Muholi, “Zibuyile” (2015) (all images courtesy of Wave Hill)

The serene landscape of Wave Hill, which overlooks the Hudson River in the northern enclaves of the Bronx, seems like a stark contrast to the exhibition Outcasts: Women in the Wilderness currently on view at the Wave Hill House, built in 1843 on the lush grounds. Removed from the hubbub of Manhattan, the voices of the “outcasts” in the exhibition provide an emancipatory perspective on female subjects, especially in light of the current administration’s alienation of women and people of color.

Nancy Spero, “Masha Bruskina/Vulture Goddess” (1996), handprinting and printed collage on paper, 72.5 x 19.5 in

Guest curators Deborah Frizzell and David Weil’s impetus for the exhibition comes from the American artist and activist Nancy Spero’s representations of the female subject in her printed collages on paper. Long considered an outsider herself, Spero’s use of ancient art, mythology, folklore, porn, and magazines that conflated histories and cultures from across the world resonate with what other women artists around the globe are doing today. Spero’s scrolls “Masha Bruskina/Vulture Goddess” (1996) and “La Folie III” (2002) form the backbone of this expansive group exhibition. The first depicts Bruskina, a Russian Jew who was hanged for being a partisan during World War II, surrounded by vultures, which were symbols of femininity, maternal strength, and power in Egyptian mythology; this mirrors multiple perspectives on female identity that mine personal and ancient mythology in the show. Here artists from Aboriginal Australia, Afghanistan, Dominican Republic, India, Indonesia, Iran, Native America, Pakistan, South Africa, Taiwan, and the US combine culture-specific motives with modern forms to create female figures that fulminate in a realm that defies easy narrative and interpretation.

Take Samira Abbassy’s “Autobiographical Confessions through effigies, idols, saints and Martyrs. A journey through the stages of a life: sex, love, marriage, childbirth, betrayal, rage, revenge, illness, healing and redemption” (2017). The piece, comprising four shelves full of small surreal sculptures made up of doll parts, dentures, a goat’s head, hair, pantyhose, wings, glass, ceramic, clay, fabric, jewelry, and toothpicks, mines Abbassy’s subconscious to reveal experiences from her native Iran and her life in the West. Amid this amalgamation we see an arched woman with identical heads dangling from her neck and vagina, a tiny bust fitted with dentures for a head, a headless woman with splayed legs giving birth to a shapeless form, and an Abu Ghraib–like torture subject. These female sculptures subvert archetypal depictions of women while creating bizarre narratives that suggest the subjugation of women outside the Western periphery.

Samira Abbassy, “Autobiographical Confessions through effigies, idols, saints and Martyrs. A journey through the stages of a life: sex, love, marriage, childbirth, betrayal, rage, revenge, illness, healing and redemption” (2017)

One also sees this knack for reinvention and making the familiar fresh in Jaishri Abichandani’s small clay sculptures of the Hindu goddess Kali, who is traditionally portrayed as a larger-than-life destroyer of evil forces. In Abichandani’s works, Kali appears with animal heads, amputated limbs, enticing voluptuous breasts, and an open vagina. Seen strumming the traditional tanpura instrument with a male head at the base, Abichandani’s Kali joins a league of female forms that enter the wilderness of unexplored territories, undaunted by a fear of commingling mythology with her conception of the tortured but strong female form.

For such artists, Spero’s trailblazing path of feminism that initially shocked and embarrassed her audiences has been particularly inspiring. When Yee-I-Lann first encountered Spero’s work in 1997, as she states in her essay in the catalog, she realized that “it’s okay to conflate personal storytelling with politics and current affairs.” In her three-channel video, “Imagining Pontianak: I’ve Got Sunshine on a Cloudy Day” (2016), I-Lann uses the image of the popular Indonesian female ghost to give voice to young women in her country who discuss their bodies and sexual experiences.

Jaishri Abichandani, “Before Kali”

Yee I-Lann, stills from “Pontianak: I’ve Got Sunshine on a Cloudy Day” (2016)

Even the landscape in Tracey Moffatt and Huma Bhabha’s photographs is imbued with the beauty of otherness. Moffatt’s celestial images reference the sky above her aboriginal ancestral lands, while Bhabha culls some sense of serenity from desolate strips of Pakistan that she returns to periodically. And Kris Grey gains strength from positioning himself as a “self-designed hybrid” who uses “hormones and medical technology to craft a defiant body.” Grey’s gender-bending figure, which challenges categorization and prevents the formulation of specific conclusions, best sums up many of the artists in this exhibition, who, like Spero did, continue to make work despite their adversaries. Much like Zanele Muholi’s portraits of the LGBTI community in South Africa that appear to repeatedly stand up to their naysayers, women from the wilderness are welcomed as insiders in the calm, unflappable quarters of Wave Hill for their tenacity and for empowering collective memory.

Khris Grey, “Greenhouse”

Outcasts: Women in the Wildness, installation view (photo by Stefan Hagen)

Outcasts: Women in the Wildness, installation view (photo by Stefan Hagen)

Outcasts: Women in the Wilderness continues at Wave Hill House (West 249th Street and Independence Avenue, Bronx) through July 9.

The post Perspectives on Female Identity, Inspired by Nancy Spero appeared first on Hyperallergic.

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