‘Erotiques Cannibales’: A Queer Ontological Take on Desire from Urban Congo

Abstract

This article illustrates the theoretical productivity of the recent ontological turn in anthropology as a way to further ‘anthropologize’ queer studies by taking seriously erotic alterity as an ethnographic situation that unlocks possibilities for radically re-thinking desire beyond the limiting framework of ‘sexuality’. It proposes a thought experiment with the specific ways in which same-sex loving men and boys in contemporary urban Congo conceptualize desire as a self-affirming predatory force that joyfully queers the ‘normal’ world. Rather than ethnographically representing ‘their’ erotic concepts, this article tries to think through them and calls for a non-melancholic theorization of desire.