Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-gxg78 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-22T19:28:11.108Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Quietly queer(ing): the normative value of sutura and its potential for young women in urban Senegal

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 April 2021

Loes Oudenhuijsen
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Sutura (discretion, modesty) is a central element in Senegalese Wolof culture that, among other things, promotes feminine honour through chastity, silence with regard to discussing sexuality with elders, and refraining from articulating same-sex desires in general. Consequently, sutura is seen as limiting the space for non-normative sexualities. However, lesbiennes in Senegal strategically employ sutura to navigate this gender and sexual normativity, whereby they queer the initially heteronormative framework. This article explores how, at the frontiers of international sexual rights activism and its antithetical Islamic social code, young women open new avenues for thinking queer Africa. The article explores young women's diverse tactics to turn sutura from a heteronormative framework into a vehicle for queer expression. These women demonstrate the constant yet indeterminate possibilities to negotiate between normative expectations and queer lives. They furthermore propose an alternative to the international queer frontier of overt resistance and protest, and suggest that the silences that sutura prescribe are more productive for queering their urban environment. By balancing the simultaneous desires of same-sex intimacies, family life, societal expectations and urban success, these women are pioneers in offering new routes for ‘queering queer Africa’, as Stella Nyanzi has described it.

Résumé

Résumé

Sutura (discrétion, modestie) est un élément central de la culture wolof sénégalaise qui, entre autres choses, valorise l'honneur féminin à travers la chasteté, le silence (en ne parlant pas de sexualité avec ses aînés) et le fait de s'abstenir de parler de désirs homosexuels en général. Par voie de conséquence, on pense que sutura limite l'espace réservé aux sexualités non normatives. Or, les femmes lesbiennes sénégalaises emploient le concept de sutura de manière stratégique pour naviguer cette normativité sexuelle et de genre, moyennant quoi elles opèrent une queerization du cadre initialement hétéronormatif. Cet article explore comment, aux frontières du militantisme international pour les droits sexuels et de son code social islamique antithétique, les jeunes femmes ouvrent de nouvelles pistes pour penser l'Afrique queer. L'article explore les diverses tactiques qu'utilisent les jeunes femmes pour transformer le cadre hétéronormatif du sutura en mode d'expression queer. Ces femmes démontrent la possibilité constante mais indéterminée de négocier entre les attentes normatives et la vie queer. Elles proposent ainsi une alternative à une approche internationale flagrante de résistance et de protestation queer, et suggèrent que les silences prescrits par le concept de sutura sont plus productifs pour la queerization de leur environnement urbain. Entre désirs d'intimité homosexuelle, vie de famille, attentes de la société et réussite urbaine, ces femmes sont des pionnières qui ouvrent de nouvelles voies à ce que Stella Nyanzi décrit comme « la queerization de l'Afrique queer ».

Type
Queer experiences in Africa
Information
Africa , Volume 91 , Issue 3 , May 2021 , pp. 434 - 452
Check for updates
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2021. Published by Cambridge University Press

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.)

Footnotes

This article is based on fieldwork undertaken between August 2017 and January 2018, and a brief return in July–August 2018, for my MA in African Studies at Leiden University. All names in this article are pseudonyms.

References

Adjepong, A. (2019) ‘Are you a footballer? The radical potential of women's football at the national level’ in Nyeck, S. N. (ed.), Routledge Handbook of Queer African Studies. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Akwei, I. (2016) ‘Lesbianism blamed for poor performance of Nigeria's women football team’, Africanews.com, 14 June <https://www.africanews.com/2016/06/14/lesbianism-blamed-for-poor-performance-of-nigeria-s-women-football-team//>, accessed 23 February 2021., accessed 23 February 2021.' href=https://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=Akwei,+I.+(2016)+‘Lesbianism+blamed+for+poor+performance+of+Nigeria's+women+football+team’,+Africanews.com,+14+June+,+accessed+23+February+2021.>Google Scholar
Awondo, P., Geschiere, P. and Reid, G. (2013) ‘Une Afrique homophobe? Sur quelques trajectoires de politisation de l'homosexualité. Cameroun, Ouganda, Sénégal et Afrique du Sud’, Raisons Politiques 1 (49): 95–118.Google Scholar
Babou, C. (2007) Fighting the Greater Jihad: Amadu Bamba and the founding of the Muridiyya of Senegal. Athens OH: Ohio University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Boone, J., Dupuis, M., Meeker, M., Quimby, K., Sarver, C., Silverman, D. and Weatherston, R. (eds) (2000) Queer Frontiers: millennial geographies, genders, and generations. Madison WI: University of Wisconsin Press.Google Scholar
Broqua, C. (2017) ‘Góor-jigéen: la resignification négative d'une catégorie entre genre et sexualité (Sénégal)’, Socio 9: 163–83.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Coly, A. (2019) ‘The invention of the homosexual: the politics of homophobia in Senegal’ in M'Baye, B. and Muhonja, B. (eds), Gender and Sexuality in Senegalese Societies: critical perspectives and methods. Lanham MD: Lexington Books.Google Scholar
Dankwa, S. (2009) ‘“It's a silent trade”: female same-sex intimacies in post-colonial Ghana’, NORA: Nordic Journal of Feminist and Gender Research 17 (3): 192–205.Google Scholar
Dankwa, S. (2011) ‘“The one who first says I love you”: same-sex love and female masculinity in postcolonial Ghana’, Ghana Studies 14 (1): 223–64.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dial, F. (2008) Mariage et Divorce à Dakar: itinéraires féminins. Paris: Karthala.Google Scholar
Diop, A. (2012) ‘Identités féminines “transgressives” au Sénégal: un rapport ambivalent à la glocalisation’. PhD thesis, University of Bordeaux Segalen.Google Scholar
Foley, E. and Drame, F. (2013) ‘Mbaraan and the shifting political economy of sex in urban Senegal’, Culture, Health and Sexuality 15 (2): 121–34.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Foucault, M. (1990 [1976]) The History of Sexuality. Volume I: An introduction. Translated by Hurley, R.. New York NY: Vintage Books.Google Scholar
Fouquet, T. (2011) ‘Aventurières noctambules’, Genre, Sexualité et Societé 5.Google Scholar
Gaudio, R. (2009) Allah Made Us: sexual outlaws in an Islamic African city. Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gilbert, V. (2017) ‘Mokk pooj: gender, interpretive labour and sexual imaginary in Senegal's art/work of seduction’. PhD thesis, University of Edinburgh.Google Scholar
Gning, N. (2013) ‘Une réalité complexe: sexualités entre hommes et prévention du sida au Sénégal’. PhD thesis, University of Bordeaux.Google Scholar
Gueye, M. (2011) ‘Ode to patriarchy: the fine line between praise and criticism in a popular Senegalese poem’ in Oyewùmí, O. (ed.), Gender Epistemologies in Africa: gendering traditions, spaces, social institutions, and identities. New York NY: Palgrave Macmillan.Google Scholar
Guilbert, K. (2016) ‘Women's football “lesbianism” row reflects homophobia in Nigeria – activists’, Thomson Reuters, 15 June <https://news.trust.org/item/20160615164509-b8m8u/>, accessed 23 November 2020., accessed 23 November 2020.' href=https://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=Guilbert,+K.+(2016)+‘Women's+football+“lesbianism”+row+reflects+homophobia+in+Nigeria+–+activists’,+Thomson+Reuters,+15+June+,+accessed+23+November+2020.>Google Scholar
Gunkel, H. (2009) ‘What's identity got to do with it? Rethinking intimacy and homosociality in contemporary South Africa’, NORA: Nordic Journal of Feminist and Gender Research 17 (3): 206–21.Google Scholar
Hardon, A. and Posel, D. (2012) ‘Editorial introduction: secrecy as embodied practice: beyond the confessional imperative’, Culture, Health and Sexuality 14 (S1): S1–S13.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hendriks, T. (2016) ‘SIM cards of desire: sexual versatility and the male homoerotic economy in urban Congo’, American Ethnologist 43 (2): 230–42.Google Scholar
Hendriks, T. (2021) ‘“Making men fall”: queer power beyond anti-normativity’, Africa 91 (3): 398–417.Google Scholar
Hendriks, T. and Spronk, R. (2017) ‘Rethinking sexuality from Africa’, CODESRIA Bulletin 1&2: 28–33.Google Scholar
Kendall, K. L. (1998) ‘“When a woman loves a woman” in Lesotho: love, sex, and the (Western) construction of homophobia’ in Murray, S. O. and Roscoe, W. (eds), Boy-wives and Female Husbands: studies of African homosexualities. New York NY: Palgrave.Google Scholar
Lewin, E. (2016) ‘Who's queer? What's queer? Queer anthropology through the lens of ethnography’, Cultural Anthropology 31 (4): 598–606.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mahmood, S. (2001) ‘Feminist theory, embodiment, and the docile agent: some reflections on the Egyptian Islamic revival’, Cultural Anthropology 16 (2): 202–36.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mills, I. (2011) ‘Sutura: gendered honor, social death, and the politics of exposure in Senegalese literature and popular culture’. PhD thesis, University of California, Berkeley.Google Scholar
Newell, S. (2012) The Modernity Bluff: crime, consumption, and citizenship in Côte d'Ivoire. Chicago IL: University of Chicago Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Niang, C., Tapsoba, P., Weiss, E., Diagne, M., Niang, Y., Mody Moreau, A., Gomis, D., Sidibé Wade, A., Seck, K. and Castle, C. (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
Nyamnjoh, F. (2017) ‘Incompleteness: frontier Africa and the currency of conviviality’, Journal of Asian and African Studies 52 (3): 253–70.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nyanzi, S. (2014) ‘Queering queer Africa’ in Matebeni, Z. (ed.), Reclaiming Afrikan: queer perspectives on sexual and gender identities. Athlone: Modjaji Books.Google Scholar
Nyeck, S. N. (2011) ‘Autobiography of things left undone: politics of literature, hyphenation and queered friendship in Africa’, Trans-Scripts 1: 172–200.Google Scholar
Nyeck, S. N. (2013) ‘Mobilizing against the invisible: erotic nationalism, mass media, and the “paranoid style” in Cameroon’ in Nyeck, S. N. and Epprecht, M. (eds), Sexual Diversity in Africa: politics, theory and citizenship. Montreal: McGill-Queen's University Press.Google Scholar
O'Mara, K. (2013) ‘LGBTI community and citizenship practices in urban Ghana’ in Nyeck, S. N. and Epprecht, M. (eds), Sexual Diversity in Africa: politics, theory, and citizenship. Montreal: McGill-Queen's University Press.Google Scholar
Oudenhuijsen, L. (2018) ‘“You have to know how to play, otherwise they will catch you”: young women and the navigation of same-sex intimacies in contemporary urban Senegal’. MA thesis, Leiden University.Google Scholar
Oudenhuijsen, L. (2019) ‘Can women's football be a game changer?’, Africa Is a Country blog, <https://africasacountry.com/2019/07/can-womens-football-be-a-game-changer>..' href=https://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=Oudenhuijsen,+L.+(2019)+‘Can+women's+football+be+a+game+changer?’,+Africa+Is+a+Country+blog,+.>Google Scholar
Packer, B. (2019a) ‘Hors-jeu dans le football féminin au Sénégal: genre, Islam et politique du corps’. PhD thesis, École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales.Google Scholar
Packer, B. (2019b) ‘Queering the “greater jihad”: Sufi resistance and disruptive morality in Senegalese women's soccer’ in M'Baye, B. and Muhonja, B. (eds), Gender and Sexuality in Senegalese Societies: critical perspectives and methods. Lanham MD: Lexington Books.Google Scholar
Pierce, S. (2007) ‘Identity, performance, and secrecy: gendered life and the “modern” in northern Nigeria’, Feminist Studies 33 (3): 539–65.Google Scholar
Prothmann, S. (2018) ‘Urban identities and belonging: young men's discourses about Pikine (Senegal)’ in Ammann, C. and Förster, T. (eds), African Cities and the Development Conundrum. Leiden and Boston MA: Brill.Google Scholar
Salomon, C. (2009) ‘Antiquaires et businessmen de la Petite Côte du Sénégal: le commerce des illusions amoureuses’, Cahiers d’Études Africaines 49 (193–4): 147–73.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Scheld, S. (2007) ‘Youth cosmopolitanism: clothing, the city and globalization in Dakar, Senegal’, City and Society 19 (2): 232–53.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Spronk, R. (2018) ‘Invisible desires in Ghana and Kenya: same-sex erotic experiences in cross-sex oriented lives’, Sexualities 21 (5–6): 883–98.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Spronk, R. and Nyeck, S. N. (2021) ‘Frontiers and pioneers in (the study of) queer experiences in Africa: introduction’, Africa 91 (3): 388–97.Google Scholar
Teunis, N. (1996) ‘Homosexuality in Dakar: is the bed the heart of a sexual subculture?’, Journal of Gay, Lesbian, and Bisexual Identity 1 (2): 153–69.Google Scholar
Teunis, N. (2000) ‘Same-sex sexuality in Africa: a case study from Senegal’, AIDS and Behavior 5 (2): 173–82.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Thorsen, D. (2006) ‘Child migrants in transit: strategies to assert new identities in rural Burkina Faso’ in Christiansen, C., Utas, M. and Vigh, H. (eds), Navigating Youth, Generating Adulthood: social becoming in an African context. Uppsala: Nordiska Afrikainstitutet.Google Scholar
Van Eerdewijk, A. (2007) ‘The ABC of unsafe sex: gendered sexualities of young people in Dakar (Senegal)’. PhD thesis, Radboud University Nijmegen.Google Scholar
Wekker, G. (2006) The Politics of Passion. New York NY: Columbia University Press.Google Scholar
Young, K. and White, P. (1995) ‘Sport, physical danger, and injury: the experiences of elite women athletes’, Journal of Sport and Social Issues 19 (1): 45–61.CrossRefGoogle Scholar