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Queer African Cinemas

Queer African Cinemas

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In Queer African Cinemas, Lindsey B. Green-Simms examines films produced by and about queer Africans in the first two decades of the twenty-first century in an environment of increasing antiqueer violence, efforts to criminalize homosexuality, and other state-sanctioned homophobia. Green-Simms argues that these films not only record the fear, anxiety, and vulnerability many queer Africans experience; they highlight how queer African cinematic practices contribute to imagining new hopes and possibilities. Examining globally circulating international art films as well as popular melodramas made for local audiences, Green-Simms emphasizes that in these films queer resistance—contrary to traditional narratives about resistance that center overt and heroic struggle—is often practiced from a position of vulnerability. By reading queer films alongside discussions about censorship and audiences, Green-Simms renders queer African cinema as a rich visual archive that documents the difficulty of queer existence as well as the potentials for queer life-building and survival. Lindsey B. Green-Simms examines films produced by and about queer Africans in the first two decades of the twenty-first century, showing how these films record the fear, anxiety, and vulnerability many queer Africans experience while at the same time imagining new hopes and possibilities. Lindsey B. Green-Simms is Associate Professor of Literature at American University and author of Postcolonial Automobility: Car Culture in West Africa. Acknowledgments  ix
Introduction. Registering Resistance in Queer African Cinemas  1
1. Making Waves: Queer Eccentricity and West African Wayward Women  37
2. Touching Nollywood: From Negation to Negotiation in Queer Nigerian Cinema  73
3. Cutting Masculinities: Post-Apartheid South African Cinema  123
4. Holding Space, Saving Joy: Queer Love and Critical Resilience in East Africa  165
Coda. Queer African Cinema's Destiny  203
Notes  211
Filmography  227
References  231
Index  243

“Conceptually rich and deeply pedagogical, Queer African Cinemas models how to think about African queer worldmaking. Lindsey B. Green-Simms wrenches resistance away from heteronormative duty and national obligation to track its wayward possibilities. Resistance is no longer an exhausted term that excludes African queers, but one that centers African queer practices and freedoms. Green-Simms listens for how African queer audiences navigate representation and find succor even in hostile places. A joy to read.”
“Lindsey B. Green-Simms’s compelling insights prod us to think about resistance as multilayered, incomplete, and even messy in ways that reveal how the vulnerabilities of queer life exist alongside multiple modes of survival, care, and aspirational imaginaries. Queer African Cinemas is engaging, generative, and remarkably persuasive.”
“In Queer African Cinemas, Green-Simms offers an insightful and illuminating analysis. . . . Queer African Cinemas makes an important and necessary intervention in queer studies as it works to decenter queerness from the global north and to challenge common understandings of acceptable means of resistance, affect, and representation.”
“[Green-Simms’s] musings on resistance, aspiration, and resilience, among other difficult-to-define and identity-specific terms, is cultural theory at its finest. Queer African Cinemas will be impactful far beyond its range of study. Highly recommended.”

Additional information

Weight 1 oz
Dimensions 1 × 6 × 9 in