Inxeba: Making Black Queer Space in "traditional" South Africa.

• In Event: "The Ecologies of Black Queer Worldmaking."

Description for Program

The film Inxeba has caused much controversy across South Africa with its depiction of same-sex sexuality between and among initiates and caregivers in a traditional circumcision ceremony. In this paper, I examine how the film depicts Black queer men making space for themselves in a rural area, in a traditional cultural and ritual practice that challenges attempts to define queerness as un-African. In the process, they remake both notions of tradition, and notions of what kinds of Black queerness are both visible and viable under a post-apartheid framework

Author

• Xavier Livermon, UC Santa Cruz