This workshop explores the plurality of Black queer sexualities and desires from different perspectives – particularly through examining their political, social and cultural manifestation within structures of systemic racism, sexism, classism, homophobia, and transphobia.
Desire is complicated. In a world that polices certain forms of desire, it is important to focus on desires that are often marginalised and silenced by systemic racism, sexism, classism, transphobia, xenophobia and homophobia. This workshop affirms that Black queer and trans desires matter, as spaces of intimacy, pleasure, freedom and joy. Participants are invited to unpack the complexities and manifestations of Black queer sexualities in personal narratives that illuminate lived experiences; examine the role of affect in research and practice; engage with the power of art as a means of imagining possible futures; participate in embodied practices through theatre; and delve into the complexities of community, intimacy, love and self-representation. Additionally, the workshop will discuss resilience in the face of systemic oppression and critically analyse the power relations that shape queer and trans desires. It calls attention to the agency and creativity of Black queer, trans, and gender nonbinary individuals, fostering a deeper understanding of the ways in which these identities challenge normative frameworks and create spaces for radical imagination and liberation.
The workshop is organised by Zintombizethu (zethu) Matebeni, current Senior Fellow at the College, in collaboration with Phoebe Kisubi Mbasalaki (University of Essex) and Henriette Gunkel (Ruhr University Bochum).
Welcome and introductions
Zethu Matebeni, College for Social Sciences and Humanities / UA Ruhr & University of Fort Hare (South Africa)
Henriette Gunkel, Ruhr University Bochum
Phoebe Kisubi Mbasalaki, University of Essex (UK)
Touch within Research
Serena Dankwa, University of Basel (Switzerland)
Dissident Performances of Queer Desire in Zimbabwe
Princess Sibanda, University of Fort Hare (South Africa)
Break
Trans, Incompleteness, and Becoming Indeterminate
Esethu Monakali, Lund University (Sweden)
The Blue Queen
Tyna Adebowale, artist, Amsterdam (the Netherlands)
Welcome and introductions
Experiences of Trans* Gender Nonbinary Individuals Engaging in Commercial Sex Work
Lesego Ramphele, University of South Africa
Navigating Identity, Stigma, and Silence: An Exploratory Study of the Experiences of Queer Youth in Zimbabwe
Gift Masengwe, University of the Free State (South Africa)
Break
SHE and HER in Rebellion: Desire and Resistance in Black Queer Theater
David Schupp & Marie Sprenger, Ruhr University Bochum
Lunch break
Through the Sounds of Liniker: The Portrayal of Desire by a Black Brazilian Queer Artist
Clarissa Maria Serra Müller, Ruhr University Bochum
Between Area Boys and the Elite: On the Necropolitics of Queer Safety in Lagos, Nigeria
Adebayo Quadry-Adekanbi, University of Warwick (UK)
Break
Ukufikisana As Pleasure
Mthunzikazi Mbungwana, Rhodes University (South Africa)
Panel: Reflections on Queer Masculinities
with Konrad Neiße (Ruhr University Bochum), Mthunzikazi Mbungwana (Rhodes University), Princess Sibanda (University of Fort Hare), and David Schupp (Ruhr University Bochum)
Closing
The event is open to everyone interested with prior registration (see below). There are 40 places available for in-person participation.
Esethu Monakali (they/them) completed a PhD in Gender Studies at Lund University in September 2024, with a dissertation tracing urban trans masculine geographies in Johannesburg and Cape Town, South Africa. Monakali’s research interests, broadly speaking, concern Transgender Studies, Black Trans Feminist Theorising, and Urban Geographies.
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Kamva Monakali
Serena O. Dankwa recently returned to academia as a lecturer and postdoctoral researcher at the Institute of Social Anthropology at the University of Basel in Switzerland. She holds an MA in African Studies from SOAS (University of London) and earned her PhD from the University of Bern. While working on her thesis, Serena Dankwa was affiliated to the University of Ghana and held fellowships at Yale University and Columbia University. She is the author of the award-winning ethnography Knowing Women (2021) and a co-editor of Racial Profiling: Struktureller Rassismus und anti-rassistischer Widerstand (2019) and of Bildung.Macht.Diversität: Critical Diversity Literacy im Hochschulraum (2021). All the publications are open access and seek to bridge the gap between academia and practice. In recent years, she has worked with feminist NGOs based in Switzerland in the areas of migration, gender development, sexuality and reproductive justice. Previously, she worked as a classical musician and a cultural journalist with Swiss radio and television and with BBC 3 in London.
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Dres Hubacher
Princess A. Sibanda is a scholar artivist. Her research interests lie in participatory performance forms and their intersections with race, gender and sexualities in Africa. In 2018, she was awarded the Canon Collins Scholars Scholar award as well as a community engagement award in recognition of her scholar-artivist work. She holds a PhD from the University of KwaZulu-Natal and MA in Drama & Performance Studies (summa cum laude) from the same institution. Currently, she is a post-doctoral fellow under the SARChI Chair in Sexualities, Genders and Queer Studies, University of Fort Hare.
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Canon Collins Trust
In her artistic practice, Tyna Adebowale undertakes extensive research to discover stories that she then translates into multidimensional representations in her studio, employing mediums such as paintings, videos, installations, feature stories, and portraits of individuals she engages with. Over the past decade, her focus centred on questioning and portraying queer bodies, stories, and histories. The figures in these works emanate raw emotions, defiance, and unapologetic power, reclaiming intimacies and visibilities. Their narratives encapsulate the dualities of joy and agony, belonging and displacement, tenderness and harshness. Through her art, Tyna Adebowale raises awareness and fostered dialogues about the struggles faced by individuals identifying as queer within heteronormative biopolitics and the pervasive religious substrates of colonialism.
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Tyna Adebowale
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© Saskia Uppenkamp
Prof. Zethu Matebeni
University of Fort Hare (South Africa) | Gender and Queer Studies, Sociology
Zintombizethu Matebeni, popularly known as zethu, holds the National Research Foundation (NRF) South Africa Research Chair in Sexualities, Genders and Queer Studies at the University of Fort Hare. With a background in sociology and ethnographic methods, Matebeni has been a catalyst of African queer studies, working at the intersections of race, class, gender diversity, and sexuality in post-colonial Africa. Collaborating with activists, scholars, and artists, they have produced innovative research and interventions on queer issues, critical race studies, and decolonisation, including the #RhodesMustFall Movement and #AlternativeInclusivePride.
Matebeni’s notable works include "Reclaiming Afrikan: Queer Perspectives on Sexual and Gender Identities" (2014), "Queer in Africa: LGBTQI Identities, Citizenship, and Activism"(2018), "Beyond the Mountain: Queer Life in 'Africa's Gay Capital'" (2020), and “Nongayindoda” (2021) in the Journal of Contemporary African Studies. Zethu Matebeni has been Visiting Professor at the Women’s Gender and Sexualities Studies (WGSS) Department at Yale University and at the Marie Jahoda Centre for International Gender Studies at Ruhr University Bochum.
Website
Prof. Henriette Gunkel
Ruhr University Bochum | Media Studies, Transformation of Audiovisual Media
Prof. Henriette Gunkel
Ruhr University Bochum | Media Studies, Transformation of Audiovisual Media
Henriette Gunkel is Professor of Transformation of Audiovisual Media with a special focus on gender and queer theory at the Institute for Media Studies at Ruhr University Bochum. Her research focuses on the politics of time from a decolonising, queer-feminist perspective. She is currently working on a monograph entitled “Sand, Atmosphere, Memorialisation”, which deals with remains in the context of colonial extractivism in the Namib Desert. Recent publications include the anthologies “Futures & Fictions” (Repeater 2017, with Ayesha Hameed and Simon O'Sullivan) and “We Travel the Space Ways: Black Imagination, Fragments, and Diffractions” (Transcript 2019, with kara lynch) as well as the book “Visual Cultures as Time Travel” (Sternberg 2021), co-written with Ayesha Hameed.
Website
University of Essex, UK | Department of Sociology and Criminology