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'Now you see me, now you don't' - a study of the politics of visibility and the sexual minority movement in Kenya
This study explores the varied ways sexual minority organisations in Kenya negotiate their choices, decisions and actions when determining how, when, and why to be publicly visible or retreat from visibility. This they have to do in the context of the threats of retribution on the part of Kenyan sta...
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| Format: | Thesis |
| Language: | English |
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African Studies
2017
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| _version_ | 1867614319848456192 |
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| access_status_str | Open Access |
| author | Mugo, Cynthia |
| author2 | Cooper, Brenda |
| author_browse | Cooper, Brenda Mugo, Cynthia |
| author_facet | Cooper, Brenda Mugo, Cynthia |
| author_sort | Mugo, Cynthia |
| collection | Thesis |
| description | This study explores the varied ways sexual minority organisations in Kenya negotiate their choices, decisions and actions when determining how, when, and why to be publicly visible or retreat from visibility. This they have to do in the context of the threats of retribution on the part of Kenyan state leaders to their efforts to protect sexual minority rights. Sexual minority organising carries the risk of verbal abuse and the threat of arrest and other retribution. In spite of this, sexual minorities have organised themselves into publicly visible social movement organisations over the last ten years. In addition to the hostility of the Kenyan state, these organisations operate within the context of the uneven situation with regard to the constraints or otherwise of organising as sexual minorities between the Global South and North. The situation is further complicated by the role of donors, who bring their own experiences and agendas from the Global North, not always appropriately, into African contexts. Amid such varied responses to sexual minority organising, how, when, and why do Kenyan social movement organizations become publicly visible or retreat from visibility? To recognise the various forces that influence (in)visibility choices that sexual minority organisations have to negotiate, I used sociologist James M. Jasper's (2006) concept of "strategic dilemma". Sexual minority social movement organisations field strategic dilemmas when they strategise around whether and how to become visible, modify their public profile, or forgo political opportunities. To understand the micro-political dynamics of how sexual minority social movement organisations negotiated such strategic dilemmas of visibility and invisibility, I analysed 200 newspaper articles and sexual minority organisational documents and conducted 12 in-depth interviews with staff, members and leaders of sexual minority social movement organisations. Ultimately the findings of this thesis centre on the fluidity of visibility and invisibility as was experienced by Kenyan sexual minority organisations. (ln)visibility was experienced in diverse ways as a process that included a series of steps that do not have absolute values nor are they necessarily coherent in different time and space. My findings advance social movement theorizing by demonstrating the importance of studying social movements in the global South. In addition, my findings contribute to postcolonial feminist and queer theorizing by showing how marginalised sexual and gender minorities in Kenya struggled strategically to assert their democratic inclusion in the state. |
| format | Thesis |
| id | oai:open.uct.ac.za:11427/26147 |
| institution | University of Cape Town (South Africa) |
| language | eng |
| last_indexed | 2026-06-10T12:50:09.792Z |
| license_str | Not specified — see source repository |
| provenance_str_mv | Harvested via OAI-PMH from UCTD — University of Cape Town Open Access Repository |
| publishDate | 2017 |
| publishDateRange | 2017 |
| publishDateSort | 2017 |
| publisher | African Studies |
| publisherStr | African Studies |
| record_format | dspace |
| source_str | UCTD — University of Cape Town Open Access Repository |
| spelling | oai:open.uct.ac.za:11427/26147 'Now you see me, now you don't' - a study of the politics of visibility and the sexual minority movement in Kenya Mugo, Cynthia Cooper, Brenda African Studies Gender Studies This study explores the varied ways sexual minority organisations in Kenya negotiate their choices, decisions and actions when determining how, when, and why to be publicly visible or retreat from visibility. This they have to do in the context of the threats of retribution on the part of Kenyan state leaders to their efforts to protect sexual minority rights. Sexual minority organising carries the risk of verbal abuse and the threat of arrest and other retribution. In spite of this, sexual minorities have organised themselves into publicly visible social movement organisations over the last ten years. In addition to the hostility of the Kenyan state, these organisations operate within the context of the uneven situation with regard to the constraints or otherwise of organising as sexual minorities between the Global South and North. The situation is further complicated by the role of donors, who bring their own experiences and agendas from the Global North, not always appropriately, into African contexts. Amid such varied responses to sexual minority organising, how, when, and why do Kenyan social movement organizations become publicly visible or retreat from visibility? To recognise the various forces that influence (in)visibility choices that sexual minority organisations have to negotiate, I used sociologist James M. Jasper's (2006) concept of "strategic dilemma". Sexual minority social movement organisations field strategic dilemmas when they strategise around whether and how to become visible, modify their public profile, or forgo political opportunities. To understand the micro-political dynamics of how sexual minority social movement organisations negotiated such strategic dilemmas of visibility and invisibility, I analysed 200 newspaper articles and sexual minority organisational documents and conducted 12 in-depth interviews with staff, members and leaders of sexual minority social movement organisations. Ultimately the findings of this thesis centre on the fluidity of visibility and invisibility as was experienced by Kenyan sexual minority organisations. (ln)visibility was experienced in diverse ways as a process that included a series of steps that do not have absolute values nor are they necessarily coherent in different time and space. My findings advance social movement theorizing by demonstrating the importance of studying social movements in the global South. In addition, my findings contribute to postcolonial feminist and queer theorizing by showing how marginalised sexual and gender minorities in Kenya struggled strategically to assert their democratic inclusion in the state. 2017-11-10T09:53:28Z 2017-11-10T09:53:28Z 2009 2017-05-18T14:18:21Z Master Thesis Masters MPhil http://hdl.handle.net/11427/26147 eng application/pdf African Studies Faculty of Humanities University of Cape Town |
| spellingShingle | African Studies Gender Studies Mugo, Cynthia 'Now you see me, now you don't' - a study of the politics of visibility and the sexual minority movement in Kenya |
| thesis_degree_str | Master's |
| title | 'Now you see me, now you don't' - a study of the politics of visibility and the sexual minority movement in Kenya |
| title_full | 'Now you see me, now you don't' - a study of the politics of visibility and the sexual minority movement in Kenya |
| title_fullStr | 'Now you see me, now you don't' - a study of the politics of visibility and the sexual minority movement in Kenya |
| title_full_unstemmed | 'Now you see me, now you don't' - a study of the politics of visibility and the sexual minority movement in Kenya |
| title_short | 'Now you see me, now you don't' - a study of the politics of visibility and the sexual minority movement in Kenya |
| title_sort | now you see me now you don t a study of the politics of visibility and the sexual minority movement in kenya |
| topic | African Studies Gender Studies |
| url | http://hdl.handle.net/11427/26147 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT mugocynthia nowyouseemenowyoudontastudyofthepoliticsofvisibilityandthesexualminoritymovementinkenya |