Intro by Queering Belonging curator Bimbola Akinbola (performance studies, Northwestern University)
While the contentiousness of community has been taken up by several scholars in African and African Diaspora Studies, there remains a tension between the knowledge that family and community is messy and complicated, and the romanticization of the type of belonging that is speculated to have been experienced by Africans prior to colonization and even still today for those “who never left.” The theme of this mini-series, Queering Belonging, speaks to work that disrupts overly simplified and romantic conceptualizations of belonging and community in African contexts. In this series, Bimbola Akinbola, Xavier Livermon, Keguro Macharia, and Tiffany Mugo consider how community, family, and kin are being redefined and reimagined on the African continent and in the diaspora. By reflecting on queer approaches to belonging and other articulations of non-normative relationality in African and diasporic contexts, they consider how taking a deep look at where and how people find belonging leads to a more expansive and liberatory understanding of the nature of community and kin.
T
iffany Kagure Mugo is co-founder and curator of Hub of Loving Action in Africa (HOLAA!) a Pan Africanist hub (holaafrica.org) that chronicles and gives information about sex and sexuality in the African context. She is a columnist, a podcast host, and author of the book Quirky Quick Guide to Having Great Sex, as well as a two-time Ted speaker. She also contributes to various platforms writing about sex, sexuality, and politics. She is on the board of the FRIDA Fund and was previously an Open Society Youth Fellow.
You can find her on Instagram @kagsmugo and HOLAAfrica @insta_holaa or twitter on @HOLAAfrica.