Citizenship of Love: The Politics, Ethics and Aesthetics of Sexual Citizenship in a Kenyan Gay Music Video

ABSTRACT

Against the background of the current politicisation of homosexuality and the policing of sexual citizenship in Kenya and other African countries, this article offers an analysis of the Kenyan gay music video Same Love, released by the band Art Attack in 2016. Employing the concept of acts of citizenship, the article foregrounds the political, ethical and aesthetical aspects through which the lyrics and images of Same Love perform an act of sexual citizenship mediated through art. It argues that as an artistic intervention, the video interrogates popular narratives of homosexuality as un-Kenyan, un-African and un-Christian and creates a sense of a citizenship that is yet to come: a pan-African, Christian and queer citizenship of love. Thus, the article explores the new possibilities of cultural, sexual and religious citizenship created through popular culture and public space in contemporary Africa.

KEYWORDS:

• Sexual citizenship
• Christianity
• Kenya
• homosexuality
• gay rights
• music video

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1. Gitari here adds the I of intersex and the Q of queer to the LGBT acronym.

2. It is noteworthy here that anti-homosexuality laws in Africa in most countries were introduced during the colonial period.