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Kenyan, Christian, Queer: Religion, LGBT Activism, and Arts of Resistance in Africa (Africana Religions)
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About Kenyan, Christian, Queer: Religion, LGBT
Product Description 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 Klinken 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 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. Review “In a fascinating dynamic that speaks to the passion and intimacy of the book, the author weaves his story with the stories of those whose lives he narrates. Thus, the author tells us about his connection to the communities he studied and how he is even assigned the position of an ambassador and advocate for these communities.” ―David Ngong, Reading Religion “This book evokes many feelings but also forces one to confront one’s own uninformed biases. It’s a good read for those who often shout the loudest, without sufficient understanding of LGBTI lives.” ―Damaris Seleina Parsitau, The Conversation “This book takes scholarship on religion and sexuality in a new direction towards a focus on queer activisms taking place in unlikely spaces in unexpected ways.” ―Megan Robertson, Religious Studies Review “This book offers an important intervention in demonstrating that LGBT activism in Africa―indeed, in Kenya itself and even solely in Nairobi―is complex, varied, and both richer and more robust than it is typically made out to be. Van Klinken also persistently presses the important case that the ongoing resistance in queer studies circles to taking religion seriously not only is restrictive and irresponsible but actively excludes LGBT people of color and LGBT people in the global South.” ―Melissa M. Wilcox, author of Queer Women and Religious Individualism “Van Klinken has written a significant book on LGBTQ activism in Africa that presents a compelling ethnographic account of individual and social resistance, which the author analyzes with interdisciplinary tools, making clear that the questions of justice and belonging raised by LGBTQ persons invite readers to recognize our coevalness because the debate about sexuality is also a debate about our common and shared humanity. A must-read for those who want to understand the nuances of resistance and new approaches to the reformation of social beliefs today.” ―Elias Kifon Bongmba, editor of the Routledge Companion to Christianity in Africa “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 “The sim
