Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-dsjbd Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-27T23:14:47.273Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

In and Out in Senegal: Unearthing Queer Roots in Mohamed Mbougar Sarr’s De purs hommes

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 December 2021

Devin Bryson Open the ORCID record for Devin Bryson [Opens in a new window]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Mohamed Mbougar Sarr’s 2018 novel De purs hommes fictionalizes recent incidents of homophobia in Senegal to interrogate the relationship between queer men and social dynamics in the country. This article demonstrates that the novel deploys multidirectional critical discourse and oblique narrative tactics to highlight the foundational role in Senegalese culture and society of the fraught dichotomy between private and public life. Bryson contends that the novel unearths these queer roots in order to incorporate all normative identities into queer existence, conceptually blurring the social barriers to LGBTQ+ agency in the country.

Résumé

Résumé

Le roman de 2018 de Mohamed Mbougar Sarr, De purs hommes, fictionnalise les récents incidents d’homophobie au Sénégal pour interroger la relation entre les hommes homosexuel et les dynamiques sociales dans le pays. Cet article démontre que le roman déploie un discours critique multidirectionnel et des tactiques narratives obliques pour mettre en évidence le rôle fondamental, dans la culture et la société sénégalaises, de la dichotomie pesante entre vie privée et vie publique. Bryson soutient que le roman déterre ces racines queer afin d’incorporer toutes les identités normatives dans l’existence queer, brouillant conceptuellement les barrières sociales à l’agence LGBTQ+ dans le pays.

Resumo

Resumo

De purs hommes, o romance de Mohamed Mbougar Sarr publicado em 2018, ficciona os recentes incidentes homofóbicos que ocorreram no Senegal, de modo a questionar a relação entre a homossexualidade masculina e as dinâmicas sociais no país. Este artigo demonstra que o romance utiliza um discurso crítico multidirecional, bem como táticas narrativas dissimuladas para sublinhar o papel fundacional, na cultura e na sociedade senegalenses, da problemática dicotomia entre a vida pública e a vida privada. Bryson sustenta que o romance desvenda estas raízes homossexuais com o objetivo de incorporar todas as identidades normativas na existência homossexual, assim dissipando conceptualmente as barreiras sociais à agencialidade LGBTQ+ no país.

Keywords

SenegalLGBTQqueer theorypoliticscultural normsfictionfrancophone literature
Type
Article
Information
African Studies Review , Volume 64 , Issue 4 , December 2021 , pp. 803 - 825
Copyright
© The Author(s), 2021. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of the African Studies Association

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Bersani, Leo. 1987. “Is the Rectum a Grave?” October 43 (winter): 197–222.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Broqua, Christophe. 2017. “Góor-jigéen: la resignification négative d’une catégorie entre genre et sexualité.” Socio 9: 163–83.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Broqua, Christophe. 2019. “Islamic Movements Against Homosexuality in Senegal: the Fight Against AIDS as a Catalyst.” In Public Religion and the Politics of Homosexuality in Africa, edited by van Klinken, Adriaan and Chitando, Ezra, 163–79. New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Cazenave, Odile, and Célérier, Patricia. 2011. Contemporary Francophone African Writers and the Burden of Commitment. Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press.Google Scholar
Coly, Ayo. 2019. “The Invention of the Homosexual: The Politics of Homophobia in Senegal.” In Gender and Sexuality in Senegalese Societies: Critical Perspectives and Methods, edited by M’Baye, Babacar and Besi, Brillian Muhonja, 27–52. Lanham, Maryland: Lexington Books.Google Scholar
Diabaté, Naminata. 2016. “Genealogies of Desire, Extravagance, and Radical Queerness in Frieda Ekotto’s Chuchote Pas Trop.” Research in African Literatures 47 (2): 46–65.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ekine, Sokarie, and Abbas, Hakima. 2013. “Introduction.” In Queer African Reader, edited by Ekine, Sokari and Abbas, Hakima, 1–5. Dakar: Pambazuka Press.Google Scholar
Gning, Ndèye. 2013. “Les motifs de l’illégitimité sociale de l’homosexualité au Sénégal.” Africultures 6 (96): 22–39.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hayes, Jarrod. 2016. Queer Roots for the Diaspora: Ghosts in the Family Tree. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hayes, Jarrod. 2020. “Queer Desire on the Move: Resistance to Homoglobalization in World Literature in French.” In Francophone Literature as World Literature, edited by Moraru, Christian, Simek, Nicole, and Westphal, Bertrand, 180–93. London: Bloomsbury.Google Scholar
Human Rights Watch. 2010. Fear for Life: Violence against Gay Men and Men Perceived as Gay in Senegal. New York: Human Rights Watch.Google Scholar
Koestenbaum, Wayne. 1993. The Queen’s Throat: Opera, Homosexuality, and the Mystery of Desire. New York: Poseidon Press.Google Scholar
Mbaye, Aminata Cécile. 2018. Les discours sur l’homosexualité au Sénégal: l’analyse d’une lutte représentationnelle. München: Akademische Verlagsgemeinschaft München.Google Scholar
Mbaye, Aminata Cécile. 2020a. “Images of Sexuality: The Aestheticization of Same-Sex Intimacy in Francophone Literary and Filmic Productions.” In The SAGE Handbook of Global Sexualities, edited by Davy, Zowie, Santos, Ana Cristina, Bertone, Chiara, Thoreson, Ryan, and Wieringa, Saskia E., 897–916. London: SAGE.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mbaye, Aminata Cécile. 2020b. “The Spectacle of the ‘Other’: Media Representations of Same-Sex Sexuality in Senegal.” Sexualities 24 (1–2): 13–28.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
M’Baye, Babacar. 2019. “Representations of the Gôr Djiguène [Man Woman] in Senegalese Culture, Films, and Literature.” In Gender and Sexuality in Senegalese Societies: Critical Perspectives and Methods, edited by M’Baye, Babacar and Muhonja, Besi Brillian, 77–106. Lanham, Maryland: Lexington Books.Google Scholar
Mbembe, Achille, and Sarr, Felwine, eds. 2017. Écrire l’Afrique-Monde. Dakar: Jimsaan.Google Scholar
Miller, D.A. 1985. “Secret Subjects, Open Secrets.” Dickens Studies Annual 14: 17–38.Google Scholar
Niang, Cheikh Ibrahima, Tapsoba, Placide, Weiss, Ellen, Diagne, Moustapha, Niang, Youssoupha, Moreau, Amadou Mody, Gomis, Dominique, Wade, Abdoulaye Sidbé, Seck, Karim, and Castle, Chris. 2003. “‘It’s Raining Stones’: Stigma, Violence and HIV Vulnerability among Men Who Have Sex with Men in Dakar, Senegal.” Culture, Health and Sexuality 5 (6): 499–512.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Osinubi, Taiwo Adetunji. 2016. “Queer Prolepsis and the Sexual Commons: An Introduction.” Research in African Literatures 47 (2): vii–xxiii.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Repinecz, Jonathon. 2018. “Gay Life in Senegal.” https://africasacountry.com.Google Scholar
Sarr, Felwine. 2016. Afrotopia. Paris: Philippe Rey.Google Scholar
Sarr, Mohamed Mbougar. 2014. Terre ceinte. Paris: Présence africaine.Google Scholar
Sarr, Mohamed Mbougar. 2017. Silence du chœur. Paris: Présence africaine.Google Scholar
Sarr, Mohamed Mbougar. 2018. De purs hommes. Dakar: Éditions Jimsaan.Google Scholar
Sedgwick, Eve Kosofsky. 1990. The Epistemology of the Closet. Berkeley: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Tamale, Sylvia. 2011a. “Introduction.” In African Sexualities: A Reader, edited by Tamale, Sylvia, 1–7. Cape Town: Pambazuka Press.Google Scholar
Tamale, Sylvia. 2011b. “Researching and Theorising Sexualities in Africa.” In African Sexualities: A Reader, edited by Tamale, Sylvia, 11–36. Cape Town: Pambazuka Press.Google Scholar