Since the official adoption of the Islamic legal system by the state governments in Northern Nigeria, Islamic figures in the religious public sphere have amplified their censure of homosexuality as a 'social illness' and 'depravity of depravities' incommensurable with the ethics that govern the discourse on gender and sexuality in Islam. The ubiquitous proscription of subaltern sexualities does not mean that there are no individuals who identify as Muslims and also engage in the deed of 'Masu Harka' (men who have sex with men). But who are these individuals and how do they navigate the borders of ethno-religious ethicality and their subaltern sexualities in an lslamicate society? Based on a phenomenological ethnography conducted from 2014 to 2019, this article explores the lives of Muslims who engage in the deed of 'Masu Harka' but do not subscribe to the universalization of "gay rights". The article investigates two categories of 'Masu Harka' who are trying to figure out the genesis of their same-sex attractions, where it came from, why it's there and what it 'means' on the one hand and a second category of 'Masu Harka' who have come to terms with their sexuality with the hope that their observance of other Islamic rituals will exonerate them from their assumed violation of the 'normative sexual ethical standards of Islam'. The article examines how the understanding of Islamic orthodoxy and individual interpretation of 'what it means to be a Muslim' shape how and why the two categories of 'Masu Harka' distance themselves from the affirmative globalizing notions of homosexual subjectivities, the sexual epistemology of politicized queer Muslims and the human rights project of gay rights organizations in Nigeria such as the Equality Hub, The Initiative for Equal Rights (TIERS), Queer Alliance Nigeria and the International Center for Advocacy on Rigth to Health (ICARH).

Last modified

• 09/18/2020

Creator

• Abdulbasit Kassim

DOI

• https://doi.org/10.21985/n2-rt9d-m405

Subject

• History
• Religion
• Gender studies

Keyword

• afrisem
• gender and sexuality studies

Date created

• 2020

Resource type

• Video

Rights statement

• In Copyright