The sexual politics of empire : postcolonial homophobia in Haiti /

A debut nonfiction book explores the effects of imperialism on Haiti's sexual landscape. A rash of homophobic violence erupted following the debilitating 2010 earthquake in Haiti. This tragic aftereffect was a result of accusations from some of the country's evangelicals that God was punishing Haiti for the behavior of its queer community. After the earthquake, evangelical churches in the United States poured millions of dollars of aid into the nation while a much smaller stream of support arrived from American LGBTQ+ organizations. These latter resources helped transform Haiti's sexual identity politics, creating an aspirational LGBTQ+ social movement in the country, complete with advocacy organizations, artists, and activists. Since then, both evangelical and LGBTQ+ communities have gained greater influence in the country, leading some Haitian commentators to variously assert that either gay sexuality or homophobia are foreign imports. With this work, Durban analyzes the extent to which the "homosexual/heterosexual" framing is indeed an import from Europe and the United States as well as the imperialist discourses regarding Haiti that make the country ripe for foreign intervention. The author is a deliberative and incisive writer, adeptly weaving history and politics together with the many layered traditions of Vodou and the concept of the zonbi (a spirit of the recently dead). Durban writes of a queer Haitian artist, the founder of a theater troupe, who performed a zonbi-inspired piece at the 2009 Ghetto Biennale in Port-au-Prince: "He, like others who had grown up in evangelical Christian households, was particularly zealous when it came to the subject of Vodou, which he considered to be a radical space of belonging that was distinctly Haitian. Vodou, moreover, informed his queer, anti-imperialist politics." While too academic for a general audience, the book is more than a primer on the status of LGBTQ+ issues in Haiti. It's a captivating work of cultural history, offering a window into how the nation is perceived by foreign powers as well as how it perceives itself. An inventive and astute dissection of Haiti's evolving notions of sexual identity. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.