LGBQ+ in Ghana

Abstract

This article offers an original analysis of the sociocultural and political situation of same-sex (LGB) and queer (Q) people in Ghana, especially in the context of political repression. There is a lack of literature on Ghana’s LGBQ politics in various edited collections on African sexualities, so this article fills the gap from anthropological and sociological perspectives, emphasising the cultural-sociolinguistic nuances of gender and sex as well as the politics of same-sex and the contradictions in them. Drawing on personal biographies and media reports of power dynamics in local and (post)colonial frames of reference to LGBQ rights, I argue that regardless of the cultural and moral antics in local politics that bedevil the LGBQ community, LGBQ rights cannot achieve any enduring success if discourse continues to be spearheaded by the West since the devil is in the details. Therefore, the need to reconsider the role of the West in local discourse about LGBQ rights and to promote narratives that highlight indigenous cultural and character strengths (e.g., neighbourliness, love, work ethic, hard work, philanthropy, and honesty) in celebrating diversity and individual expression has never been more imperative. This could be a critical mass to revolutionise Ghanaian queerness and related West African homophobic and xenophobic behaviour. At the same time, the queer and LGB communities should be sensitive to the cultural milieu in which they operate and rethink ways of organising because culture and the moral community can be agentic depending upon knowledge pathways and continued resistance may lead to backlash.