B Camminga
Biographic Data
| ID | 46784 |
|---|---|
| NAME | B Camminga |
| GIVEN NAMES | B |
| FAMILY NAME | Camminga |
| SIGNATURE | CAMMINGA B |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of the Witwatersrand |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-4074-4472 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 17 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 40 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 16 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 1 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2009 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2024 |
| H-INDEX | 4 |
When the homo deamon went digital
From an online African lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex (LGBTI) news and information website, launched in 2000, called Behind the Mask (BtM) to Sokari Ekine’s foundational 2004 blog Blacklooks, the digital has been crucial to queer African studies and, indeed, queer Africa. In this brief exploration, I navigate through the realms of queer African studies, African digital humanities, and African literary studies, using them as my g…
Withholding the letter
In the absence of legal gender recognition (LGR), transgender people carry documents that misrecognize them. The link between LGR’s absence and exposure to violence and exclusion—experiences that often force transgender people to flee—is clarified by scholarship. However, when a trans person seeks asylum, they are often provided with documents that, rather than unambiguously recognizing their bearer, repeat this misrecognition. This incongruence …
Beyond the Mountain
Beyond the Mountain
Beyond the Mountain
Beyond The Mountain: Queer Life in "Africa's Gay Capital" contributes to the body of knowledge on the lived experiences of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, and intersex (LGBTQI) communities in Cape Town. The book provides insight on the lives of the LGBTQI communities in Cape Town and challenges the stereotypes and prejudices against these communities. The chapters consist of both narratives of lived experiences and academic discussion…
Queer and Trans African Mobilities
Recent years have seen increased scholarly and media interest in the cross-border movements of LGBT persons, particularly those seeking protection in the Global North. While this has helped focus attention on the plight of individuals fleeing homophobic or transphobic persecution, it has also reinvigorated racist tropes about the Global South. In the case of Africa, the expansion of anti-LGBT laws and the prevalence of hetero-patriarchal discours…
Competing marginalities and precarious politics
On the 26th of November 2012, the South African transgender rights organisation Gender Dynamix (GDX), Lawyers for Human Rights (LHR), and the Consortium for Refugees and Migrants in South Africa (CoRMSA) met with the South African states Portfolio Committee for Home Affairs. The purpose of their meeting was to discuss issues regarding the Alteration of Sex Description and Sex Status Act 49 of 2003, statelessness and the closure of Refugee Recepti…
“Your boy is a boiii”
Synthetic testosterone, is an object born of heteronormative sexual anxiety, invented for use by cisgender men. Today, synthetic testosterone functions, as an element of gender-affirming healthcare for specific segments of the trans population. We approach testosterone, throughout this paper, as a technical object and as such a raw material of gender in South Africa. Providing a close reading of South African Medical Journal (SAMJ), we trace the …
LGBTQI+ and Nowhere to Go
COVID-19 has exposed deep economic and social fissures across societies. Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer and intersex (LGBTQI+) people are but one community whose marginalization, through this exposure, has been exacerbated. Given a history of criminalization on the African continent, in particular, LGBTQI+ people have come into stark visibility as citizens and, increasingly significantly, asylum seekers and refugees while contending w…
Towards a trans politics of post-coloniality
Disregard and danger
In March of 2017, best-selling Nigerian author and feminist Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, in an interview with Britain's Channel 4, was asked whether being a trans woman makes one any less of a 'real woman?' In the clip, which went viral shortly thereafter, Adichie responded by saying 'When people talk about, "Are trans women women?" my feeling is trans women are trans women.' Echoing the essentialist, predominantly white Global Northern, feminist po…
Transgender Refugees and the Imagined South Africa
This book tracks the conceptual journeying of the term ?transgender? from the Global North - where it originated - along with the physical embodied journeying of transgender asylum seekers from countries within Africa to South Africa and considers the interrelationships between the two. The term 'transgender' transforms as it travels, taking on meaning in relation to bodies, national homes, institutional frameworks and imaginaries. This study cen…
The stigma of Western words’
‘Gays Engage’ was the headline of Malawi's Nation newspaper on 28 December 2009. A colour photograph dominated the front page showing Steven Monjeza and what the paper described as ‘his bride’, Tiwonge Chimbalanga. Arrested soon after and charged with ‘unnatural offences’ under the Malawi Penal Code, the couple made international headlines. Yet the situation was far more complex than the news media or transnational NGOs intimated. While the case …
Wo/andering about walls
This paper is a response to Elizabeth Mills article ‘Gender, Sexuality and the Limits of the Law’. Mills provides concise evidence based unpacking of how domestic law can inhibit or impact the lived realities of sexual and gender minorities in the Global South. Drawing on research carried out within the UK based Sexuality, Poverty and Law Programme (SPLP) Mills considers what (and who) shapes the law and what, in turn, shapes peoples experiences …
Gender Refugees' in South Africa
South Africa is the only country on the African continent that constitutionally protects transgender asylum seekers. In light of this, it has seen a marked rise in the emergence of this category of person within the asylum system. Drawing on research carried out between 2012 and 2015, I argue that transgender-identified refugees or 'gender refugees' from Africa, living in South Africa, rather than accessing refuge continue to experience significa…
Categories and Queues
South Africa is the only country on the African continent that not only recognizes but also constitutionally protects and offers asylum to transgender-identified individuals. On entering the country, an individual has fourteen days to report to a Refugee Reception Office and apply for asylum. To access a center, asylum seekers are required to queue. Faced with two separate lines, one for men and one for women—much like the issues surrounding tran…
Putting the 'T' into South African Human Rights
Informed by narratives provided by self-identified South African transsexuals, whose lives span different periods of South Africa's political and social history, this article seeks to explore how South Africa's medical, legal and military establishments have exerted power over the transsexual body. A variety of studies outline the extent to which the apartheid state was a highly gendered state characterized by inflexible patriarchal norms and the…
Gender Refugees' in South Africa
South Africa is the only country on the African continent that constitutionally protects transgender asylum seekers. In light of this, it has seen a marked rise in the emergence of this category of person within the asylum system. Drawing on research carried out between 2012 and 2015, I argue that transgender-identified refugees or 'gender refugees' from Africa, living in South Africa, rather than accessing refuge continue to experience significa…
Putting the 'T' into South African Human Rights
Informed by narratives provided by self-identified South African transsexuals, whose lives span different periods of South Africa's political and social history, this article seeks to explore how South Africa's medical, legal and military establishments have exerted power over the transsexual body. A variety of studies outline the extent to which the apartheid state was a highly gendered state characterized by inflexible patriarchal norms and the…
Competing marginalities and precarious politics
On the 26th of November 2012, the South African transgender rights organisation Gender Dynamix (GDX), Lawyers for Human Rights (LHR), and the Consortium for Refugees and Migrants in South Africa (CoRMSA) met with the South African states Portfolio Committee for Home Affairs. The purpose of their meeting was to discuss issues regarding the Alteration of Sex Description and Sex Status Act 49 of 2003, statelessness and the closure of Refugee Recepti…
Categories and Queues
South Africa is the only country on the African continent that not only recognizes but also constitutionally protects and offers asylum to transgender-identified individuals. On entering the country, an individual has fourteen days to report to a Refugee Reception Office and apply for asylum. To access a center, asylum seekers are required to queue. Faced with two separate lines, one for men and one for women—much like the issues surrounding tran…
Disregard and danger
In March of 2017, best-selling Nigerian author and feminist Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, in an interview with Britain's Channel 4, was asked whether being a trans woman makes one any less of a 'real woman?' In the clip, which went viral shortly thereafter, Adichie responded by saying 'When people talk about, "Are trans women women?" my feeling is trans women are trans women.' Echoing the essentialist, predominantly white Global Northern, feminist po…
Withholding the letter
In the absence of legal gender recognition (LGR), transgender people carry documents that misrecognize them. The link between LGR’s absence and exposure to violence and exclusion—experiences that often force transgender people to flee—is clarified by scholarship. However, when a trans person seeks asylum, they are often provided with documents that, rather than unambiguously recognizing their bearer, repeat this misrecognition. This incongruence …
LGBTQI+ and Nowhere to Go
COVID-19 has exposed deep economic and social fissures across societies. Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer and intersex (LGBTQI+) people are but one community whose marginalization, through this exposure, has been exacerbated. Given a history of criminalization on the African continent, in particular, LGBTQI+ people have come into stark visibility as citizens and, increasingly significantly, asylum seekers and refugees while contending w…
The stigma of Western words’
‘Gays Engage’ was the headline of Malawi's Nation newspaper on 28 December 2009. A colour photograph dominated the front page showing Steven Monjeza and what the paper described as ‘his bride’, Tiwonge Chimbalanga. Arrested soon after and charged with ‘unnatural offences’ under the Malawi Penal Code, the couple made international headlines. Yet the situation was far more complex than the news media or transnational NGOs intimated. While the case …
Putting the 'T' into South African Human Rights
Informed by narratives provided by self-identified South African transsexuals, whose lives span different periods of South Africa's political and social history, this article seeks to explore how South Africa's medical, legal and military establishments have exerted power over the transsexual body. A variety of studies outline the extent to which the apartheid state was a highly gendered state characterized by inflexible patriarchal norms and the…
Categories and Queues
South Africa is the only country on the African continent that not only recognizes but also constitutionally protects and offers asylum to transgender-identified individuals. On entering the country, an individual has fourteen days to report to a Refugee Reception Office and apply for asylum. To access a center, asylum seekers are required to queue. Faced with two separate lines, one for men and one for women—much like the issues surrounding tran…
The stigma of Western words’
‘Gays Engage’ was the headline of Malawi's Nation newspaper on 28 December 2009. A colour photograph dominated the front page showing Steven Monjeza and what the paper described as ‘his bride’, Tiwonge Chimbalanga. Arrested soon after and charged with ‘unnatural offences’ under the Malawi Penal Code, the couple made international headlines. Yet the situation was far more complex than the news media or transnational NGOs intimated. While the case …
Wo/andering about walls
This paper is a response to Elizabeth Mills article ‘Gender, Sexuality and the Limits of the Law’. Mills provides concise evidence based unpacking of how domestic law can inhibit or impact the lived realities of sexual and gender minorities in the Global South. Drawing on research carried out within the UK based Sexuality, Poverty and Law Programme (SPLP) Mills considers what (and who) shapes the law and what, in turn, shapes peoples experiences …
Gender Refugees' in South Africa
South Africa is the only country on the African continent that constitutionally protects transgender asylum seekers. In light of this, it has seen a marked rise in the emergence of this category of person within the asylum system. Drawing on research carried out between 2012 and 2015, I argue that transgender-identified refugees or 'gender refugees' from Africa, living in South Africa, rather than accessing refuge continue to experience significa…
Transgender Refugees and the Imagined South Africa
This book tracks the conceptual journeying of the term ?transgender? from the Global North - where it originated - along with the physical embodied journeying of transgender asylum seekers from countries within Africa to South Africa and considers the interrelationships between the two. The term 'transgender' transforms as it travels, taking on meaning in relation to bodies, national homes, institutional frameworks and imaginaries. This study cen…
Disregard and danger
In March of 2017, best-selling Nigerian author and feminist Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, in an interview with Britain's Channel 4, was asked whether being a trans woman makes one any less of a 'real woman?' In the clip, which went viral shortly thereafter, Adichie responded by saying 'When people talk about, "Are trans women women?" my feeling is trans women are trans women.' Echoing the essentialist, predominantly white Global Northern, feminist po…
“Your boy is a boiii”
Synthetic testosterone, is an object born of heteronormative sexual anxiety, invented for use by cisgender men. Today, synthetic testosterone functions, as an element of gender-affirming healthcare for specific segments of the trans population. We approach testosterone, throughout this paper, as a technical object and as such a raw material of gender in South Africa. Providing a close reading of South African Medical Journal (SAMJ), we trace the …
LGBTQI+ and Nowhere to Go
COVID-19 has exposed deep economic and social fissures across societies. Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer and intersex (LGBTQI+) people are but one community whose marginalization, through this exposure, has been exacerbated. Given a history of criminalization on the African continent, in particular, LGBTQI+ people have come into stark visibility as citizens and, increasingly significantly, asylum seekers and refugees while contending w…
Towards a trans politics of post-coloniality
Beyond the Mountain
Beyond The Mountain: Queer Life in "Africa's Gay Capital" contributes to the body of knowledge on the lived experiences of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, and intersex (LGBTQI) communities in Cape Town. The book provides insight on the lives of the LGBTQI communities in Cape Town and challenges the stereotypes and prejudices against these communities. The chapters consist of both narratives of lived experiences and academic discussion…
Queer and Trans African Mobilities
Recent years have seen increased scholarly and media interest in the cross-border movements of LGBT persons, particularly those seeking protection in the Global North. While this has helped focus attention on the plight of individuals fleeing homophobic or transphobic persecution, it has also reinvigorated racist tropes about the Global South. In the case of Africa, the expansion of anti-LGBT laws and the prevalence of hetero-patriarchal discours…
Competing marginalities and precarious politics
On the 26th of November 2012, the South African transgender rights organisation Gender Dynamix (GDX), Lawyers for Human Rights (LHR), and the Consortium for Refugees and Migrants in South Africa (CoRMSA) met with the South African states Portfolio Committee for Home Affairs. The purpose of their meeting was to discuss issues regarding the Alteration of Sex Description and Sex Status Act 49 of 2003, statelessness and the closure of Refugee Recepti…
Beyond the Mountain
Beyond the Mountain
When the homo deamon went digital
From an online African lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex (LGBTI) news and information website, launched in 2000, called Behind the Mask (BtM) to Sokari Ekine’s foundational 2004 blog Blacklooks, the digital has been crucial to queer African studies and, indeed, queer Africa. In this brief exploration, I navigate through the realms of queer African studies, African digital humanities, and African literary studies, using them as my g…
Withholding the letter
In the absence of legal gender recognition (LGR), transgender people carry documents that misrecognize them. The link between LGR’s absence and exposure to violence and exclusion—experiences that often force transgender people to flee—is clarified by scholarship. However, when a trans person seeks asylum, they are often provided with documents that, rather than unambiguously recognizing their bearer, repeat this misrecognition. This incongruence …
Political science (13 works) · Sociology (13 works) · African Sexualities and LGBTQ+ Issues (11 works) · Gender Studies (11 works) · Law (11 works) · Gender Studies (9 works) · Transgender (9 works) · Law (8 works) · LGBTQ Health, Identity, and Policy (8 works) · Politics (8 works)