The messy work of decolonial praxis: insights from a creative collaboration among queer African youth

Abstract

On the African continent, coloniality/modernity and the (un)freedom of queer peoples intersect in particular historically embedded and newly oppressive ways, making queerness a significant area for transformative struggles. This article draws from the learnings of a collaborative project, called the Qintu Collab, wherein queer African youth created an anthology of graphic stories and a set of podcasts based on their life experiences. The project aimed to link academic scholarship with art and activism through a specifically queer feminist perspective in an effort towards decolonising methodology; and to explore queer collaboration as an antidote to the coloniality of power of dominant western perspectives on queerness and the marginalisation of queer Africans, particularly in countries where same-sex sexuality is criminalised. Taking a feminist queer perspective, we explore the potential of participatory creative research as decolonial practice, to reveal the complex messy work of working together. Specifically, we address the question of when collaborations begin and how methodological decision-making takes place; assumptions about shared ideology and how ideological differences, in our case around notions of queer politics and personhood, are addressed within collaborative settings, as well as how the imagined audience shapes collaborative processes. Our learnings are pertinent for anyone undertaking participatory research collaboration as a transformative endeavour. We want to trouble the idea that participatory collaboration and creative methods are sufficient as decolonial practice. We found that early shared decision-making, (queer) insider research and creative methods were significant for raising and holding contestation and ideological difference, as well as enabling critical thinking and conscientisation. However, maintaining an open, collaborative process conducive to decolonial thinking and doing was hard, ongoing and imperfect work, as we constantly negotiated personal and structural conditions of coloniality.