Out in Africa

LGBT Organizing in Namibia and South Africa

Bibliographic Data

ID8077591
AuthorsA Currier (0000-0002-9700-5427, corresponding author)
Year2012
Pages255
Publication date2012-07-01
Open AccessNo
TypeBOOK
VenueOut in Africa (SOURCE_BOOK)
PublisherUniversity of Minnesota Press (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.5749/minnesota/9780816678006.001.0001
OpenAlexW4238868277
Open LibraryOL25238734M
ISBN9780816678006
LanguageEN
Citations received95

Visibility matters to activists—to their social and political relevance, their credibility, their influence. But invisibility matters, too, in times of political hostility or internal crisis. This book presents an intimate look at how Namibian and South African lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) organizations have cultivated visibility and invisibility as strategies over time. As such, it reveals the complexities of the LGBT movements in both countries as these organizations make use of Western terminology and notions of identity to gain funding even as they work to counter the perception that they are “un-African.”Different sociopolitical conditions in Namibia and South Africa affected how activists in each country campaigned for LGBT rights between 1995 and 2006. Focusing on this period, the text shows how, in Namibia, LGBT activists struggled against ruling party leaders’ homophobic rhetoric and how, at the same time, black LGBT citizens of South Africa, though enjoying constitutional protections, greater visibility, and heightened activism, nonetheless confronted homophobic violence because of their gender and sexual nonconformity. As it tells the story of the evolving political landscape in postapartheid Namibia and South Africa, the book situates these countries’ movements in relation to developments in pan-African LGBT organizing and offers broader insights into visibility as a social movement strategy rather than simply as a static accomplishment or outcome of political organizing

Identity (music · Invisibility · Legitimacy · Lesbian · Political science · Politics · Rhetoric · Sociology · Transgender · African Sexualities and LGBTQ+ Issues · Gender Studies · Law · LGBTQ Health, Identity, and Policy · Sociology and Education Studies · Gay activists · Gays · Namibia · Political activity · Social conditions · South Africa

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