Shackling (im)morality: religious tropes, religious figures and marginalizing politics in queer Nigerian creative texts

Abstract

Building on existing scholarship and debates on queer cultural production in Nigeria, and the complex representation of religious themes as they intersect with queerness, this article analyzes the novel Walking with Shadows, and the film Hell or High Water. Through this analysis, the article argues that while religious ideologies and figures continue to hinder queer agency and visibility, the religious landscape continues to be contested by queer characters. In these texts, religious figures contribute to queerphobia as they act as gatekeepers regarding what acceptable sexual orientation and gender identity are. They also inhibit queer-livability. At the same time, queer-identifying characters attempt to deconstruct religion by cultivating enabling spaces, strengthening their agency, and in asserting their identities. While these forms of advocacy might not yet have yielded immediate impact, questioning the place of religion in Nigerian queer narratives contributes to the voices that contest the criminalization of queerness in the country.

Keywords:

• Religion
• queer
• films
• fiction
• Nigeria
• identity politics

Acknowledgments

This article has enjoyed feedback from participants at the 6th Annual Lagos Studies Association (LSA) Conference 2022 held in the University of Lagos, Nigeria. It also benefitted immensely from the critical inputs of the reviewers and the editor of JALA.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Paul Ayodele Onanuga

Paul Ayodele Onanuga is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of English and Literary Studies, Federal University Oye-Ekiti, Nigeria and a fellow of the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, Germany, the African Humanities Programme/American Council of Learned Societies, and the Iso Lomso fellowship of the Stellenbosch University Institute of Advanced Studies (STIAS), South Africa. His research interests revolve around linguistic practices in New Media Studies, queer sexualities on digital media, Nigerian Hip-Hop Studies, and Computer Mediated Communication/Discourse Analysis. He has been guest-editor with Contemporary Music Review, and is currently co-guest-editing a volume of Green Letters. His articles have been published in Discourse Context and the Media (where he is also a member of the editorial board), Journal of African Cultural Studies, Language Matters, Journal of Literary Studies, Journal of Musical Arts in Africa, Muziki, Communicatio, Quarterly Review of Film and Video, Digital Scholarship in Humanities, The African Symposium, Papers in English Linguistics, JBAAC, etc.