Sub-Saharan Africa is a region that has intensified anti-NCGS (non-conforming genders and sexualities) public campaigns over the past decade. Laws or bills in over 30 African countries criminalize or attempt to criminalize NCGS identities and same-sex intimacies. New, proposed legislations recommend punishment for academics, non-governmental organizations, and even family members who fail to report NCGSs to local enforcement authorities.
In the ACACIA Project, we study how NCGSs interact at the everyday street level with local authorities and security actors. The project focuses on urban neighbourhoods in three African countries because many NCGS persons migrate to cities after rejection by families.
The project has three phases: listening – synthesis – telling onward. For the (1) listening phase we interview – in three African cities – NCGS persons, local government officials and traditional authorities (chiefs), police officers, local security guards, and LGBTQI+-related NGOs staff members. In the (2) synthesis phase we identify not only best practices and obstacles to peaceful co-existence, but also the main patterns of cause-and-effect and new areas of interest. We are identifying actions, outreach and collaborations that will be needed from all of these groups in order to contribute to a future peaceful coexistence between local authorities and non-conforming genders and sexualities, their neighbours, and vigilante groups.
In the (3) telling onward phase, we will engage in dialogues with our partners both inside and outside Africa by inviting guest researchers to visit the Ä¢¹½Ö±²¥, sending monthly newsletters to partners, disseminating our findings on selected social medial sites, hosting webinar workshops, and holding a final conference on our topic that includes a discussion forum about knowledge sharing. Our long-term aim is that this knowledge sharing will create partnerships to achieve social justice, and not leave anyone behind in the quest to achieve the SDGs and Africa’s Agenda 2063.
So far, we have seen that local security practices surrounding NCGSs can be thought of as an intricately connected web with multiple players and motives influencing the lived experiences of NCGSs at street level. If the project's goals are realized, NCGS members, allies and champions will strengthen key institutions in Sub-Saharan Africa violence and inequality will be reduced. This will build well-being in socio-economic communities in Sub-Saharan Africa.
Seuraa hanketta:
(@acacia_project_jyu)
(ACACIA Project)
(Acacia Project)
Ota yhteyttä: acacia-project@jyu.fi
