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Amnesty International. 2023. The State of the World's Human Rights: The World's Governments and Armed Groups Are Flouting International Law and Getting Away with It. London: Amnesty International.
Asante, Godfried. 2022. “Queer African Studies.” Oxford Research Encyclopedia of African History, November 22. https://doi.org/10.1093/acrefore/9780190228613.013.1201.
Awondo, Patrick, Peter Geschiere, and Graeme Reid. 2012. “Homophobic Africa? Toward a Queer Anthropology of African Sexualities.” African Studies Review 55, no. 2: 145–64.
Epprecht, Marc. 2008. Unspoken Facts: A History of Homosexualities in Africa. Harare: Amani Trust.
Epprecht, Marc. 2013. Heterosexual Africa? The History of an Idea from the Age of Exploration to the Age of AIDS. Athens, OH: Ohio University Press.
Ford Foundation. 2020. “Queer African History Must Be Told and Documented, Ft Selly Thiam #FutureIsHers.” YouTube, April 3. Video, 35 sec. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ycDzDIojXr0.
Geschiere, Peter. 2017. “A ‘Vortex of Identities’: Freemasonry, Witchcraft, and Postcolonial Homophobia.” African Studies Review 60, no. 2: 7–35.
Herskovits, Melville J. 1967. Dahomey, an Ancient West African Kingdom: Volume 1. Reprint. Evanston, IL: Northwestern University Press.
Hoad, Neville. 2007. African Intimacies: Race, Homosexuality, Discourses of Kinship. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.
Human Rights Watch. 2023. “World Report: LGBT Rights in Africa.” Human Rights Watch. www.hrw.org.
Kendall, K. Limakatso. 1998. “Mpho ’M’atsepo Nthunya and the Meaning of Sex.” Women’s Studies Quarterly 26, no. 3/4: 220–24. http://www.jstor.org/stable/40003288.
Kollman, Kelly, and Matthew Waites. 2009. “The Global Politics of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Human Rights: An Introduction.” Contemporary Politics 15, no. 1: 1–17.
Krige, Eileen Jensen. 1974. “Woman-Marriage, with Special Reference to the Louedu—Its Significance for the Definition of Marriage.” Africa 44, no. 1: 11–37. https://doi.org/10.2307/1158564.
Lewis, K. A., L. Jadwin-Cakmak, J. Walimbwa, et al. 2023. “’You'll be chased away’: Sources, experiences, and effects of violence and stigma among gay and bisexual men in Kenya.” International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health 20, no. 4: 2825. https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/20/4/2825.
Macharia, Keguro. 2009. “Queering African Studies. Review of African Intimacies: Race, Homosexuality, and Globalization by Neville Hoad.” Criticism 51, no. 1: 157–64.
Macharia, Keguro. 2018. “Africa: Queer: Anthropology.” The New Inquiry, July 28. https://thenewinquiry.com/blog/africa-queer-anthropology/.
Matebeni, Zethu, and Ana Pereira, eds. 2014. Reclaiming Afrikan: Queer Perspectives. Athlone, South Africa: Modjaji Books.
Migraine-George, Thérèse. 2013. African Women and Visual Arts: Textures of Resistance, Textures of Change. Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing.
Morgan, Ruth, and Saskia Wieringa, eds. 2005. Tommy Boys, Lesbian Men and Ancestral Wives: Female Same-Sex Practices in Africa. Johannesburg: Jacana Media.
Msibi, Thabo. 2013. “Queer Methods and Methodologies: Interrogating Research Paradigms in the Social Sciences and Humanities.” KZNSJP 34, no. 1: 255–65.
Mugo, Francisca Wanjiru. 2021. “Digital Safe Spaces: How Online Platforms Support African LGBTQ+ Individuals.” Journal of African Cultural Studies 33, no. 2: 198–210.
Murray, Stephen O. 2010. “Rudolf Pell Gaudio, Allah Made Us: Sexual Outlaws in an Islamic African City. New York: Wiley-Blackwell, 2009. Pp. xvi, 257.” Language in Society 39, no. 5: 696–99. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0047404510000680.
Murray, Stephen O., and Will Roscoe, eds. 1998. Boy-Wives and Female Husbands: Studies in African Homosexualities. New York: State University of New York Press.
Nyeck, S. N., ed. 2019. Routledge Handbook of Queer African Studies. New York: Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781351141963.
Stonewall. 2020. Global LGBT Rights Report. London: Stonewall. https://www.stonewall.org.uk/resources/research-reports.
Tamale, Sylvia, ed. 2011. African Sexualities: A Reader. Cape Town: Pambazuka Press.
Tamale, Sylvia. 2011. “Queer Politics in Africa: Our Love is an Emergency.” Feminist Africa, no. 15: 9–22.
THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK
Hall, Stuart. 1980. “Encoding/Decoding.” In Culture, Media, Language, edited by Stuart Hall, Dorothy Hobson, Andrew Lowe, and Paul Willis, 128–38. London: Hutchinson.
Hall, Stuart. 1997. Representation: Cultural Representations and Signifying Practices. London: Sage.
CROSS-MEDIA ANALYSIS
African Arguments. 2019. “Rafiki: Kenya's banned LGBT love story thriving on the big screen and the internet.” African Arguments, May 31. https://africanarguments.org/2019/05/rafiki-kenya-banned-lgbt-love-story-thriving-big-screen-internet/.
Alisha. 2024. African Cinema: Queer Economies Rise. Hamburg: Tredition Gmbh.
Baddie Going Places (@stellanjogo). 2018. “The biggest takeaway from the unfolding #RafikiFilm story is the importance of representation in the arts. I could see people freak it about seeing their local kiosk on screen. When you see your reality represented, it instills a pride in your truth. #influence.” X (formerly Twitter), September 25. https://x.com/stellanjogo/status/1044512500463665152?referrer=grok-com.
Carolin, Andy. 2020. Post-Apartheid Same-Sex Sexualities: Restless Identities in Literary and Visual Culture. London: Routledge.
Gregory, Nina. 2017. “She Calls Her Movies ‘Afro Bubble Gum Art’.” NPR, April 29. https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2017/04/29/526031278/she-calls-her-movies-afro-bubble-gum-art.
Green-Simms, Lindsey B. 2022. Queer African Cinemas. Durham: Duke University Press.
Guest Artists Space Foundation. 2025. “Event: Residency Open Studio.” Guest Artists Space Foundation. https://guestartistsspace.com/News/event-residency-open-studio.
Hunter, Allan. 2018. “Rafiki: Cannes Review.” Screen Daily, May 9. https://www.screendaily.com/reviews/rafiki-cannes-review/5129067.article.
JM (@Tata_YaBana). 2018. “I'm old school, I find the fanfare about the #RafikiFilm a necessary distraction. The only dildos I've ever come across are used in family planning clinics, used as a demo for condom wearing. If women choose to use mathenge tree to satisfy their sexual urge. So be it.” X (formerly Twitter), September 25. https://x.com/Tata_YaBana/status/1044544390671343616?referrer=grok-com.
Kahiu, Wanuri, dir. 2018. Rafiki. San Francisco, CA: Film Movement.
Kahiu, Wanuri. 2018. “Why Queer Kenyan Love Story ‘Rafiki’ Was Banned in Its Home Country.” Interview by Kevin Wong. Vice, April 26. https://www.vice.com/en/article/8xbkgk/wanuri-kahiu-interview-rafiki.
Kahiu, Wanuri. 2019. “Meet the director of the Kenyan lesbian romance who sued the government who banned it.” Interview by Cath Clarke. The Guardian, April 12. https://www.theguardian.com/film/2019/apr/12/kenyan-director-wanuri-kahiu-rafiki-lesbianism-african-art.
Kahiu, Wanuri. n.d. “Wanuri Kahiu.” Accessed December 2, 2025. www.wanurikahiu.com.
LEHA Kenya (@LEHAKenya). 2021. “We Are Africans, We Are Queer And We Are Here!!! #lehakanya #queer #queerafricans #wearehere.” X (formerly Twitter), February 10. https://x.com/LEHAKenya/status/1359519277636857866?referrer=grok-com.
Motadi, monD (@monD_Motadi). 2025. “So when someone says ‘queer is un-African’— Remind them: Queer is African. Queer was African. Queer will always be African. We didn't import queerness. We exported erasure. #QueerAfrica #DecolonizeGender #LGBTQ.” X (formerly Twitter), May 15. https://x.com/monD_Motadi/status/1923083311179604159?referrer=grok-com.
Ncube, Gibson. 2022. Queer Bodies in African Films. Makhanda, South Africa: NISC (Pty) Ltd.
Nelson, Nengi. n.d. “Alternate Identity-Girl.” Accessed December 2, 2025. https://www.nenginelson.com/alternateidentity-girl.
Ngengi Magana (@ngengimagana). 2018. “Reflect upon your life and the word of God He made Adam and Eve not Eve and Jill or Adam and Steve stop imposing western values on our children.... Oh I pity this last generation @rafikifilm #KFCBWinOverRafiki.” X (formerly Twitter), September 29. https://x.com/ngengimagana/status/1046031383314018306?referrer=grok-com.
Wango Frank (@Wango_frank14). 2018. “It’s art, it’s a movie, whatever you pick from it is your problem...if they don’t like it, don’t watch it. yes lesbianism is not right gayness is not right, so is sleeping with someone’s wife #KCFCBbansLesbianFilm.” X (formerly Twitter), April 28. https://x.com/wango_frank14/status/990147258640318464?s=12&t=STnhv_UEXXInDRiBKXVm2Q.
Zeitz MOCAA. n.d. “Wanuri Kahiu.” Accessed December 1, 2025. https://zeitzmocaa.museum/artists/wanuri-kahiu/?v=0b3b97fa6688.
Anne Ndinda Mbuti (@annembuti). 2018. “#RafikiFilm #Rafiki #Rafikifilm promoting LGBT is evil and one day everyone will give account of their actions.” X (formerly Twitter), September 25. https://x.com/annembuti/status/1044501449248526339?referrer=grok-com.