Constituting the global gay: issues of individual subjectivity and sexuality in Southern Africa

Paper argues that colonial law brought with it a discourse of morality which was very significant in the construction of individual subjects (in possession of a 'sexuality'). Contemporary definitions of criminal liability, social responsibility, and human rights are all actively engaged in the promotion of these notions of individual subjectivity. These all develop in a tense relationship to conceptions of power and agency where individual desires and subjectivities are subordinate to lineage and the economics of the family. This paper focuses on the development of individualised (as opposed to more 'communal') subjectivities, and trace their connection to the increasing significance of sexuality in the formation of identity in southern Africa.