Decolonizing the law: LGBT organizing in Namibia and South Africa

Abstract

This chapter considers how lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) activists in Namibia and South Africa appropriate discourses of decolonization associated with African national liberation movements. I examine the legal, cultural, and political possibilities associated with LGBT activists’ framing of law reform as a decolonization project. LGBT activists identified laws governing gender and sexual nonconformity as in particular need of reform. Using data from daily ethnographic observation of LGBT movement organizations, in-depth qualitative interviews with LGBT activists, and newspaper articles about political homophobia, I elucidate how Namibian and South African LGBT activists conceptualize movement challenges to antigay laws as decolonization.

Citation

Currier, A. (2011), "Decolonizing the law: LGBT organizing in Namibia and South Africa", Sarat, A. (Ed.) Special Issue Social Movements/Legal Possibilities (Studies in Law, Politics, and Society, Vol. 54), Emerald Group Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 17-44. https://doi.org/10.1108/S1059-4337(2011)0000054005