Politics of the Poisoned Belly
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 3609033 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Renugan Raidoo (0000-0002-8035-3281, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2023 |
| Volume | 29 |
| Issue | 3 |
| Pages | 387-413 |
| Publication date | 2023-06-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | GLQ A Journal of Lesbian and Gay Studies (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1064-2684 • E-ISSN: 1527-9375 |
| Publisher | Duke University Press (PUBLISHER • US) |
| DOI | 10.1215/10642684-10437250 |
| OpenAlex | W4379522361 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 1 |
| References cited | 31 |
This article argues that homophobia should be read as a political engagement with social and economic uncertainty and its perceived causes through an extended analogy with the work on the modernity of witchcraft. "Figuration" is theorized as a way to account for, first, how senses of moral peril are given a human form, and second, why certain signifiers of deviance become more convincing than others at particular historical moments. The content of the myths that animate homophobia in Sierra Leone point to the gay man as a figuration of deviance that rehearses anxieties about illicit appropriation through patron-client networks at a time of heightened awareness of corruption, exploitation, and fears of foreign meddling in the politics and economics of African postcolonies. The article makes the case that the homosexual man becomes a more convincing signifier of contemporary social anxiety than the witch because of his connections with Western modernity not only in the minds of Sierra Leoneans but also in global pro-queer discourse. This insight places discourses about homosexuality more generally, whether positive or negative, in a field of contestation over who gets to speak for Sierra Leone, what the future of the country is, and its inclusion in Western modernity. The question of modernity is used to explain the state's marked irresoluteness on the subject of homosexuality, challenging dominant explanations of homophobia as state led
Aesthetics · Appropriation · Art · Deviance (statistics · Epistemology · Ethnology · Homosexuality · Modernity · Political science · Politics · Queer · Sierra leone · Sociology · Witch · African Sexualities and LGBTQ+ Issues · Anthropological Studies and Insights · Gender Studies · Law · LGBTQ Health, Identity, and Policy · Philosophy
The Emergence of Political Homophobia in Indonesia
“Satan Is an Imitator”
Witchcraft, Intimacy, and Trust
The modernity of witchcraft
Racecraft
Witchcraft, Oracles and Magic among the Azande
Sexuality and Social Justice in Africa
Christianity, Globalization, and Protective Homophobia
Terrorist Assemblages
Troubling the waters of a ‘wave of homophobia’
Is peacebuilding sustainable in Sierra Leone
Sierra Leone
Anti-Semitism and National Socialism
Homophobias
The History of Sexuality, Volume 1
Aid for gays
Le « kongossa » politique ou la passion de la rumeur à Libreville
"Fake Gays" In Queer Africa
Out of War
Civil Society and the Political Imagination in Africa
A Krio-English Dictionary
Occult economies and the violence of abstraction
The production of witchcraft/witchcraft as production
Necropolitics
Witch Beliefs and Social Structure
Homophobic Africa? Toward A More Nuanced View
Scientific knowledge and sexual advocacy
Post-Colonial Histories of Sexuality
Hegemonic African Masculinities and Men's Heterosexual Lives
| Unique citing works | 1 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 0,5 |
| Citation span | 2024 - 2024 (1) |
| Citation velocity | recent |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 1 |