van Klinken, AS (2014) Homosexuality, politics and Pentecostal nationalism in Zambia. Studies in World Christianity, 20 (3). 259 - 281. ISSN 1354-9901
Abstract
Building upon debates about the politics of nationalism and sexuality in post-colonial Africa, this article highlights the role of religion in shaping nationalist ideologies that seek to regulate homosexuality. It specifically focuses on Pentecostal Christianity in Zambia, where the constitutional declaration of Zambia as a Christian nation has given rise to a form of ‘Pentecostal nationalism’ in which homosexuality is considered to be a threat to the purity of the nation and is associated with the Devil. The article offers an analysis of recent Zambian public debates about homosexuality, focusing on the ways in which the ‘Christian nation’ argument is deployed, primarily in a discourse of anti-homonationalism, but also by a few recent dissident voices. The latter prevent Zambia, and Christianity, from accruing a monolithic depiction as homophobic. Showing that the Zambian case presents a mobilisation against homosexuality that is profoundly shaped by the local configuration in which Christianity defines national identity – and in which Pentecostal-Christian moral concerns and theo-political imaginations shape public debates and politics – the article nuances arguments that explain African controversies regarding homosexuality in terms of exported American culture wars, proposing an alternative reading of these controversies as emerging from conflicting visions of modernity in Africa.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | (c) 2014, Edinburgh University Press. This is an author produced version of a paper published in Studies in World Christianity. Uploaded in accordance with the publisher's self-archiving policy |
Keywords: | homosexuality; Pentecostalism; Christianity; nationalism; politics; public religion; Zambia; Africa |
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 Humanities (Leeds) > School of Theology & Religious Studies (Leeds) |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Publications |
Date Deposited: | 09 Jan 2015 11:22 |
Last Modified: | 21 Apr 2015 00:55 |
Published Version: | http://dx.doi.org/10.3366/swc.2014.0095 |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | Edinburgh University Press |
Identification Number: | 10.3366/swc.2014.0095 |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:81954 |