Queer Pedagogy and Engaging Cinema in LGBTQIA+ Discourse in Africa

Postmodernism ignited a rapid growth in oppositional cultures in the late 20th and early 21st centuries. Among these oppositions are feminism, animal right movements and queer culture. The oppositional forces, silenced by the power, discourse, and knowledge of dominant cultures, countercultures strive to speak for themselves and resist all forms of subjugation and marginalization. In the West, oppositional cultures have been able to create a queer cinema of resistance. African queer cinematic engagement came late with Mohammed Camara’s 1997 film-Dakan, believed to be the first film to focus primarily on LGBTQIA+ themes from West Africa. Ever since the above film pushed the queer sexual orientation into the center of discourse in Africa, film industries such as Nigeria’s Nollywood and Ghana’s Ghollywood and the South African film enterprise have followed suit. The questions that emanate in this study are, do these narratives on new sexual identities-LGBTQIA truly reflect indigenous African ethos? Is queer cinema germane in creating spaces for new sexual identities in Africa? Against this backdrop, this study examines African queer cinema as a struggle against heteronormative and oppressive tendencies. Employing Michel Foucault’s perspective on knowledge, power and discourse as theory, this study uses content analysis to interrogate selected African queer cinematic narratives. Among other findings, I argue that African queer cinema resists heteronormativity and other sexually oppressive categories and that this enterprise is geared towards creating a voice for the LGBTQIA+ community across the African continent.