Defiant desire in Namibia: Female sexual–gender transgression and the making of political being

ABSTRACT In this article, I explore local productions of desire in Namibia by focusing on the engagement of young, working‐class lesbians with human rights ideologies of sexual freedom. I discuss how various techniques deployed by a sexual minority‐rights NGO allow youth to amplify and legitimize their embodied sense of sexual–gender difference. In my analysis of their self‐mediated incitement, I regard desire as a moral practice; practices of self‐determination and acts of resistance are generated and authenticated through repeated reflection on the internality of desire. My elaborations also emphasize class‐related issues. I argue that struggles with class and gender inequality destabilize the very notion of “sexual identity” in ways that open up political and erotic possibilities between lesbians and other working‐class women in Namibia, blurring the dividing lines of identity politics and of gender and class politics. [ lesbian resistance, African sexuality, moral practice, desire, global queer identity, human rights ]