Drag in Africa
As a point of departure, drag queens typically perform in front of audiences doing lip syncs or other comedy skits.
Besides putting on a show with makeup, wigs, and other feminine items, drag is an art form that attempts to challenge the traditional gender binary that separates men and women.
[1] In addition to challenging the traditional understanding of gender, scholars also note that drag enables queer men to step outside the confines of heteronormativity.
[4] African mothers and motherhood influenced gender within their own families, but also the community at large, which solidified their rights in the domestic sphere and beyond.
These men, as documented among the Langi in modern-day Uganda, dressed and acted in a way that modern societies may label as "drag" or "transgender.
[7] There is no record of same-sex relationships and fluid gender expressions being punished under oral law, but they were also not encouraged,[5] creating a passive tolerance of queerness, but didn't persecute it either.
These written laws were more rigid and pose long term effects that shapes society's attitudes towards different social identities.
[7] Colonial rule, along with the laws imposed during that time, proved to be consequential for the shifting the gender dynamics between men and women along with the overall understanding associated with both.
[4] Within Bantu speaking languages, in order to consider someone anatomically a "female", that individual was achieve certain things, like having a first child, becoming a grandmother, or completing important ceremonies.
In particular on the East African coast and within Swahili speaking societies, there are "mashogas", which are considered the English equivalent of a drag queen.
[8] Furthermore, mashogas would play the pembe, which is considered a woman's instrument, perform women's dances, and despite still being biologically "men" they would permeate spaces that were segregated on the basis of gender and sex.
The connection between gay rights and the West is encouraged by American evangelical groups that have increased their funding of anti-gay churches in Africa.
The laws and the increasing social hostility place drag queens in danger as pastors associate their gender performance with oppressive colonial culture.
[5] Politically, African leaders justify the anti-gay policies to international human rights activists by blaming the gay community for HIV transmission, which has swept through Africa.
[5] Because of South Africa's colonial history and its former structures of apartheid, many of its contemporary drag artists features themes of race and gender in their performances.
She often goes to majority-black areas to allow black audiences to laugh at their oppressors, as the act of drag neutralizes the racist, blundering, and offensive nature of Evita.
The queerness of the performance creates an air of confusion and catches people off guard, so Evita can successfully penetrate deep racial issues with humor and ease.
Belinda Qaqamba Ka-Fassie intertwines her cathartic pageantry with her Xhosa identity, wearing cultural garments traditionally worn by one gender.
Her drag is a protest of the homophobia and racism that permeate South Africa society, as well as the lack of understanding and language to describe queerness in Xhosa communities.
Sharika Mabika, a transgender refugee from Zimbabwe, uses drag to describe her disappointment with the oppression she faces in South Arica and the inaction by the government to address her community's needs.
Many of these artists distinguish their drag from Western conceptions because their experiences in townships inherently ties their performances to their identities as impoverished, black South Africans.
When the artist, whose name off-stage is Nea Marshall Kudi Ngwa, returns to his home country, he does not perform or advertise his drag persona, "go[ing] very incognito," to avoid "dangerous or unfortunate" situations.
Zambia continues to operate from the rigid colonial laws that criminalized homosexuality and allowed for the intolerance of LGBTQ+ people to flourish.
[7] This has contributed to the modern day intolerance that subjects queer individuals to hate crimes, severe discrimination, and overall marginalization.
Especially in countries like Malawi, Mali, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo that have increasing disputes over land, a family's property is traditionally passed to the eldest son.
However, because these performances are done within an existing, accepted culture, the women are not seen as prominent threats to social structure like other drag kings.
