Overview

Based on in-depth interviews with over twenty inspirational Kenyan and Ugandan Christian and Muslim leaders actively involved in struggles for LGBTIQ rights, this open access book shows how religious leaders in East African countries can be agents of progressive social change. Through a community-based approach of life-story methodology, a team of field-leading scholars and practitioners from Kenya and the UK draws out crucial, critical insights into the personal, theological and social sacrifices and challenges that these religious leaders face in everyday realities dominated by conservative religious interpretations and theologies. In so doing, they also identify common strategies religious leaders develop to respond to these challenges while keeping true to their mission. The ebook editions of this book are available open access under a CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 licence on bloomsburycollections.com

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9781350415997

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For decades Africans have been fed a steady stream of loud, poisonous and alienating anti-LGBTIQ rhetoric from dogmatic religious leaders. This rare gem of a book gifts readers with the hitherto-muted voices of 24 religious leaders from E. Africa who have taken a strikingly different path from the mainstream; evoking empathy, love and compassion. To crown it all, they speak with dignity, intelligence and a calmness that is so refreshing and authentic. A must read. * Professor Sylvia Tamale, Ugandan Decolonial feminist Scholar *

For decades Africans have been fed a steady stream of loud, poisonous and alienating anti-LGBTIQ rhetoric from dogmatic religious leaders. This rare gem of a book gifts readers with the hitherto-muted voices of 24 religious leaders from E. Africa who have taken a strikingly different path from the mainstream; evoking empathy, love and compassion. To crown it all, they speak with dignity, intelligence and a calmness that is so refreshing and authentic. A must read. * Professor Sylvia Tamale, Ugandan Decolonial feminist Scholar * These 24 testimonies from East Africa surprise and delight. LGBTQI Christians, Muslims and allies counter exclusion and prejudice with narratives of resilience and hope. They offer compassionate insights into scriptural stories and the lives of faith they share. Collectively, the stories show an undercurrent in religious affiliation in East Africa that challenges dominant narratives. * Emma Wild-Wood, University of Edinburgh, UK *

Author Information

David Kuria Mbote is a community activist and a leader of the Kenyan gender and sexual minority rights movement. Barbara Bompani is Reader in Africa and International Development at the Centre of African Studies, University of Edinburgh, UK. She is co-editor of Christian Citizens and the Moral Regeneration of the African State (2017). Adriaan van Klinken is Professor of Religion and African Studies at the University of Leeds, UK. He is the author of Kenyan, Christian, Queer: Religion, LGBT Activism and Arts of Resistance in Africa (2019). Damaris Parsitau is a scholar of religion and a former Director of the British Institute for Eastern Africa in Nairobi, Kenya. She currently serves as President of the African Association for the Study of Religions.

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