Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-jn8rn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-22T10:27:45.487Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Queer Agency in Kenya’s Digital Media

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 August 2014

Evan Mwangi
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract:

Although scholars have noted the rising potentials for democracy in Africa as a result of increased use of digital media and mobile technologies, there seems to be a disregard or disavowal of queerness as part of that growing democratic space, as well as a related tendency to regard African culture solely in terms of mainstream writing and journalism. This article seeks to bridge this gap in the scholarship by means of a discourse analysis of comments about queer identities that can be found in the digital media (Facebook, chat rooms, blogs, YouTube comments, and online newspaper feedback) in contemporary Kenya. Following work on queer arts and “low” theory, the article explores the possibilities offered by the Internet to challenge homophobia in Kenya. While acknowledging that digital-media venues contain more homophobia than mainstream media (books, television, newspapers) in terms of intensity and quantity, the article demonstrates that they also offer a unique platform in which gay people can respond to homophobic representations of their experiences and desires.

Résumé:

Bien que les chercheurs ont noté la hausse d’un potentiel démocratique en Afrique grâce à l'utilisation accrue des médias numériques et des technologies mobiles, il semble y avoir une méconnaissance ou un désaveu de la culture gay dans le cadre de cet espace démocratique croissant, ainsi qu’une tendance liée à considérer la culture africaine uniquement en termes du journalisme et des écrits grand-publique. Cet article vise à combler cette lacune au moyen d'une analyse discursive des commentaires sur les identités gay qui peuvent être lus dans les médias numériques (Facebook, forums de discussion, blogs, commentaires YouTube, et commentaires de la presse en ligne) dans le Kenya contemporain. Suite à des travaux sur les arts gay et la théorie situationniste de la production de connaissance en dehors des institutions, l'article explore les possibilités offertes par l'Internet pour contester l'homophobie au Kenya. Tout en reconnaissant que les sites de médias numériques contiennent plus d'homophobie que les médias traditionnels (livres, télévision, journaux) en termes d'intensité et de quantité, l'article montre qu’ils offrent également une plateforme unique où les homosexuels peuvent répondre aux représentations homophobes de leurs expériences et de leurs désirs.

Keywords

Digital mediaqueerhomophobiaagencyKenyan media
Type
ARTICLES
Information
African Studies Review , Volume 57 , Issue 2 , September 2014 , pp. 93 - 113
Copyright
Copyright © African Studies Association 2014 

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.)

References

Ahmed, Sara. 2011. The Promise of Happiness. Durham, N.C.: Duke University Press.Google Scholar
Awondo, Patrick, Geschiere, Peter, and Reid, Graeme. “Homophobic Africa? Toward a More Nuanced View.” African Studies Review 55 (3): 145–68.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Barney, Darin. 2000. Prometheus Wired: The Hope for Democracy in the Age of Network Technology. Sydney: UNSW Press.Google Scholar
Binnie, Jon. 2004. The Globalization of Sexuality. Thousand Oaks, Calif.: Sage.Google Scholar
Cheney, Kristen. 2012. “Locating Neocolonialism, ‘Tradition,’ and Human Rights in Uganda’s ‘Gay Death Penalty.’” African Studies Review 55 (2): 77–95.Google Scholar
Communications Commission of Kenya. 2011. “Quarterly Sector Statistics Report.” Fourth quarter, April–June 2010/2011. www.cck.go.ke.Google Scholar
de Lauretis, Teresa. 1991. “Queer Theory: Lesbian and Gay Sexualities.” differences: A Journal of Feminist Cultural Studies 3 (2): iii–xviii.Google Scholar
de Lauretis, Teresa. 1994. “Habit Changes.” differences: A Journal of Feminist Cultural Studies 6 (2/3): 296–313.Google Scholar
Fairclough, Norman. 1992. Discourse and Social Change. Cambridge, U.K.: Polity Press.Google Scholar
Fanon, Frantz. 2008 (1963). Black Skin, White Masks. New York: Grove Press.Google Scholar
Garber, Marjorie. 2005. “The Return to Biology.” In Queer Theory, edited by Morland, Iain and Willox, Annabelle, 54–69. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.Google Scholar
Gathigi, George. “Likes and Votes: Social Media Following Is a Terrible Way to Judge Political Contests.”http://internewskenya.org/blog/?p=143.Google Scholar
Habermas, Jürgen. 1989. The Structural Transformation of the Public Sphere: An Inquiry into a Category of Bourgeois Society. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press.Google Scholar
Halberstam, Judith. 2011. The Queer Art of Failure. Durham, N.C.: Duke University Press.Google Scholar
Hayes, Jarrod. 2000. Queer Nations: Marginal Sexualities in the Maghreb. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Hoad, Neville Wallace. 2006. African Intimacies: Race, Homosexuality, and Globalization. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.Google Scholar
Jenkins, Henry. 2006. Fans, Bloggers, Gamers: Exploring Participatory Culture. New York: New York University Press.Google Scholar
Jenkins, Henry. 2008. Convergence Culture: Where Old and New Media Collide. New York: New York University Press.Google Scholar
Jensen, Mike. 2000. “Making the Connection: Africa and the Internet.” Current History 99 (637): 215–20.Google Scholar
Karanja, Muchiri. 2009. “A Family Scarred by Homophobia.” Daily Nation, October 22.Google Scholar
Kenyatta, Jomo. 1938. Facing Mount Kenya: The Tribal Life of the Gikuyu. London: Secker and Warburg.Google Scholar
Leslie, Michael. 2002. “Internet and Democratization.” In Media and Democracy in Africa, edited by Hydén, Göran, Leslie, Michael, and Folarin Ogundimu, Folu, 107–28. New Brunswick, N.J.: Transaction Publishers.Google Scholar
Levine, Peter. 2004. “The Internet and Civil Society.” In The Internet in Public Life, edited by Gehring, V. V., 79–99. Lanham, Md.: Rowman and Littlefield.Google Scholar
Lévy, Pierre. 2001. Cybersculture. Translated by Bononno, Robert. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.Google Scholar
Manovich, Lev. 2001. The Language of New Media. Cambridge, Mass.: Massachusetts Institute of Technology Press.Google Scholar
Mbembe, Achille. 2001. On the Postcolony. Berkeley: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Mudhai, Fred Okoth. 2011. “Survival of ‘Radio Culture’ in a Converged Networked New Media Environment.” In Popular Media, Democracy and Development in Africa, edited by Wasserman, Herman, 253–68. New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Mugo, Micere Githae. 1994. My Mother’s Poem and Other Songs. Nairobi: East African Educational Publishers.Google Scholar
Murray, David A. D. 2009. “Introduction.” In Homophobias: Lust and Loathing across Time and Space, edited by Murray, David A. B., 1–15. Durham, N.C.: Duke University Press.Google Scholar
Mutua, Makau. 2011. “Sexual Orientation and Human Rights: Homophobia on Trial.” In African Sexualities: A Reader, edited by Tamale, Sylvia, 452–62. Capetown: Pambazuka Press.Google Scholar
Mwangi, Evan Maina. 2009. Africa Writes Back to Self: Metafiction, Gender, Sexuality. Albany: State University of New York Press.Google Scholar
Nayar, Pramod K. 2010. An Introduction to New Media and Cybercultures. Malden, Mass.: Wiley-Blackwell.Google Scholar
Ngugi, Joseph. 2011. “Kenyan Gay Couple File for Divorce Two Years after Wedding.” Daily Nation, October 5. www.nation.co.ke.Google Scholar
Njambi, Wairimu Ngaruiya, and O’Brien, William E.. 2000. “Revisiting “Woman-Woman Marriage”: Notes on Gikuyu Women. Feminist Formations 12 (1): 1–23.Google Scholar
Njenga, Gitau wa, and Weru, Gakiha. 2009. “Two Kenyan Men Wed in London.” Sunday Nation, October 17. http://www.nation.co.ke.Google Scholar
Nyamnjoh, Francis. 2005. Africa’s Media and the Politics of Belonging. New York: Zed Books.Google Scholar
Obijiofor, Levi. 2011. “New Technologies as Tools of Empowerment: African Youth and Public Sphere Participation.” In Popular Media, Democracy and Development in Africa, edited by Wasserman, Herman, 207–19. New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Obbo, Charles. 2009. “Chege and Ngengi; The Accidental Gay Rights Trailblazers.” Daily Nation, October 24. http://www.nation.co.ke.Google Scholar
Pinto, Cabral. 2010. “Debate on the Gay Rights Shows Progressive Change in Kenya.” Saturday Nation, February 19. http://www.nation.co.ke.Google Scholar
Ringa, Mathias. 2009. “Kenya: Review Team Rejects Push for Gay Rights.” Daily Nation, October 18. allafrica.com/stories/200910190496.html.Google Scholar
Shapiro, Eve. 2004. “‘Trans’ cending Barriers: Transgender Organizing on the Internet.” Journal of Gay and Lesbian Social Services 16 (3–4): 165–79.Google Scholar
Shirky, Clay. 2008. Here Comes Everybody: The Power of Organizing without Organizations. New York: Penguin.Google Scholar
Simon, Leslie David. 2002. “Democracy and the Net: A Virtuous Circle.” Democracy and the Internet: Allies or Adversaries? edited by Simon, Leslie David, Corrales, Javier, and Wolfensberger, Donald R., 1–29. Washington, D.C.: Woodrow Wilson Center Press.Google Scholar
Squires, Judith. 1996. “Fabulous Feminist Futures and the Lure of Cyberculture.” In Fractal Dreams: New Media in Social Context, edited by Jon Dovey, 194–216. London: Lawrence and Wishart.Google Scholar
Sunday Nation. 2009. “Two Kenyan Men Wed in London.”http://www.nation.co.ke/News/-/1056/673614/-/uo10l1/-/.Google Scholar
Tamale, Sylvia. 2003. “Out of the Closet: Unveiling Sexuality Discourses in Uganda.” Feminist Africa. www.feministafrica.org.Google Scholar
Tamale, Sylvia. 2009. “A Human Rights Impact Assessment of the Anti-homosexuality Bill.” East African Journal of Peace and Human Rights 15 (2): 509–19.Google Scholar
Widdowson, H. G. 1995. “Discourse Analysis: A Critical View.” Language and Literature. 4 (3): 157–72.Google Scholar
Widdowson, H. G. 1998. “The Theory and Practice of Critical Discourse Analysis.” Applied Linguistics 19 (1): 136–51.Google Scholar
Zheng, Yongnian. 2008. Technological Empowerment: The Internet, State, and Society in China. Stanford, Calif.: Stanford University Press.Google Scholar