van Klinken, A orcid.org/0000-0003-2011-5537 and Otu, KE (2017) Ancestors, embodiment and sexual desire : Wild religion and the body in the story of a South African lesbian sangoma. Body and Religion, 1 (1). pp. 70-87. ISSN 2057-5823
Abstract
This article explores the intersections of religion, embodiment and queer sexuality in the autobiographic account of a South African self-identifying 'lesbian sangoma', on the basis of the book Black Bull, Ancestors and Me: My Life as a Lesbian Sangoma, by Nkunzi Zandile Nkabinde. The article offers an intertextual reading of this primary text, first vis-à-vis David Chidester's Wild Religion: Tracking the Sacred in South Africa, and second, vis-à-vis some black lesbian feminist writings, specifically by Audre Lorde, M. Jacqui Alexander, and Gloria Wekker. This intertextual reading foregrounds the embodied and in fact queer nature of the wild forces of indigenous religion in contemporary South Africa, and it illuminates how embodied and erotic experience is grounded in the domain of the sacred. Hence the article concludes by arguing for a decolonising and post-secular move in the field of African queer studies, underlining the need to take the sacred seriously as a site of queer subjectivity.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © 2017, Equinox Publishing. This is an author produced version of a paper published in Body and Religion. Uploaded in accordance with the publisher's self-archiving policy. |
Keywords: | indigenous religion; sangoma; South Africa; embodiment; sexuality; queer studies |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of Leeds |
Academic Units: | The University of Leeds > Faculty of Arts, Humanities and Cultures (Leeds) > School of Philosophy, Religion and History of Science (Leeds) > Theology and Religious Studies (Leeds) |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Publications |
Date Deposited: | 28 Apr 2017 16:24 |
Last Modified: | 01 Sep 2019 00:38 |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | Equinox Publications |
Identification Number: | 10.1558/bar.33129 |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:115702 |