Because I am

Queer Pan-Africanist artivism through film

Bibliographic Data

ID7154346
AuthorsXaman Korai Minillo (0000-0003-4892-6905, Department of International Relations at the Federal University of Paraíba and School of Sociology, Politics and International Studies at the University of Bristol, corresponding author)
Year2025
Volume25
Issue6
Pages1480-1497
Publication date2025-08-18
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueFeminist Media Studies (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1468-0777 • E-ISSN: 1471-5902
PublisherInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/14680777.2025.2514058
OpenAlexW4413289897
LanguageEN
References cited51

Films have increasingly been used as a form of political action by queer African activists to make their stories visible and contest the politics of homophobia. This article analyses the movie Because I am: Being LGBT in Zimbabwe as an artivism, a creation that combines activism and art through which minorities can express and empower themselves. I approached the film as a cultural object from a queer and feminist outlook. The research method was interpretive discourse analysis, examining the film’s contents and aesthetics contextually, its circulation, and its production. The interpretations were supported with data from another short film and conversations with the creators. Denouncing the politics of homophobia and violence against queer Africans and producing empowering effects, the film disrupts heteronormative discursive constructions of Zimbabwean/African citizenship performing a claim to queer Pan-African identities. The article engages in dialogue with queer African cinema, feminist digital media studies and feminist citizenship studies demonstrating how queer Africans in the diaspora exercise their political agency and citizenship through a digital short film

Art · Media studies · Queer · Sociology · African history and culture studies · African Sexualities and LGBTQ+ Issues · Cinema and Media Studies · Gender Studies

Tools

Open DOIOpen Access