Accounting for Paradoxical Emptiness in Contentious Intersections : 'Colonial Blackmail,' Token Causation and Sexuality in Africa

Studies of sexualities and politics that use intersectionality as a framework for analysis widely assume that visible and invisible characteristics of categorical variables intersect as such to explain social outcomes. Empirically, however, categories intersect but not always as such as in the discourse over the colonial origin of homosexuality in Africa. That is, while colonialism and homosexuality may intersect as distinctive discursive categories in what I call, “colonial blackmail,” to oppose the gay rights movement in Africa, the outcome of their intersection is etymological fallacy because it is empty. This emptiness, I argue, is paradoxical and counterintuitive in at least two ways. First the outcome empty is paradoxical because it unintentionally and necessarily defeats the purpose of the strategic use of colonial blackmail as the baseline for wholesale resistance against domestic queer activism in Africa. Second this outcome is counterintuitive because it does not sufficiently suggest that homophobia alone is what hides behind this emptiness. In contentious politics, categories hailed at intersection do not always tell the story of themselves or of their opposites. Using set theory logic, qualitative and matrix analysis methods I analyze aspects of necessity and sufficiency sustaining the colonial blackmail intersecting with gay rights activism in Cameroon. Making sense of contentious politics in paradoxical intersection highlights cognitive and strategic priorities for activists and methodological challenges for scholars interested in the study of sexuality and politics