Popular narratives cite religion as the driving force behind homophobia in Africa, portraying Christianity and LGBT expression as incompatible. Without denying Christianity’s contribution to the stigma, discrimination, and exclusion of same-sex-attracted and gender-variant people on the continent, Adriaan van Kinken presents an alternative narrative, foregrounding the ways in which religion also appears as a critical site of LGBT activism.
Taking up the notion of “arts of resistance,” Kenyan, Christian, Queer presents four case studies of grassroots LGBT activism through artistic and creative expressions—including the literary and cultural work of Binyavanga Wainaina, the Same Love music video produced by gay gospel musician George Barasa, the Stories of Our Lives anthology project, and the LGBT-affirming church community Cosmopolitan Affirming Church. Through these case studies, van Klinken demonstrates how Kenyan traditions, black African identities, and Christian beliefs and practices are being navigated, appropriated, and transformed in order to allow for queer Kenyan Christian imaginations.
Transdisciplinary in scope and poignantly intimate in tone, Kenyan, Christian, Queer opens up critical avenues for rethinking the nature and future of the relationship between Christianity and queer activism in Kenya and elsewhere in Africa.
Contents
Preface
Acknowledgments
Introduction: From “African Homophobia” to Queer Arts of Resistance
1 - Kenyan Queer Critique of Christianity and
Homophobia
Interlude 1 Prophetess
2 - Kenyan Claim to Queer and Christian Love
Interlude 2 Bodywork
3 - Kenyan Queer Stories of Sexuality and Faith
Interlude 3 Positive
4 - Kenyan Queer Christian Community
Interlude 4 Ambassador
Conclusion
Notes
Bibliography
Index
“By showcasing a rich array of Kenyan queer creative practices, Adriaan van Klinken makes a compelling case for religion as a discursive site of African queer subjectivity, agency, and queer inventiveness that point to a nascent African queer theology. This book’s boundary-pushing methodology lends it a remarkable blend of integrity and risk that is generative for future reflections on ethnographic practice and the productive modes of addressing questions of positionality in research practice.”
—Grace Musila, coeditor of Rethinking Eastern African Literary and Intellectual Landscapes
