Lives in Motion: Theorising Mobility in Contemporary Queer African Cinema

Abstract

ABSTRACT This paper discusses two fictional films — Inxeba (The Wound) (2017) and Rafiki (2018) — as forms of queer representation within the nascent field of queer African cinema. My analysis situates the films within discourses of globalisation with a specific interest on how theories of mobility in the contemporary global imaginary manifest themselves in African queer cinema. I argue that the two productions demonstrate possibilities of queer mobility in efforts to create space for the queer in African heteronormative societies. Through the metaphorical implications of various forms of mobility represented in the two films, the producers manifest means of attaining queer agency by interrogating notions of static and monolithic traditional African cultures, which have been multiply disrupted by modernity and cultural exchanges. These two films carry positive queer themes through either celebrating queerness or exposing the vulnerability of African queer lives in order to solicit empathy and highlight the impact of marginalisation, while exploring prospects for queer futurity.