| ID | 133618 |
| Title Proper | Aid for gays |
| Other Title Information | the moral and the material in 'African homophobia' in post-2009 Malawi |
| Language | ENG |
| Author | Biruk, Crystal |
| Publication | 2014. |
| Summary / Abstract (Note) | In recent years, 'African homophobia' has become a spectacle on the global stage, making Africa into a pre-modern site of anti-gay sentiment in need of Western intervention. This article suggests that 'homophobia' in post-2009 Malawi is an idiom through which multiple actors negotiate anxieties around governance and moral and economic dependency. I illustrate the material conditions that brought about social imaginaries of inclusion and exclusion - partially expressed through homophobic discourse - in Malawi. The article analyses the cascade of events that led to a moment of political and economic crisis in mid-2011, with special focus on how a 2009 sodomy case made homophobia available as a new genre of social commentary. Employing discourse analysis of newspaper articles, political speeches, the proceedings of a sodomy case, and discussions about men who have sex with men (MSM) as an HIV risk group, I show how African homophobia takes form via interested deployments of 'cultural' rhetoric toward competing ends. This article lends a comparative case study to a growing literature on the political and social functions of homophobia in sub-Saharan Africa. |
| `In' analytical Note | Journal of Modern African Studies Vol.52, No.3; Sep.2014: p.447-473 |
| Journal Source | Journal of Modern African Studies Vol.52, No.3; Sep.2014: p.447-473 |
| Key Words | African Homophobia ; Social Imaginaries ; Global Stage ; Anti-Gay Sentiment ; Sub-Saharan Africa ; Malawi ; HIV ; Diseases ; Political Speeches ; Political Crisis ; Economic Crisis ; Multiple Actors ; Negotiate Anxieties ; Moral Landscape |