Disillusionment and queer feminist utopias in Kenyan digital counterpublics

This article explores how young queer and feminist activists in Kenya find motivation for sociopolitical changemaking and ascribe meaning to their online engagement amid feelings of disillusionment. Engaging with academic literature on queer and feminist counterpublics and scrutinising online interactions through the conceptual framework of utopia, this study investigates how different online tactics nurture hope and utopian imagination within these counterpublics even when anti-feminist and anti-queer backlash appears overwhelming. It illustrates how young activists sustain hope within their own digital filter bubbles, and how their algorithmically and actively curated personal publics enable utopian imaginaries of societal change as something that is already emergent. It discusses three forms of online engagement in which such utopian hope is nurtured: attempting to diversify public narratives through online campaigning for queer rights; demanding accountability through online call-outs; and actively filtering out hate in personal online publics. Based on qualitative research with young feminist and queer activists in Kenya, this article analyses how activists experience their online engagement in which queer feminist worlds feel simultaneously inaccessible and actualised. It suggests that in contexts of backlash, the digital separation and even polarisation of audiences may enable and safeguard queer and feminist political deliberation.