4 days ago
African queer erotica unleashed
June is international LGBTQ+ Pride Month, a time to celebrate and recognise the contributions of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer individuals in the world. To honour these celebrations, we asked Tiffany Kagure Mugo who, along with Siphumeze Khundayi, masterminded Kivuli & Nuru: The Afrodisiacs Collection. These albums, available on digital platforms, feature African erotic stories that delve into the world of desire. They're celebration of LGBTQ+ intimacies in the readers' own words and voices brought to you by HOLAAfrica, a pan-Africanist digital platform that focuses on sex and sexuality on the continent.
Mugo and Khundayi are sex-positive practitioners who've taken their work around the world and onto global Ted Talk stages. Says Mugo, 'The albums are explorations into the different ways we love and lust in both covert and open ways. The Afrodisiacs Collection takes you on an audio journey through tales of immortality, coming home, gyrating in night clubs, or tempting daytime trysts in the middle of an afternoon.' They feature the words of artists like Mercy Thokozane Minah, writers such as Mia Arderne, prize-winning author Jarred Thompson, international authors like Nigerian Kobby Ben Ben, and a cameo from Mpho Tutu van Furth, daughter of the late Desmond Tutu.
In Shadow, we find stories of longing, hidden desires and sometimes sensual despair. As the shadow half of the project, Kivuli deals with the 'dark' side of desire.
Nuru is the light. This album is on the 'bright' side, exploring the sweet side of life — a crush , a fantasy fulfilled, a dream or something deliciously nasty. We asked Mugo about the albums.
You've described Kivuli & Nuru as an exploration of the shadow and light of African desire. What do these metaphors mean to you? How have they shaped the curation of the stories?
To paraphrase philosophers, we all have a little 'nasty' in us. Most people expose parts of their desire, keeping other parts hidden. There are reasons we hide things; shame, fear of societal judgment or the fact that they aren't anyone's business. Though desire seeps into everything humans do, it's shunned, vilified and relegated to the shadows. It takes a scandal or a special type of person to bring desire into the light. African desire has, historically, been policed and in the shadows, something suppressed and shameful.
Despite this, the theme of 'shadow' and 'light' came about organically. For Kivuli & Nuru, the exploration of the tension in the work shaped itself. The themes, stories and experiences people shared fell into the two categories. When requesting stories, I simply said 'give me stories and make them sexy'. The contributors did the rest. The theme came about after the stories were chosen and we realised we had enough for two albums.
How did the process of sourcing the stories from cities like Lagos, Nairobi and Cairo help reflect the diversity of queer African intimacy? What were the common threads or surprising differences that emerged?
I'm a sucker for pan-Africanism and the diversity of the continent. The networks for finding the stories were already in place as HOLAAfrica! We've spent years asking people to think about their intimacies, fantasies, triumphs and misadventures, so sourcing stories was relatively simple. We wanted people to speak their realities in (literally) their own voices. The stories, though focused on the voices of queer people, are narratives experienced everywhere — between lovers and friends, a tryst in a club or when trying to decide whether to make a move on a neighbour. The human exploration of desire cuts across sexualities, contexts and countries. But you also realise how unique each person's experience is: each has their own flavour.
The Afrodisiacs Collection invites listeners into a space that's both sensual and political. How does storytelling — especially audio erotica — become a form of resistance or reclamation for queer Africans?
Stories about African bodies have been twisted into seeming animalistic and devious. From ideas of black women as baby-making machines during slavery to the modern-day 'Mandingo' (a word is used as a pejorative to describe a hypersexual black man), the idea of black love and intimacy is shrouded in myth, misconceptions and malice. With queer bodies that goes double. The constant questioning of what queer people do in the bedroom is funny at best, deeply disturbing at worst. A lot of the work that HOLAAfrica! does is to educate people about how to have healthy, holistic experiences and to create spaces in which queer people can actively speak about their experiences.
After your work on Touch: Sex, Sexuality & Sensuality, how does T he Afrodisiacs Collection expand the conversation around African sensuality?
I used the audiobook format to reach people who aren't keen to pick up a book, but who'd delve into voiced stories. This offering was a lot more about getting people out of their heads and into their bodies. Touch was a collection of essays: when you say the word 'essay' things get serious, fast. The idea of read stories adds a magical sprinkle to the pot of ideas and understanding.
You've worked in sex positivity across many African countries. What has this journey taught you about the nuances of LGBTQ+ expression in private vs public spaces on the continent?
Doing this work across contexts and countries (and sexualities) showed that queer and straight people are in the same streets, looking for the same things. Some are looking for long-term love, some are looking for a hook-up on Saturday night; we're all trying to figure it out. The work has shown me that desire is a tricky thing, no matter what country you're in or who you choose to sleep with. The human experience of desire is universal.
The public spaces, where there's the politicisation of intimacies, are more acute. Different entities weaponise ideas around queer love and intimacy for various agendas.
