Adriaan Van Klinken

University of Leeds · Department of Theology and Religious Studies

This article examines the writings of the Nigerian author Akwaeke Emezi, in particular their acclaimed semi-autobiographical novel Freshwater (2018), as a form of African queer and trans autotheorizing. It critically examines the theoretical significance of the indigenous Igbo concept of ọgbanje (spirit-child), which is central in Emezi’s self-writ...

Discussing two poems by South African writers, this chapter shows how poetry can be a means of religious creativity as well as theological critique and imagination in relation to sexuality and race. The first poem is ‘Bearing the Stigmata’, by the feminist academic and writer, Devarakshanam Betty Govinden, and the second is ‘Jesus Thesis’, by the q...

This article offers an introduction to the special section about the theme of ‘African ecologies and indigenous knowledges’. It explores the interest of scholars, policy makers and activists in indigenous knowledges as a resource for addressing global challenges, particularly the challenges in relation to the environment and climate change in conte...

Challenging Contextuality provides a new and innovative contribution to the study of biblical texts and their interpretation by bringing together current and promising, yet still marginal approaches to biblical interpretation. As marginal voices are often drivers of innovation, this volume, therefore, both sets the agenda for the future of the fiel...

This article offers an introduction to the special section about the theme of ‘African Ecologies: Literature, Culture and Religion’. It explores the current interdisciplinary field of scholarship on ecology, environment, and climate change in Africa, mapping contributions from across the Humanities and the Social and Environmental Sciences. The art...

African literary texts serve an important purpose in representing and reimagining men and masculinities. The novel Purple Hibiscus by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie has been acclaimed for its critical take on religious and cultural patriarchy and for its progressive approach to gender. In the character of Papa Eugene, the novel problematises a patriarcha...

Based on in-depth interviews with over twenty inspirational Kenyan and Ugandan Christian and Muslim leaders actively involved in struggles for LGBTIQ rights, this open access book shows how religious leaders in East African countries can be agents of progressive social change. Through a community-based approach of life-story methodology, a team of...

This interview with Kwame E. Otu (Associate Professor of African Studies, Georgetown University) discusses issues of LGBT rights in Ghana and in Africa more broadly. Occasioned by the publication of Otu's book "Amphibious Subjects: Sasso and the Contested Politics of Queer Self-Making in Neoliberal Ghana" (University of California Press, 2022), the...

This roundtable was first convened as part of the 6th Es’kia Colloquium hosted by the Department of African Literature at Wits University, South Africa on the 15th and 16th September 2022. The discussion engages questions regarding knowledge production, method and (inter)textualities in relation to the book, Sacred Queer Stories: Ugandan LGBTQ+ Ref...

“Queer” is a relatively recent and somewhat controversial term in African studies. Yet it is proving to be productive, not only for understanding African subjectivities of sexuality and gender, but also Africa’s position in the larger economy of knowledge. This essay explores the productive tensions between “queer” and “Africa,” and aims to read Af...

This article discusses the work of Abdellah Taïa, the first openly gay Moroccan novelist to write his queerness, as a major contribution to an emergent queer African Islamic discourse. Bringing Taïa’s work into conversation with diverse literary texts from elsewhere on the continent, the article makes two major interventions in the field of queer A...

Building on feminist, queer and postcolonial concepts of trauma as everyday and ongoing, this chapter explores the trauma experienced by Ugandan LGBT+ refugees currently living in Nairobi, Kenya. Expanding on traditions of African women’s biblical hermeneutics, storytelling methods, and creative arts, the chapter specifically offers an account of h...

Kenyan, Christian, Queer is a short documentary film about the life of a community of LGBT Christians in Kenya. It explores how this community provides a space where LGBT Kenyans can be affirmed in their sexuality and faith, and how it seeks to promote an inclusive and progressive form of Christianity in a rather conservative society. This educatio...

This chapter focuses on church leader and theologian, Jean-Blaise Kenmogne, and his theological intervention in the politics of homosexuality in Cameroon. It begins by outlining how homosexuality has become deeply politicized in the country, and the role of the powerful Catholic Church and other religious bodies in this. It then examines how Kenmog...

By means of a conclusion, this chapter addresses some of the objections or concerns some people might have about the idea of Christianity, as a colonial religion, contributing to a postcolonial African queer political imagination. Although acknowledging the problematic history and legacy of Christianity on the continent, especially in relation to s...

This chapter focuses on the contribution of the Ecumenical HIV and AIDS Initiatives and Advocacy (EHAIA) to discourses on churches and homosexuality in Africa. EHAIA is a program of the World Council of Churches (WCC) with a strong African ownership. Since the early 2000s, it has worked to sensitize African church leaders on issues relating to HIV...

This chapter focuses on life-story telling as a method adopted by African LGBT activists to counter the stigmatization of their bodies and the silencing of their voices, and to reclaim and affirm their embodied existence. As a case in point, it discusses the collection Blessed Body (2016), edited by the Nigerian writer and activist Unoma Azuah, whi...

This chapter focuses on the work of The Fellowship of Affirming Ministries (TFAM), an African American organization that in recent years has become active in Africa. Rooted in the traditions of black Pentecostalism and black liberation theology, TFAM was founded in the year 2000 to promote the ‘gospel of radical inclusivity’. The chapter offers an...

This chapter focuses on the work of leading African feminist biblical scholar and theologian, Musa W. Dube from Botswana. It reconstructs and examines how Dube, from her activist-scholarly work on issues of gender and HIV/AIDS, has also come to advocate a progressive approach to questions of sexual diversity. The chapter locates Dube’s approach in...

In addition to storytelling, poetry has also been adopted by African LGBTQ communities as a creative method to give voice to deeply personal struggles and experiences of trauma, but also to express glimpses of faith, hope and love, and expectations of the future. This chapter focuses on a collection of LGBTQ poetry from across Africa, titled Walkin...

Referring to the role of African literary writers as social critics, this chapter focuses on literary texts that enable a reimagination of Christianity and sexual diversity in contemporary Africa. As a case in point, it discusses the novel Under the Udala Trees by the Nigerian writer Chinelo Okparanta (2015). Set in the aftermath of the Biafra war...

This chapter focuses on Ghanaian feminist theologian, Mercy Oduyoye, and her contribution to debates about sexual diversity and Christianity in Africa. Profiling Oduyoye as a leading figure in African women’s theology, the chapter discusses her analysis of gender and patriarchy in African religions and cultures, especially in the Christian church....

This chapter focuses on Desmond Tutu, Archbishop Emeritus of Cape Town, South Africa, and his contribution to debates about sexual diversity and Christianity in Africa. It examines how Tutu’s progressive stance on same-sex sexuality gradually developed over the years and is informed by his long-standing resistance against apartheid and his defense...

This chapter explores the emergence of a new genre of African films: queer-themed audio-visual productions. It specifically focuses on two films from Kenya – the music video Same Love , produced by George Barasa (2016), and the drama film Rafiki , directed by Wanuri Kahiu (2018) – which both present a form of queer visual activism. Analysing the im...

Presenting the deeply moving personal life stories of Ugandan LGBTQ+ refugees in Nairobi, Kenya alongside an analysis of the process in which they creatively engaged with two Bible stories - Daniel in the Lions' Den (Old Testament) and Jesus and the Woman Caught in Adultery (New Testament) - Sacred Queer Stories explores how readings of biblical st...

Religion is often seen as a conservative force in contemporary Africa. In particular, Christian beliefs and actors are usually depicted as driving the opposition to homosexuality and LGBTI rights in African societies. This book nuances that picture, by drawing attention to discourses emerging in Africa itself that engage with religion, specifically...

This chapter focuses on Desmond Tutu, Archbishop Emeritus of Cape Town, South Africa, and his contribution to debates about sexual diversity and Christianity in Africa. It examines how Tutu’s progressive stance on same-sex sexuality gradually developed over the years and is informed by his long-standing resistance against apartheid and his defense...

Recent scholarship has acknowledged the contribution of the environmental activist and Nobel Peace Prize Laureate, Wangari Maathai (1940–2011), to African ecological and decolonial thinking. As far as Maathai’s engagement with religion is concerned, scholarship emphasises her critique of Christianity for its links to colonialism and environmental d...

This article explores the role of poetry and narrative methods in African-centred queer biblical studies and theology. As a case in point, it presents a poem, titled "Accused of a Sodomy Act," by Tom Muyunga-Mukasa, that was written as part of a queer Bible reading project with Ugandan LGBTQ refugees. The poem is a contemporary re-telling of the go...

This article is a response to a Religious Studies Review roundtable discussion of my book, Kenyan, Christian, Queer: Religion, LGBT Activism, and Arts of Resistance in Africa (Penn State University Press, 2019). The roundtable contributions make me reflect on the ways in which Kenyan, Christian, Queer presents a methodological innovation in the stu...

The study of religion and literature is an emerging field of academic interest. Although some work has been done on religion and African literature, research in this area tends to be fragmented and dispersed over various fields and disciplines. Reviewing available scholarship in this area, this article explores what engaging with African literary w...

This chapter critically examines Zambian responses to European interventions with regard to the human rights of sexual minorities in the country. It specifically focuses on one particular incident, occurring in 2013. The chapter, first, discusses the background and context of this incident, which emerged after the Delegation of the European Union (...

This chapter examines the role of religion, specifically Christianity, in the politics of sexuality in post-colonial Zambia. Building on Basile Ndjio’s account of sexual politics and post-colonial nationalism in the context of Cameroon, I apply the four strategies distinguished by Ndjio to the Zambian context: the sublimation of procreative and rep...

Citizenship in sub-Saharan Africa has undergone profound changes in recent decades as part of wider social and political dynamics. One notable development is the emergence of Christianity, especially in its Pentecostal-Charismatic forms, as a public religion. Christian actors, beliefs and practices have increasingly come to manifest themselves in t...

This introduction to the special section dedicated to Bishop Christopher Senyonjo puts his ministry in the wider context of contemporary African Christianity, in particular African Christian politics of homosexuality and LGBT rights.

In this interview, Rev. Dr Bishop Christopher Senyonjo narrates his involvement in LGBT advocacy in Uganda, and reflects on his pastoral and theological motivation and inspiration for this work.

This article is a response to the roundtable about my book Kenyan, Christian, Queer: Religion, LGBT Activism, and Arts of Resistance in Africa. In the roundtable, six anthropologists engage the book critically. In the response, I address some of their criticisms and the questions raised, focusing on three central themes: Christianity and the postse...

Autobiographical, embodied and sexual storytelling is of great political and theological significance. Taking up Marcella Althaus-Reid’s suggestion that queer theologies are by definition first person theologies, in this essay I engage in storytelling, specifically the telling of autobiographical sexual stories, as a key queer theological method th...

Taking up the concept of the pluriversity as developed by mostly South American thinkers, this essay shares some thoughts about what the study of religion/s might look like if we seriously engage with questions of decolonisation. Building on the critique of the dominant Western, Eurocentric, colonialist and racialised models of thought that have hi...

Popular narratives cite religion as the driving force behind homophobia in Africa, portraying Christianity and LGBT expression as incompatible. Without denying Christianity’s contribution to the stigma, discrimination, and exclusion of same-sex-attracted and gender-variant people on the continent, Adriaan van Klinken presents an alternative narrati...

This chapter focuses on pan-Africanist discourses in contemporary Africa specifically in relation to the politics of sexual and gender diversity. It begins by examining the populist use of pan-Africanist rhetoric in narratives mobilizing against lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender and intersex (LGBTI) identities and rights. It then proceeds by...

James Ault, producer and director. African Christianity Rising: Christianity’s Explosive Growth in Africa (Complete Educational Edition), 2013. 2 DVDs, 77 minutes (Ghana) and 73:30 minutes (Zimbabwe); 2 extra DVDs with 23 educational extras, 3 hours. Northampton, Mass.: James Ault Productions. $240. (Institutional Edition, 2 DVD set $175). - Adriaa...

This article addresses a methodological question: How to develop African queer theology? That is, a theology that interrogates and counter-balances popular representations of queer sexuality as being “un-African” and “un-Christian”. Answering this question, the article specifically engages with African feminist theological work on storytelling as s...

This book explores the interconnections between Christianity, sexuality and citizenship in sub-Saharan Africa, chronicling the ways in which citizenship in the region has undergone profound changes in recent decades as a result of growing interaction between Christianity and politics, the impact of the HIV epidemic, debates about women's reproducti...

Citizenship in sub-Saharan Africa has undergone profound changes in recent decades as part of wider social and political dynamics. One notable development is the emergence of Christianity, especially in its Pentecostal-Charismatic forms, as a public religion. Christian actors, beliefs and practices have increasingly come to manifest themselves in t...

This article explores the intersections of gender, sexuality and citizenship in the context of one prominent neo-Pentecostal movement in Kenya, the Ministry of Repentance and Holiness (MRH) led by the charismatic Prophet David Owuor. Employing the concept of intimate citizenship, the article analyses, first, how MRH engages in a contestation of int...

Against the background of the current politicisation of homosexuality and the policing of sexual citizenship in Kenya and other African countries, this article offers an analysis of the Kenyan gay music video Same Love, released by the band Art Attack in 2016. Employing the concept of acts of citizenship (Isin and Nielsen 2008), the article foregro...

This roundtable explores the intersections of queer pedagogy and the teaching of religion—in and partly beyond the fields of religious studies and theology—in higher education settings. The various contributions present reflections based on innovative teaching and transformative curriculum practices in religion courses and programs, specifically in...

In order to challenge and decenter monolithic narratives about Christian-inspired homophobia in Africa, this article draws attention to Christian counter-mobilizations that seek to affirm the human rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people in Africa. It focuses on the work of an African American organization, The Fellowship of...

Highlighting the interconnections between discourses centred on public morality and politics, this chapter focuses on Zambian sexual citizenship. Overall, the chapter contextualises continuity and change in the discursive politics of sexual citizenship during two distinct periods in Zambian history. The analysis first offers an overview of politica...

This article explores the intersections of religion, embodiment and queer sexuality in the autobiographic account of a South African self-identifying ‘lesbian sangoma’, on the basis of the book Black Bull, Ancestors and Me: My Life as a Lesbian Sangoma, by Nkunzi Zandile Nkabinde. The article offers an intertextual reading of this primary text, fir...

In recent years, many African countries have witnessed public controversies and political debates over homosexuality and gay or LGBT rights. These have often received widespread international attention, with Uganda’s Anti-Homosexuality Act−signed into law by President Museveni in February 2014 (but later annulled by the Constitutional Court)−as the...

This chapter contributes to a postcolonial theological understanding of contemporary world Christianity, specifically in the context of the HIV epidemic. It focusses on the implications of the statement made by African theologians that nowadays the Body of Christ is HIV positive and is affected by AIDS. As a classic theological metaphor of ecclesia...

Africa has become a key site of masculinity politics, that is, of mobilisations and struggles where masculine gender is made a principal theme and subjected to change. Pentecostalism is widely considered to present a particular form of masculinity politics in contemporary African societies. Scholarship on African Pentecostal masculinities has mainl...

This chapter explores the ways in which Wainaina develops and expounds his critique of Pentecostalism and homophobia. It discusses Wainaina as one prominent example of African agency, courage, creativity and authority in the struggle for sexual diversity and gay rights in contemporary Africa. The chapter presents Wainaina as a queer prophet and as...

Issues of same-sex relationships and gay and lesbian rights are the subject of public and political controversy in many African societies today. Frequently, these controversies receive widespread attention both locally and globally, such as with the Anti-Homosexuality Bill in Uganda. In the international media, these cases tend to be presented as r...

This chapter examines the highly political nature of the dominant, mostly Pentecostalised, Christian discourses on homosexuality in Zambia. It explores how in the Zambian public debates we do not only see a mobilisation of Christian discourses against homosexuality, but also the beginning of a counter-discourse emerging. The chapter also examines t...

The introduction to this special issue reviews the articles collected and presented in the volume. After an overview of the contents, the chapter turns to a more refined discussion of the insights resulting from the collection. These insights concern the productivity as well as limitations of canonicity, the importance of contextuality, the embodie...

This article is a contribution towards the development of queer theologies in contemporary African contexts. Based on fieldwork in the gay community in Lusaka, the capital city of Zambia, the article explores the significance of the theological notion of the Imago Dei, the Image of God, in the self-understanding of Zambian gay men as being gay and...

On the basis of a study of a group of Zambian men identifying both as gay and as Christian, this article explores the negotiation of sexual and religious identity and critically addresses the “surprise” some scholars have expressed about the general religiosity of LGBTI (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and intersex) people in Africa. The study...