Editorial introduction

Abstract

This current issue of Critical African Studies consists of three individual submissions – on perceptions of homosexuality within colonial histories; on everyday conceptions of the Ethiopian state; and on labour in Kenya, followed by a short special section, entitled ‘Local Perspectives on African Tourism’, consisting of three articles, situated in South Africa, Zimbabwe and Zanzibar, respectively. The issue starts with an article by Haley McEwen that argues for the relevance of examining histories of western population control in order to understand contemporary forms of intolerance towards lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex and queer (LGBTIQ+) people across the continent. The article examines rumours and suspicions that homosexuality is a form of population control and relates these discourses to the increasing influence of the US pro-family movement in African sexual politics. The author situates these rumours within an account of continuing geopolitical power inequalities and a social imaginary of how the West continues to exert control through sexualized technologies of manipulation. In his article on ideas of the state in Northern Ethiopia, Daniel Mulugeta unpacks the language, including idioms and metaphors, that people use to talk about ‘mengist’, that is, the state or government. Through an ethnographic study of public and everyday discourses, he shows that conceptions of the state are shaped by cultural and particularly religious ideals. Mulugeta argues that citizens’ moral understandings of power and authority, goodness and legitimacy, help to explain the ways in which they make sense of both the provision and the corruption of the Ethiopian state in their everyday lives. Catherine Dolan and Claire Gorden’s article sets out a critical and historical perspective on the entrepreneurial discourse that has infused debate on contemporary African capitalism. They do this by examining the ideological, discursive and material practices that have been used to shape the idea of the African ‘economic man’ over time. They locate the transformations of this labouring subject in Kenya within the changing political and economic strategies of governments and international development institutions filled with idioms of growth and development. The entrepreneurial and productive ‘economic man’ is linked to particular moral valuations of Kenya’s citizens that is deeply entwined with the idea of an African habitus that is an obstacle to economic growth. In contrast, the efficient and enterprising labourer has represented a set of ideas about the future of the nation. Thus, over time, concepts of enterprise and entrepreneurialism have been central not only to economic agendas of creating a productive cadre of economic men but also to strategies of nation building. The short special section on tourism in Africa explores some of the emerging, challenging and often problematic continental and international issues related to tourist activities and different conceptions of tourism in Africa, from fresh empirical, theoretical and analytical perspectives. Very often these relationships reveal neo-colonial power imbalances and widening schisms in global relations. Stereotypical western views of travel and tourism in Africa inevitably evoke visions of sunset safaris, endless white beaches, exotic animals and perhaps also bustling and chaotic urban centres. However, the concept could be applied in a multitude of ways, challenging