Document Type
Working Paper
Publication Date
2004
Abstract
In this essay Katherine Franke examines two contemporary cites in which state efforts to eradicate the traces of empire and to resurrect an authentic post-colonial nation have produced sexual subjects that serve as a kind of existential residue and reminder of a demonized colonial past and absence. Looking first at post-colonial Zimbabwe, Franke argues that President Mugabe's aggressively homophobic policies have played a key role in fortifying his leadership as authentically African and post-colonial.
Franke then turns to current efforts by the Mubarak government in Egypt to publically prosecute men for having sex with men. The Mubarak government has used homosexual show trials, first in security courts, and then in civilian courts, as a dry run for the reorganization of the Egyptian court system's jurisdiction over dissenters and outcasts.
Disciplines
Law | Law and Politics | Sexuality and the Law
Recommended Citation
Katherine M. Franke,
Sexual Tensions of Post-Empire,
Columbia Law School Public Law Research Paper No. 04-62
(2004).
Available at:
https://scholarship.law.columbia.edu/faculty_scholarship/1304