Amphibious Subjects: Sasso and the Contested Politics of Queer Self-Making in Neoliberal Ghana
A free open access ebook is available upon publication. Learn more at www.luminosoa.org.

Amphibious Subjects is an ethnographic study of a community of self-identified effeminate men—known in local parlance as sasso—residing in coastal Jamestown, a suburb of Accra, Ghana's capital. Drawing on the Ghanaian philosopher Kwame Gyekye's notion of "amphibious personhood," Kwame Edwin Otu argues that sasso embody and articulate amphibious subjectivity in their self-making, creating an identity that moves beyond the homogenizing impulses of western categories of gender and sexuality. Such subjectivity simultaneously unsettles claims purported by the Christian heteronationalist state and LGBT+ human rights organizations that Ghana is predominantly heterosexual or homophobic. Weaving together personal interactions with sasso, participant observation, autoethnography, archival sources, essays from African and African-diasporic literature, and critical analyses of documentaries such as the BBC's The World’s Worst Place to Be Gay, Amphibious Subjects is an ethnographic meditation on how Africa is configured as the "heart of homophobic darkness" in transnational LGBT+ human rights imaginaries.
"1140389514"
Amphibious Subjects: Sasso and the Contested Politics of Queer Self-Making in Neoliberal Ghana
A free open access ebook is available upon publication. Learn more at www.luminosoa.org.

Amphibious Subjects is an ethnographic study of a community of self-identified effeminate men—known in local parlance as sasso—residing in coastal Jamestown, a suburb of Accra, Ghana's capital. Drawing on the Ghanaian philosopher Kwame Gyekye's notion of "amphibious personhood," Kwame Edwin Otu argues that sasso embody and articulate amphibious subjectivity in their self-making, creating an identity that moves beyond the homogenizing impulses of western categories of gender and sexuality. Such subjectivity simultaneously unsettles claims purported by the Christian heteronationalist state and LGBT+ human rights organizations that Ghana is predominantly heterosexual or homophobic. Weaving together personal interactions with sasso, participant observation, autoethnography, archival sources, essays from African and African-diasporic literature, and critical analyses of documentaries such as the BBC's The World’s Worst Place to Be Gay, Amphibious Subjects is an ethnographic meditation on how Africa is configured as the "heart of homophobic darkness" in transnational LGBT+ human rights imaginaries.
0.0 In Stock
Amphibious Subjects: Sasso and the Contested Politics of Queer Self-Making in Neoliberal Ghana

Amphibious Subjects: Sasso and the Contested Politics of Queer Self-Making in Neoliberal Ghana

by Kwame Edwin Otu
Amphibious Subjects: Sasso and the Contested Politics of Queer Self-Making in Neoliberal Ghana

Amphibious Subjects: Sasso and the Contested Politics of Queer Self-Making in Neoliberal Ghana

by Kwame Edwin Otu

eBook

FREE

Available on Compatible NOOK devices, the free NOOK App and in My Digital Library.
WANT A NOOK?  Explore Now

Related collections and offers


Overview

A free open access ebook is available upon publication. Learn more at www.luminosoa.org.

Amphibious Subjects is an ethnographic study of a community of self-identified effeminate men—known in local parlance as sasso—residing in coastal Jamestown, a suburb of Accra, Ghana's capital. Drawing on the Ghanaian philosopher Kwame Gyekye's notion of "amphibious personhood," Kwame Edwin Otu argues that sasso embody and articulate amphibious subjectivity in their self-making, creating an identity that moves beyond the homogenizing impulses of western categories of gender and sexuality. Such subjectivity simultaneously unsettles claims purported by the Christian heteronationalist state and LGBT+ human rights organizations that Ghana is predominantly heterosexual or homophobic. Weaving together personal interactions with sasso, participant observation, autoethnography, archival sources, essays from African and African-diasporic literature, and critical analyses of documentaries such as the BBC's The World’s Worst Place to Be Gay, Amphibious Subjects is an ethnographic meditation on how Africa is configured as the "heart of homophobic darkness" in transnational LGBT+ human rights imaginaries.

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9780520381865
Publisher: University of California Press
Publication date: 07/26/2022
Series: New Sexual Worlds , #2
Sold by: Barnes & Noble
Format: eBook
Pages: 293
Sales rank: 875,967
File size: 2 MB

About the Author

Kwame Edwin Otu is Assistant Professor of African American and African Studies at the Carter G. Woodson Institute for African American and African Studies, University of Virginia. He wrote and starred in the award-winning short film Reluctantly Queer.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments ix

Introducing Amphibious Subjects 1

Part 1 Setting the Scenes

1 Situating Sasso: Mapping Effeminate Subjectivities and Homoerotic Desire in Postcolonial Ghana 25

2 Contesting Homogeneity: Sasso Complexity in the Face of Neoliberal LGBT+ Politics 49

Part 2 Amphibious Subjects in Rival Geographies

3 Amphibious Subjectivity: Queer Self-Making at the Intersection of Colliding Modernities in Neoliberal Ghana 77

4 The Paradox of Rituals: Queer Possibilities in Heteronormative Scenes 102

Part 3 Becoming and Unbecoming Amphibious Subjects in Hetero/Homo Colonial Vortices

5 Palimpsestic Projects: Heterocolonial Missions in Post-Independent Ghana (1965-1975) 123

6 Queer Liberal Expeditions: The BBC's The World's Worst Place to Be Gay? and the Paradoxes of Homocolonialism 143

Conclusion: Queering Queer Africa? 163

Notes 171

Bibliography 183

Index 195

From the B&N Reads Blog

Customer Reviews