Troubled times: disability, sexuality and futurity in Mozambican, Ugandan and Zimbabwean political cultures
Troubled times: disability, sexuality and futurity in Mozambican, Ugandan and Zimbabwean political cultures
Since the earliest days of European expansionism, Africa has held a dual place in the Western imaginary, cast as a space of futurelessness even as white futurities were predicated on its exploitation. Appropriations of the future have persisted post-liberation, revealed in the divestment of futurity from bodies marked as queer or disabled. Drawing on historical moments and literary texts from Mozambique, Uganda and Zimbabwe, and on insights from queer theory, critical race theory and disability studies, I seek to demonstrate that the logics of white supremacy can be seen at work in these mechanisms of exclusion, even where whiteness itself is displaced – but that literary invocation of queerness and disability can thus be used to mobilize critique of this continuity. In centring the circumscription of futurity at the heart of colonialism, heteronormativity and ableism, then, I underscore the critical value of reading these as reciprocal and inextricable systems of power.
Colonialism, Disability, Futurity, Jennifer Nansubuga Makumbi, Mozambique, NoViolet Bulawayo, Postcoloniality, Race, Sexuality, Uganda, Ungulani Ba Ka Khosa, White supremacy, Zimbabwe
21-38
Jones, Eleanor
42bcb412-95ca-4acb-b80a-2b9b471e0c7f
23 January 2020
Jones, Eleanor
42bcb412-95ca-4acb-b80a-2b9b471e0c7f
Jones, Eleanor
(2020)
Troubled times: disability, sexuality and futurity in Mozambican, Ugandan and Zimbabwean political cultures.
Forum for Modern Language Studies, 56 (1), .
(doi:10.1093/fmls/cqz054).
Abstract
Since the earliest days of European expansionism, Africa has held a dual place in the Western imaginary, cast as a space of futurelessness even as white futurities were predicated on its exploitation. Appropriations of the future have persisted post-liberation, revealed in the divestment of futurity from bodies marked as queer or disabled. Drawing on historical moments and literary texts from Mozambique, Uganda and Zimbabwe, and on insights from queer theory, critical race theory and disability studies, I seek to demonstrate that the logics of white supremacy can be seen at work in these mechanisms of exclusion, even where whiteness itself is displaced – but that literary invocation of queerness and disability can thus be used to mobilize critique of this continuity. In centring the circumscription of futurity at the heart of colonialism, heteronormativity and ableism, then, I underscore the critical value of reading these as reciprocal and inextricable systems of power.
Text
Jones Troubled Times AM
- Accepted Manuscript
More information
Accepted/In Press date: 11 November 2019
e-pub ahead of print date: 23 December 2019
Published date: 23 January 2020
Keywords:
Colonialism, Disability, Futurity, Jennifer Nansubuga Makumbi, Mozambique, NoViolet Bulawayo, Postcoloniality, Race, Sexuality, Uganda, Ungulani Ba Ka Khosa, White supremacy, Zimbabwe
Identifiers
Local EPrints ID: 435916
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/435916
ISSN: 0015-8518
PURE UUID: e67daa95-af63-468c-9ff7-dd6a9a83ed90
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Date deposited: 22 Nov 2019 17:30
Last modified: 17 Mar 2024 05:03
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