A New Twist on the 'un-African' Script: Representing Gay and Lesbian African Weddings in Democratic South Africa

Michael W. Yarbrough
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Michael W. Yarbrough: John Jay College of Criminal Justice (CUNY)

No hcq9y, SocArXiv from Center for Open Science

Abstract: This essay examines the media coverage surrounding two “African-style” weddings of lesbian and gay couples in South Africa, as a lens onto the evolving cultural politics of black queerness in that country. Two decades after South Africa launched a world-leading legal framework for LGBTI protections, I argue that these media representations depict the growing inclusion of black LGBTIQ people as a process of bridging the supposed “gap” between homosexuality and African culture. This new “bridging the gap” script seemingly rejects the older, dominant script portraying homosexuality as intrinsically “un-African.” But I argue that it instead reproduces the “un-African” script in a new, liberal guise, offering inclusion to black LGBTIQ South Africans on limited terms that continue to obscure their embeddedness within African histories and communities.

Date: 2019-05-12
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:osf:socarx:hcq9y

DOI: 10.31219/osf.io/hcq9y

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