“Friend[s] of the heart”

Reconsidering “queer” archives, ambivalence and untranslatability in texts from Lesotho

Bibliographic Data

ID20155763
AuthorsLeila Hall (0000-0002-5802-2064, University of the Free State, corresponding author)
Year2025
Volume51
Issue1
Pages1-20
Publication date2025-01-02
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueSocial Dynamics (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0253-3952 • E-ISSN: 1940-7874
PublisherInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/02533952.2025.2580709
OpenAlexW4416139342
LanguageEN
References cited14

Drawing on Eddie Ombagi’s “queer fragmentation as method,” and specifically his interest in bringing “disparate and contested archives” into conversation with one another, this paper reads expressions of “queer” “ambivalence” in diverse twentieth- and twenty-first-century texts from Lesotho. In seeking to extend on Ombagi’s wide-ranging framework of ambivalence as related to queer (il)legibilities and the evasion of Western sexual identity discourses, the paper adopts a historical lens and considers what emerges as “untranslatable” in these selected texts. I hone in on the notion of a “contested archive” as I consider the problematic aspects of texts written in English by Western authors, and I further explore how some of the texts may offer us “alternative archives:” perspectives that run counter to hegemonic narratives. My discussion of the notion of “untranslatability” involves a consideration of the importance of “cultural literacy,” as well as what Lisa Foran has written about as the “untranslatable as an ongoing moment of pause:” the importance of recognising “ambiguity” and “multiplicity,” as opposed to the ideals of certainty and universality that so often undergird both Western-authored texts and the discourses of globalised LGBTQI+ activism

Ambivalence · Discourse analysis · African history and culture studies · African Sexualities and LGBTQ+ Issues · LGBTQ Health, Identity, and Policy

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