Inventing Family: Colonial Knowledge Politics of "Family" and the Coloniality of "Pro-family" Activism in Africa

Abstract

Abstract:To make sense of contemporary efforts of the US conservative "pro-family" movement to advance anti-LGBTIQ+ and antifeminist agendas in Africa, this article takes a decolonial approach to the notion of the nuclear family. Beginning with the colonial history of the gender binary and hierarchy, it first discusses how the notion of the nuclear family ideal became fused with notions of race, racial hierarchy, and civilization. Its second half discusses the rise of the international pro-family movement and the colonial ideology that the movement reproduces, focusing on campaigns and networks in Africa. It identifies and examines three key elements of pro-family ideology that demonstrate the ways in which the movement reproduces colonial power relations: efforts to define, universalize, and politicize a particular conception of the family. Analysis concludes that these components of pro-family advocacy reveal that the movement's opposition to inclusive sex- and gender-based rights for LGBTIQ+ individuals reinforces Western epistemic power and authority over families and recapitulates colonial-era power relations between Global Norths and Souths.