Love Falls On Us: A Story of American Ideas and African LGBT Lives

by Robbie Corey-Boulet

Overview

In 2009 Uganda's Anti-Homosexuality Bill became a top global news story. Two years later Hillary Clinton declared “Gay rights are human rights and human rights are gay rights,” but still today there is little consensus on how to advance those rights beyond the U.S. and Europe. The fact is that international LGBT activism and allies have created winners and losers. In Africa those who easily identify with the identities of the global movement find support, funding and care. Those whose sexualities don't align so neatly don't.

In this faithful and moving investigation, award winning journalist Robbie Corey-Boulet shows that LGBT liberation does not look the same in Africa as it does in the United States or Europe. At a time when there is a groundswell of interest in LGBT life in Africa and attempts at reversing LGBT rights across much of the 'developed' world Corey-Boulet lays bare past failures. To the extent that there exists a right way to engage on LGBT issues in Africa-and, indeed, worldwide-Love Falls on Us is for those looking to learn what it is.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781786995193
Publisher:	Bloomsbury Publishing
Publication date:	07/15/2019
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	336
File size:	373 KB

About the Author

Robbie Corey-Boulet has worked for over a decade as a journalist, primarily in West Africa and Southeast Asia. He reported for several years for the West Africa bureau of the Associated Press, and his writing has been published by outlets including The Atlantic, Guernica, World Policy Journal and The Guardian. He has also worked in Liberia as a media trainer for the NGO Journalists for Human Rights. He is currently the senior editor of World Politics Review and is based in Brooklyn, New York, USA.
Robbie Corey-Boulet has worked for over a decade as a journalist, primarily in West Africa and Southeast Asia. He reported for several years for the West Africa bureau of the Associated Press, and his writing has been published by outlets including The Atlantic, Guernica, World Policy Journal and The Guardian. He has also worked in Liberia as a media trainer for the NGO Journalists for Human Rights. He is currently the senior editor of World Politics Review and is based in Brooklyn, New
Robbie Corey-Boulet has worked for over a decade as a journalist, primarily in West Africa and Southeast Asia. He reported for several years for the West Africa bureau of the Associated Press, and his writing has been published by outlets including The Atlantic, Guernica, World Policy Journal and The Guardian. He has also worked in Liberia as a media trainer for the NGO Journalists for Human Rights. He is currently the senior editor of World Politics Review and is based in Brooklyn, New York

Table of Contents

Introduction

Part 1: Cameroon

1. Indomitable Lions
2. Do No Harm
3. More Fear Than Joy
4. Human Rights Feeds on Horror
5. Love Falls On Us

Part 2: Côte d'Ivoire

6. Here in the Realm of Art
7. L'Affaire pédophilie
8. A Life for Two
9. Winners and Losers
10. Brahima du jardin

Part 3: Liberia

11. Everybody Will Carry Their Own Burden
12. Anti-Liberian, Anti-God
13. Let That Awareness Be Created
14. Grown Woman
15. Finding Our Own Champions

Editorial Reviews

Timely and ambitious .. Love Falls on Us deepens our understanding of these lives beyond just the persecution described in western media … Corey-Boulet's work elevates the extraordinary ordinariness of L.G.B.T.Q. Africans who are trying to live full, peaceful and free lives in the places they call home.” —New York Times

“The author of the memoir Lives of Great Men discusses the skewed coverage of gay life in Africa.” —The Nation

“Insightful, well-researched and compelling … This is an important book for the queer community and activist movement on the continent.” —Mail and Guardian

“In a world where LGBT rights are being reversed even in “developed” countries, Corey-Boulet investigates the right way to address LGBT issues in Africa.” —Washington Blade

“Love Falls on Us creates an alternative narrative for the queer African experience [and] Ddelves deep into the diversity and the realities of LGBT Africans on the continent through easily relatable narratives utilizing African queer history, personal stories of African gay activists and average people.” —Bay Area Reporter

“This book provides a gripping portrait of queer life in West Africa, and an intimate insight into the resilience, courage and creativity of those who are marginalized, not only by societal norms of gender and sexuality, but also by global narratives of LGBT rights.” —Adriaan Van Klinken, Associate Professor of Religion and African Studies, University of Leeds

“In Africa, gay rights – like most other human rights – exist in a tenuous state, merely tolerated in the best of times, violently repressed in the worst. But beneath the surface, gay lives go on, and unique forms of gay culture thrive even in hostile environments, as Robbie Corey-Boulet writes in this vivid and important book. Their voices are heard in Loves Falls on Us, loudly and irreverently, revealing surprising truths about Africa – and the people who misjudge it from afar.” —Andrew Rice, author of The Teeth May Smile But the Heart Does Not Forget

“Love Falls on Us offers moving accounts of LGBT Africans' lives and loves, while demystifying the complexity of gender and sexual diversity politics on the continent. This book is a must-read for anyone interested in LGBT rights and activism.” —Ashley Currier, author of Politicizing Sex in Contemporary Africa and Out in Africa

“Robbie is a meticulous researcher with an unparalleled knowledge of LGBT rights in Africa, a deep connection with local activists, and an understanding of the complex relationship between well-intended outside human rights groups and the local activist community.” —Corinne Dufka, Human Rights Watch, Associate Director, West Africa

“At last, a book with fresh reporting and nuanced insight on the LGBT community in Africa. Corey-Boulet launches the reader into the fight for the rights of queer Africans, with thoughtful attention to the global and local dynamics of activism across cultures. Even better, he gives us more stories of ordinary African lives, animating them with context and charm. This is an important book.” —Dayo Olopade, author of The Bright Continent: Breaking Rules and Making Change in Modern Africa

“Corey-Boulet offers a rare insight into the lives of queer men and women in three African countries. These moving life stories defy stereotypes of African queer people as passive victims in need of liberation, and show how the geopolitics of LGBTQ rights can inadvertently harm the very people they aim to help. Crafted by a gifted and sensitive writer, Love Falls On Us is a landmark of jourbanalism that illuminates the deep story behind a sensationalistic issue drawing on both long-term investigative jourbanalism and social studies. It will be essential reading for those involved in the global fight to combat homophobia but also to human rights activists, postcolonial scholars, and students of contemporary Africa.” —Professor Vinh-Kim Nguyen, Department of Anthropology, Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies

“Explores with nuance and sophistication the paradoxical effects of transnational LGBT rights activism.” —Graeme Reid, LGBT Programme Director, Human Rights Watch

“Explores with nuance and sophistication the paradoxical effects of transnational LGBT rights activism.” —Graeme Reid, LGBT Programme Director, Human Rights Watch'Robbie is a meticulous researcher with an unparalleled knowledge of LGBT rights in Africa, a deep connection with local activists, and an understanding of the complex relationship between well-intended outside human rights groups and the local activist community.'

From the Publisher

“Corey-Boulet’s timely book, Love Falls on Us, addresses the complicated relationship between African L.G.B.T.Q. activists and an American foreign policy whose shifts on gay rights have in many cases exacerbated their difficulties by shining a global spotlight on otherwise unnoticed ways of living. Wisely avoiding the temptation to write about queer relationships across the entire continent, Corey-Boulet instead focuses on activists and individuals in three countries—Cameroon, Ivory Coast and Liberia—highlighting the peculiarities of their respective political and cultural contexts. . . . Love Falls on Us deepens our understanding of these lives beyond the persecution described in Western media.

New York Times - Uzodinma Iweala

“Corey-Boulet is a meticulous researcher with an unparalleled knowledge of LGBT rights in Africa, a deep connection with local activists, and an understanding of the complex relationship between well-intended outside human rights groups and the local activist community. He is as dogged as a reporter as he is sensitive and connected to the people whose lives and struggles he writes about.

Corinne Dufka

"In this thoughtful volume, Corey-Boulet, a veteran Associated Press journalist with several years’ experience working in West Africa, explores the collision of the international promotion of LGBT civil rights with foreign donors' interests in Cameroon, Côte d’Ivoire, and Liberia. Drawing on both personal interviews and documentation (international and in-country) to provide detailed context, he examines how these competing priorities intersect to affect the legal, social, and political realities of life for men and women in these African countries."

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