Dissident performances of black queer & trans desire in Zimbabwe

Abstract

Desire is felt by all, yet undesired for all. Some bodies are allowed to feel and express desire while others have been written off as unqualified for it. In Zimbabwe, queer and trans people are considered undesirable in and by themselves, and their expressions of desire a crime. What then becomes of the desire that is held and perched intricately in the bodies of these undesirable bodies, especially in repressive contexts? This question forges an entry point to a conversation about black queer and trans desires and how they find expression in the form of embodied languages such as theater. Three theatre projects, namely Young Desires, Nhanho and Hweva that I facilitated in Harare, Zimbabwe are the main creative repositories from which I draw to make an argument around how black Zimbabwean queer desire finds expression in a repressive context.