Conference: "Multiple Modernities of Same-Sex Sexuality in Nigeria", August 18-20, 2010
ESF [European Science Foundation] Exploratory Workshop on Multiple Modernities of Same-Sex Sexuality in Nigeria. Maynooth (Ireland), 18-20th August, 2010. Convened by: Dr. Íde Corley and Dr. Conrad Brunstrom.
Co-sponsored by Department of English, NUI Maynooth; Department of Anthropology, Research Support Office, NUI Maynooth; and An Foras Feasa NUI Maynooth.
1. Executive summary
The Exploratory Workshop “Multiple Modernities of Same-Sex Sexuality in Nigeria” took place at the National University of Ireland Maynooth over three days from 18-20th August, 2010. 26 scholars attended including the Rapporteur for the European Science Foundation, Professor Naomi Segal whose contributions were warmly appreciated. Of the invited scholars, 22 came from 9 ESF member states and 4 from the U.S.A. . . . .
During the year in which the workshop was held, public debate about homosexuality in Africa became increasingly politicized; in the weeks and months preceding the workshop, the highly publicized arrests of male same-sex couples in a number of African states, including Malawi and Uganda, had been accompanied by outbreaks of anti-gay violence and by ever more vociferous appeals both locally and internationally for the implementation of sexual rights.
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The initial aim of the workshop, as outlined in the funding proposal, was to test the viability of rhetorical theory in untangling sociocultural and political debates about the “authenticity”—or opposedly, “imported” character—of same-sex sexuality in Nigeria. The final programme was arranged with attention both to the conditions of the grant and to the developments on the continent during the year.
It had proved difficult for the convenors to attract the targeted number of scholars from ESF member states with Nigerian expertise and/or life experience for reasons which are not entirely clear. While practical issues undoubtedly played a role, the topic of the workshop was also clearly a sensitive and relatively under-researched one. During its organization, links were formed to same-sex constituencies within Nigeria and it is hoped that further research will allow the group to work collaboratively with them.
In addition, the events of 2010 seemed to demand an expanded frame of reference to allow attention to newly apparent continental factors in the evolving debates within Nigeria. These included, for example, the roles of American Evangelical churches in promoting anti-homosexual legislation in East Africa; the reactive linking of monetary aid by the Swedish government to the implementation of sexual rights in Uganda; and the increasing attention of multinational news corporations to intimate relations on the continent more widely.
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The final workshop programme maintained the methodological goals and thematic trajectory of the initial one. But it also aimed to situate Nigerian issues more definitively within a broad international framework in order to incorporate regional and continental concerns and to allow comparisons with other postcolonial cultures where the imperatives of sovereignty and globalization may have similarly collided.
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Alongside the Nigerian national context, the range of contexts addressed by the final programme encompassed, for instance, the Soninke area of Cameroon, Czechoslovakia, Ireland, India, South Africa, North Africa and the Middle East, West Africa, Uganda and Zimbabwe.
While a wide range of topics were treated in different panels that extended across the three-day duration of the event, questions about the definition, circulation, translation and reception of terminologies recurred during plenary discussion sessions with specific attention to what exists and takes place outside the purview of the state. A central concern was to find ways of recognizing and representing same-sex desire and practice in Nigeria and in other parts of the so-called developing world without, at the same time, condoning the unilateral dissemination of Western gender/sexual codes by means of universal rights instruments.
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Some researchers prioritized the histories of “real people” as potential contexts for exploring the multiplicities of cultures and bodily capacities. Others preferred to make recourse to queer theoretical models as a means of undoing the mechanisms which block our abilities to perceive human multiplicity.
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On the whole, however, it was agreed that African populations have tended to resist the idea that sexuality defines the whole person and that contemporary international LGBT discourses have not sufficiently addressed the complexities of African cultural responses to the sexual question. A qualified emphasis was placed on “the customary” in Africa as a potential archive of “other ways of doing things”.
Throughout the event, a related discussion took place concerning the relative appropriateness of LGBT politics in non-Western contexts where ongoing economic and social crises have sometimes given rise to scape-goating. It was noted that international LGBT affiliations may only be available to specific class and gender factions. Also, since homophobia often constitutes a cheap form of populist politics, it was recognized that organizing along identitarian lines may not always be the best answer to it.
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Other sets of relations that may elude gender/sexual categorization may need to be established in order to promote and protect sexual freedoms in globalizing contexts. To this end, it would be worth investigating “the rules of formation” for homophobic discourses and to situate this enquiry within a wide-ranging critique of the diverse forms of social exclusion in specific contexts. This would entail maintaining an ear to the silences in social debates within the contexts under examination. . . . Further research might therefore require methodological innovation to find ways of investigating areas of secrecy in comparative postcolonial contexts.
While the future of ESF mechanisms in 2011 was uncertain at the time of the workshop, the majority of the participants plan to continue to work collaboratively with a view to submiting further funding proposals. . . .
Excerpted from:
ESF Exploratory Workshop on Multiple Modernities of Same-Sex Sexuality in Nigeria, Maynooth (Ireland), 18-20th August, 2010. Convened by: Dr. Íde Corley and Dr. Conrad Brunstrom. SCIENTIFIC REPORT. Accessed November 1, 2010 from: http://english.nuim.ie/news/esf-exploratory-workshop
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Africa
globalization
international relations
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