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Africa Multiple Cluster of Excellence Annual Conference 2022

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13 The language of sex and sexualities for political communication in social movements in Africa

Chair: Serawit B. Debele, Sharon A. Omotoso

From the Arab Spring, the Rhodes/Fees must fall, the uprisings against dictatorship in Sudan, Burkina Faso, Ethiopia and Nigeria to more localized struggles against land and natural resource dispossession and immiseration in Zimbabwe, Tanzania and Ghana, protestors have used various mediums for political communication. Sex and sexualities as mediums have been exploited and deployed in unprecedented manner in these struggles for decolonization, social justice and good governance. The relevance of sexualities in political communication has been even more significant in authoritarian countries where freedom of expression is suppressed and where one gets arrested for making explicit political statement publicly (typical example will be the Ugandan activist scholar Stella Nyanzi). The panel intends to explore how medialized sexuality operates as political communication, and how this shapes the conceptualization of political communication as well as social movements. Drawing on insights on ‘unconventional mediums’ for political communication in public spaces, such as proverbs (Omotoso, 2018) and prayers (Debele, 2018) we explore how the language of sex and sexualities is mobilized as a medium for politicking during protests. Our usage of language here covers a wider spectrum beyond spoken words to include bodies, gestures as well as other symbols and clothing. As such, we focus on sexualities in their diverse manifestation such as naked protest (Diabate, 2020) and sexual innuendoes to mention just two examples. Our focus on this topic enables us to account for how sex and sexualities play out within political communication processes, such that the medialization of sexuality reinforces its politicization. In a sense, we are interested in the ways in which what is regarded as a ‘private’ business such as sex, becomes medialized to accentuate political demands and how this destabilises boundaries. We also want to analyse how this process contributes to reconfiguring dominant narratives, moral and ethical conventions, and spaces (eg. the private/public dichotomy). Our proposed panel is based on questions we engage in our research on social movements across African countries; specifically Ethiopia, Nigeria, Sudan, Zimbabwe and Tunisia.

Questions raised include but not limited to:

• How are languages (broadly conceived) of sex and sexuality deployed in moments of protest?
• What does the deployment of these languages tell us about socio-political change?
• How do the languages enrich the concept and practice of political communication?
• What do they make possible for actors whose rights to protest are limited by authoritarian regimes?
• What happens to received conventions, ethics and moralities when these languages are deployed in public to make a political point?
• Which aspects of ethics and moralities (sub)emerge when sexualities are medialized in social movements?
• Which boundaries are transgressed when the language of sex and sexuality leaves the private and gets used in the political/public domain?

Chair

  • Serawit Debele (University of Bayreuth, Germany)

Panelists

  • Sharon A. Omotoso (University of Ibadan, Nigeria)
  • Samah Allah Khalaf (Doctoral researcher/RS moralities)
  • Gibson Ncube (University of Stellenbosch, South Africa)
  • Sifa Jihad Alfakir (Doctoral researcher/ RS moralities)
  • Adeola Opesade (University of Ibadan, Nigeria)
  • Ayodele Yusuff (University of Lagos, Nigeria)

Discussant

  • Larissa Kojoué (University of Bayreuth, Germany)

abstracts of contributions

a translation en/fr fr/en is offered


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