On Disembodied Details and the Lives they Imply: Archiving Queer Displacement in an African context

• In Event: 40417 - Global Feminisms in Action: Resistance, Identity, and Solidarity Across Borders

Abstract

Queer displacement is an increasingly pressing issue, particularly in the East African context. This article meditates on the task of archiving this displacement across boundaries of nation, gender, and discipline. I add to thinking on queer archives a notion of displacement – that is, the processes of removing from place not only people, but also concepts and records. I contend that methodological issues identified in the broader field of queer archiving are amplified in the context of displacement: archivists and their scraps of relevant data are spread across organisations, countries and languages; the institutions producing those data are variously hostile to or celebratory of queerness, but always already highly invested in it; and the need for confidentiality and consent is acute, commensurate with the risks people face. I discuss why I started collecting what I came to call the "Tenga Archive," the process I undertook and my attempt to read partial paper remnants of queer life, in light of methodological constraints and ethical quandaries. I close the chapter by bringing the Tenga Archive into conversation with previously distinct interrogations of queer Uganda, displacement, and South Africa. The narrative I offer – not unlike the records upon which it is based – is missing much historical and subjective evidence. I nevertheless hope to provisionally chart connections between Uganda, South Africa, queerness, archives and displacement, in such a way that might motivate further thinking on these topics.

Author

• Miriam Gleckman-Krut, Harvard University