Ezra Chitando & Adriaan van Klinken, eds, Christianity and Controversies over Homosexuality in Contemporary Africa; and Adriaan van Klinken & Ezra Chitando, eds, Public Religion and the Politics of Homosexuality in Africa

Summary

These two volumes are conceived as companion pieces, composed of essays written by African scholars and others, and seeking to fill what the editors conceive to have been a gap in the study of a nexus of subjects that has received very little academic attention: homosexuality, politics, and public religion (especially Christianity). They hope the high percentage of African scholars contributing essays will counter the observation from some Africans that the whole subject is part of a Western-driven agenda. Chitando and van Klinken see homosexuality as an issue of human rights and public health. They acknowledge, on the one hand, studies by Murray and Roscoe (1998), Epprecht (2004), and Morgan and Wieringa (2005) that show how long-standing African toleration of same-sex intimacies have not necessarily completely correlated to Western designations, and on the other hand, note studies by Ekine and Abbas (2013), Snadfort et al. (2015), and Tamale (2011) that demonstrate how, in recent times, ‘Western discourses and concepts of homosexuality, LGBTI identities and queer politics have been introduced to African contexts, and to a considerable extent have been adopted by local sexual minority communities and activists’ (Public 9). They leave it to individual authors to enter this debate as they see fit, while agreeing with Sylvia Tamale that there is little point in reinventing the wheel if there are Western concepts or names that, with some tweaking, will do well enough as conversational starting points.

The Public Religion volume explores Christian (mostly Pentecostal), Islamic, and Rastafari contexts. The editors suggest that traditional African religions have contributed less directly to the politics of homosexuality. The first section, ‘The Politicisation of Homosexuality’, examines that topic by looking at case studies from Uganda and Nigeria, and their new legislation, focusing on Pentecostalism in Uganda and the joint mobilisation of Christians and Muslims in Nigeria to work against homosexuality. Another chapter in this section looks at Egypt, where recent fatwas encourage the growth in attacks on homosexuals. A chapter deals with Zimbabwe and Mugabe's use of religious fervour to bolster his political standing. A chapter on Kenya records how Muslims overlook ‘the traditions of same-sex sexuality in coastal Muslim communities’ (11) possibly because they consider themselves marginalised from Christian-dominated politics in the country.