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Growing Queer: youth temporality and the ethics of group sex in contemporary Moroccan & South African literature
Towards the end of October 2018, news stories surfaced about a targeted crackdown on gay people in Tanzania. Regional Commissioner of Dar es Salam, Paul Makonda, announced plans to form a government taskforce that would be devoted to pursuing and prosecuting LGBTIQ people, or those perceived to be o...
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| Language: | English |
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Department of English Language and Literature
2020
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| Summary: | Towards the end of October 2018, news stories surfaced about a targeted crackdown on gay people in Tanzania. Regional Commissioner of Dar es Salam, Paul Makonda, announced plans to form a government taskforce that would be devoted to pursuing and prosecuting LGBTIQ people, or those perceived to be on the spectrum (Amnesty International, “Tanzania”). This current onslaught on LGBTIQ citizens has already seen 10 men arrested, ostensibly for participating in a same-sex wedding (Ibid). While the Tanzanian foreign ministry distanced itself from the Regional Commissioner’s remarks (Burke), others have framed Makonda’s actions as a natural extension of president John Magufuli’s “morality crusade” (Amnesty International, “Tanzania”). After being elected to office in 2015, Magufuli achieved international acclaim for this 'thrift and intolerance for corruption’ (Paget). However, Magufuli’s “morality crusade” quickly spiralled into authoritarianism, with a clampdown on freedom of speech and on opposition to his party, Chama cha Mapinduzi (CCM) (Ibid). The party has governed Tanzania since its independence in 1961 (O’Gorman 317). As Ahearne notes, it has become a situation where 'any opposition is seen as “against the nation”’ since it has become 'clear that Magufuli is following a nationalist agenda.’ Homophobic campaigns have been a common feature since Magufuli was elected in 2015, and sodomy still carries a prison sentence of up to 30 years in Tanzania (Burke). The current “morality crusade” is not that unusual, in other words, and it imagines sexual and gender minorities as outside the nation-state, as not quite citizens. This discourse is not new, and simply echoes similar declarations and crackdowns in other African countries that frame sexual and gender minorities as non-citizens. |
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