A review by gerhard
Queer Africa: Selected stories by Alistair Mackay, Karen Martin, Makhosazana Xaba

4.0

With homosexuality outlawed in 34 out of 55 African countries, an anthology such as this one plays an incredibly important role in giving a voice to the voiceless. What I particularly liked about the diverse stories collected here is that they are not strident, grandstanding, or interested in making sweeping political statements. Many are quite oblique, and focus on the quotidian details that make up lived gay experience in Africa. The people represented here live and breathe, love and act in anger and out of fear. They dream and hope, and also often just give up. Any gay person in Africa reading this will recognise a facet of their own lives here. This makes the book a powerful revolutionary statement in and of itself.