Africa/Queer/Religion: Complex and Creative Intersections

Research seminar jointly hosted by

the Desmond Tutu Centre for Religion & Social Justice, University of the Western Cape

the Leeds University Centre for African Studies

the Leeds University Centre for Religion and Public Life

10 November 2021, 2:00-3:30pm UK time

Registration essential: please email DTC@UWC.AC.ZA

In a context where African, queer, and religious identities and practices are often seen as incompatible, this research seminar aims to make a postsecular and decolonising contribution by exploring the complex and creative intersections between these categories. The three presentations each have a distinct focus - on different parts of the continent, and on different religious traditions - but together they push for an analysis and conceptualisation of the productive affinities between “Africa”, “queer” and “religion”.

Each of the three presenters are 2021 LUCAS/LAHRI Fellows with the University of Leeds in the Virtual Fellowship Scheme “African Knowledges for Global Challenges”.

Presenters

Stephen Kapinde is a lecturer at Pwani University, Kenya, and conducts inter-disciplinary and trans-disciplinary research on religion and public life in Africa. His current work is on Religion, gender and sexuality with an inclination towards gender and sexually non-conforming persons. Kapinde will be presenting on

Queer Mission in Anti-Queer Nation: Emerging African Queer Religious Knowledge and Practices from the Bride of the Lamb Ministries International Church of Kenya.

Gibson Ncube (pronouns his/him) has recently joined the Department of Modern Foreign Languages at Stellenbosch University. His research interests are in comparative literature, gender and queer studies. He is the current co-convenor of the Queer African Studies Association and Iso Lomso Research Fellow at the Stellenbosch Institute for Advanced Studies. Ncube will be presenting on

Literary Texts and Intimate Archives: An Emergent Queer African Islamic Discourse.

Megan Robertson is a senior researcher in the Desmond Tutu Centre for Religion and Social Justice at the University of the Western Cape, South Africa. She also holds a postdoctoral fellowship that is linked to the SARChI Chair in Religion and Social Justice. Her research interests lie at the intersections of religious and queer studies. Robertson will be presenting on

Crossing and Dwelling as Queer Clergy: Navigating the politics of belonging in the Methodist Church of Southern Africa.