“Construction sites”: exploring queer identity and sexuality at the intersections of religion and culture in Zambia.
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2016
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Abstract
The purpose of this study was to examine how Queer Christians construct their identities and
sexualities within the social contexts of religion and culture.
Framed within a qualitative and critical research paradigm, this study sought to interrogate the
agency of gay Christians‘ formulation of their identities and sexualities and the role of religion
and culture in the construction process. Data was produced from primary sources which utilized
focus group discussions, individual interviews and observation of Queer Christians, focusing
primarily on gay Christians, in urban Lusaka, Zambia. Findings show that religion and culture,
acting independently or together, do inform how the study participants ―self-construct‖ their
identities and sexualities. The participants constructed their identities and sexualities amidst
ambiguities of regarding the Bible as infallible whilst holding biblical hermeneutics as fallible;
belonging and not belonging within Zambian churches, and upholding personal piety over
belonging to the institutional Church. To show the influence of global culture in the construction
of gay identities and sexualities, participants identified with Christianity‘s motif of creation of
humanity in God‘s image and not African Traditional Religions‘ aligning gay identities with the
inhabitation of ancestral spirits. In the construction process, silence and discretion are evident,
while ambiguities of constructing identities in masculine and feminine rites of passage were
highlighted. In relation to gender and sexual roles, the study showed elements of homopatriarchy
exhibited through physical violence among some sexual partners, as well as
ambiguities of identifying as male, female and woman.
This study makes four major arguments, first, that participants are agents in their ―selfconstruction‖
of identities and sexualities. Second, the gender binary model is restrictive in
understanding gay identities and sexualities. Third, the ―coming-out‖ model is not suitable for
study participants due to personal choice, security reasons and the veiled nature of sexuality
discourses. Fourth, the concept of masculinities does not fully capture varieties of identities and
sexualities among gay Christians in Zambia.
Description
Doctor of Philosophy in Religion. University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg 2016.