Ethnography Talks: 'NGOization' of Ghanaian (anti)LGBT activism

Considering the intensification of political homophobia from 2019 until 2024, this talk discusses how Ghanaian activists compete in transnational networks to influence local political and legal dynamics regarding LGBT* rights at home through the United Nations of Geneva. They ‘NGOize’ their movements, replicating discursive and corporeal codes legible to their ‘Western’ funders.

Kwaku Adomako from the University of Lausanne calls this ‘serving’ NGO ‘realness,’ borrowing from the queer Ballroom Scene, popularized beyond New York by the 1990 documentary Paris is Burning and RuPaul’s Drag Race decades later. Conversely, these networks help reinforce colonial legacies that position economically wealthy ‘Western’ countries previously as purveyors of ‘civilization,’ and now of ‘development’ and ‘human rights.’

All events in this series are free, public and hybrid.

Zoom Link: https://unisg.zoom.us/j/65590848325?pwd=xywPxl0Ovv7WHLLrwamsgKs8DljZEe.1

ID: 655 9084 8325 / Passcode: etalks

The series is organised by the Critical Ethnography Collective at the School of Humanities and Social Sciences at HSG.