Room S7, Maison de la paix, Geneva
In 2021, numerous watershed moments amplified a growing sense of anti-LGBT* sentiment in Ghana. The NGO LGBT+ Rights Ghana’s Office was forcibly shut down by police; 21 lesbian bisexual queer and intersex women and trans advocates were arrested during a workshop on human rights; and Parliament introduced a bill that punishes LGBT*-related identities, cultural productions, and solidarities. The bill was written mainly by the opposition party of the present government. Some consequently suggest ulterior motives behind its introduction. In theory, its assent into law would cast the present administration in a negative light in the eyes of wealthy pro-LGBT* governments and institutions that provide significant aid to Ghana. Its rejection, however, would make the government appear compromised in the eyes of Ghanaian voters and weaken the party’s prospects in the upcoming election.
The opposition may therefore be playing on the vulnerabilities of what Kóczé & Rövid would refer to as ‘double discourse’ (2017) where political elites mobilize different ‘faces’ or discourses in different political arenas. As the author's field research demonstrates, political elites may appear lukewarm or pro-LGBT at the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva, while propagating anti-LGBT animus at home. Kwaku Adomako has investigated the political economy of decorum in Ghana and asks what rational calculations and tacit conventions render some utterances unspeakable in one setting, and obligatory in others. He further explores the material consequences of this calculus.
Kwaku Adomako is completing his PhD at the Université of Lausanne under the co-supervision of Prof. Sébastien Chauvin at the Centre en études genre and Dr. Claire Somerville of the Gender Centre at the Geneva Graduate Institute. His work focuses on the internationalization of debates surrounding sexual and gender diversity, and how Ghanaian pro and anti-LGBT* interest groups compete to produce, influence and even transform local meanings attached to LGBT* social categories.
The Gender Centre has developed this series of research seminars in order to offer a platform for exchange for students, doctoral students in particular, and researchers whose work includes a gender perspective. During this monthly series, researchers have the opportunity to discuss their work, meet peers from different disciplines at the Graduate Institute, as well as interact with other students, guest speakers and faculty members.
See the programme of this semester's Gender Seminar Series here.
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