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Title
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Critical Fabulation for Survival: Knowledge of Pre-colonial Gender in Igbo Culture to Sustain Queer Imaginings of Care
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Description
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Through legislation and social code, modern-day Nigeria has become a hostile and dangerous country for queer people. As a queer person of the Nigerian diaspora, I struggle to hold both my “queer” and “Nigerian” identities because they seem contradictory. In this paper, I detail my journey reckoning with these two seemingly dissonant parts of my identity. In my endeavor to find communal belonging in Nigeria and its diaspora, I turn to the archive of pre-colonial Nigeria to discover if the nation of my ancestry was always hostile towards queer people. In particular, I try to uncover the violence British colonialism introduced to Nigeria. In this paper, I draw on the work of Saidiya Hartman to contextualize and guide my research and archivally-driven quest for belonging. As I have matured into myself, I have grappled with the intersections of my Nigerian-American and queer identities. Recently, I learned how Saidiya Hartman's "critical fabulation," a method for being attuned to and coping with archival gaps, can be a tool for survival when multiple realities conflict (Hartman, 2008). I practice critical fabulation in my venture to grapple with my “contradicting” identities by researching and drawing on the history of gender in Nigeria to imagine a more inclusive nation. Further, in this essay, I co-opt W. E. B. Du Bois’ framework of double consciousness to describe the internal conflict I feel regarding the friction between my Nigerian heritage and my queer identity because of the violence modern-day Nigeria inflicts upon queer people (Du Bois, 2007). Throughout this auto-ethnography, I discuss my double consciousness that stems from the intersectional oppressive structures in my life, such as patriarchy, transphobia, and homophobia. Additionally, in this paper, I demonstrate how the act of critical fabulation allows me to reconnect with myself and my (pre-colonial) Nigerian heritage to imagine and create spaces where queer Nigerians and I can belong (Hartman, 2008, p. 11).
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Date Created
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2023
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PID
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grinnell:34246
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Title
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Eating Graphic History: Japanese American Pioneers of the California Food Revolution
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Description
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Today, Americans are more aware than ever of their food choices—where the food comes from, its locality, how it was produced, and its health quotient. But back in the 1970s, local food movements were largely nonexistent. It was the Japanese Americans living in California who began advocating for local, organic farming—and despite systemic racism, were able to make America better.
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Date Created
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2019
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PID
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grinnell:26669
