AN AFRICAN OR UN-AFRICAN SEXUAL IDENTITY

The politicisation of sexuality expressed especially in politically and religiously sanctioned homophobia in sub-Saharan Africa is a multi-faceted phenomenon that invites an interdisciplinary approach. This chapter contends that since sexual politics ‘easily traverse state’ boundaries (Weiss 2013, 166), Africa’s politicisation of sexuality should be understood from the perspective of globalisation on one hand, and Africa’s socio-political and religious realities on the other hand. Globalisation has compressed the world and widened transcontinental interactions, weakened cultural boundaries and broken up space and time in socio-political and economic collaborations. The establishment of competitive democracy in sub-Saharan Africa, for example, has opened up new political space as well as introduced global political players on the continent. But since globalisation does not erase the local identities, through glocalisation, that is ‘the process of domesticating the global in local contexts’ (Kalu 2008, 189), interest groups adapt external ideologies and tactics to negotiate and shape their local socio-political landscape. In addition to defining globalisation, and discussing religion’s influence on Africa’s perception of homosexuality, the chapter explores how homosexuality feeds into neo-colonial politics. It ends with a discussion of the implications of globalisation and globalised religion on African sexual politics.