A New Twist on the 'un-African' Script: Representing Gay and Lesbian African Weddings in Democratic South Africa

This essay examines the media coverage surrounding two African weddings of lesbian and gay couples in South Africa, as a lens onto the evolving cultural politics of black queerness in that country. Two decades after South Africa launched a world-leading legal framework for LGBTI protections, I argue that these media representations depict the growing inclusion of black LGBTIQ people as a process of bridging the supposed “gap” between homosexuality and African culture. This new “bridging the gap” script seemingly rejects the older, dominant script portraying homosexuality as intrinsically “un-African.” But I argue that it instead reproduces the “un-African” script in a new, liberal guise, offering inclusion to black LGBTIQ South Africans on limited terms that continue to obscure their embeddedness within African histories and communities.

Yarbrough, M. W. (2019, May 12). A New Twist on the 'un-African' Script: Representing Gay and Lesbian African Weddings in Democratic South Africa. https://doi.org/10.2979/africatoday.67.1.04