“If we must be freaks, let us be freaks with a voice”: Southern feminisms and LGBTI activism in Africa

Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex and related communities (hereon LGBTI+) activism in Africa occupies a complex and precarious position that is constantly threatened by resilient homophobic sentiments. Homophobia in Africa has been linked to patriarchal agendas that are aimed at maintaining the supposed superiority of men by wielding sexuality as a weapon of gender oppression. The fact that the language of the West dominates LGBTI+ discourses in Africa, amplifies the contestations surrounding LGBTI+ activism in Africa. The shape and production of LGBTI+ work reflects a paternalistic mode of activism, and most Western discourses seem to standardise LGBTI+ oppression and experiences in Africa, resulting in the reduction of the fundamental activist possibilities for LGBTI+ individuals. This study argues for extensive and holistic epistemological discussions of LGBTI+ activism which are steeped within Southern feminist sensibilities. With reference to some of Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s feminist suggestions in Dear Ijeawele: A Feminist Manifesto in Fifteen Steps (2017), the study conceptualises the possibilities offered by Southern feminist viewpoints in driving LGBTI+ activism in Africa. If Southern feminisms refer to feminist theorising and praxis that emerge from and centre the global South, I argue that although Adichie is generally seen as espousing a Western brand of feminism, a closer analysis of her feminist values reveals a new brand of Southern feminisms that is shrewdly attuned to the lived experiences of the postcolonial subject. What lies at the heart of Adichie’s feminist imaginaries is voice and the emancipatory potential of self-expression, and, I insist that voice and self-expression have been missing from LGBTI+ activism which is modelled against Western ideologies.