Arrested Solidarity: Obstacles to Intermovement Support for LGBT Rights in Malawi

Abstract

Arrested Solidarity:Obstacles to Intermovement Support for LGBT Rights in Malawi Ashley Currier (bio) Gender and sexual diversity organizing is on the rise throughout Africa. Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) activist organizations contest social, political, and religious opprobrium toward homosexuality and gender nonconformity in different African nations (Epprecht 2013), including but not limited to Cameroon (Awondo 2010), Kenya (Dearham 2013), Namibia (Currier 2012), Nigeria (Obadare 2013), South Africa (Currier 2012), and Uganda (Ssebaggala 2011). LGBT activist organizations in some African nations operate independently of other minority rights movements. As political homophobia intensifies in some countries, LGBT activist organizations may depend more on solidarity partnerships with sympathizers. Partnerships can provide LGBT activist organizations with financial assistance, moral support, and contacts for additional supporters. Although some feminist theorists extol solidarity partnerships as having the potential to actualize social justice goals (Mohanty 2003), in reality, solidarity partnerships between activist organizations can be messy and unpredictable (Hodžić 2014). LGBT rights defenders in countries like Malawi might need allies, but potential partners may be unable to extend this support for different reasons. Despite the apparent political symmetry between HIV/AIDS, human rights, LGBT, and feminist movements, activists’ concerns do not align so neatly, making Malawi an excellent case study for analyzing the fragile process that produces intermovement solidarity. In this essay, I outline obstacles that interrupt or block intermovement solidarity for LGBT rights in Malawi to demonstrate how activists work to craft solidarity and how they understand obstructions to solidarity [End Page 146] for LGBT rights. Understanding solidarity as a process is especially important as observers around the world propose ways to halt political homophobia. Cultural and political antipathy toward gender and sexual dissidence in different African countries renders isolated organizations that defend LGBT rights vulnerable to criticism and persecution (Currier 2012). In response, organizations that defend LGBT rights may forge solidarity partnerships with friendly, local social movements and transnational NGOs that pressure social, political, and religious actors to respect gender and sexual dissidents and LGBT rights. Although organizations may concurrently cultivate horizontal solidarity partnerships with local social movements and vertical solidarity partnerships with foreign donors and transnational NGOs, these partnerships yield different outcomes for LGBT rights organizations. Local social movements may not be able to offer the financial assistance foreign donors and transnational NGOs can, but they can lend nonmaterial support and mobilize their activist networks to advance LGBT rights. Activists’ personal prejudices can also generate obstacles for organizations’ support for LGBT rights. Foreign donors and transnational NGOs may expect their investments in organizations that defend LGBT rights to achieve certain outcomes, such as measurable progress on LGBT rights. The collaborative solidarity on which Malawian LGBT rights defenders depend is not guaranteed. In this essay, I explore the contours of LGBT rights solidarity in Malawi, a country in which political homophobia coalesced in 2010 when the government prosecuted Tiwonge Chimbalanga, a transgender woman, and Steven Monjeza, a cisgender man, for violating antisodomy statutes (Somanje 2009). Since 2010, homophobia has saturated national politics. In this environment, some HIV/AIDS, human rights, and feminist activists limited the support they expressed publicly for LGBT rights. To understand obstacles to intermovement solidarity for LGBT rights, I first discuss the codification of heteronormativity in the transition from British colonial rule to postcolonial sovereignty and the emergence of political homophobia in Malawi. The recent deployment of political homophobia generated high costs for HIV/AIDS, human rights, and feminist activists who were pondering whether, when, and how to show their support for LGBT rights. Then, I draw on thirty-six interviews I conducted in June and July 2012 in Blantyre and Lilongwe, Malawi, with Malawian [End Page 147] HIV/AIDS, human rights, LGBT rights, and feminist activists. Solidarity for LGBT rights in Malawi was not automatic. Some activists calculated whether they could be seen promulgating LGBT rights and defending same-sex sexualities in contemporary Malawi. Using these interviews, I describe barriers to activist solidarity for LGBT rights in Malawi to complicate assumptions about how solidarity between movements unfolds. Examining LGBT rights solidarity in Malawi offers feminist and queer scholars important lessons in movement building around LGBT rights and the local obstacles complicating burgeoning solidarity concerning these rights. Prior research...