Past Event

Join us for a compelling seminar exploring the complexities of conspiracy narratives in postcolonial Africa, focusing on themes like Freemasonry, homosexuality, and illicit enrichment. Through in-depth analysis, the session will delve into how these narratives reflect broader social, political, and cultural anxieties in contemporary African societies.

Our speaker, Rogers Orock (Lafayette College), will present fresh insights, followed by a thought-provoking discussion led by Katrin Pyper (University of Leuven) & Meredith Terreta (University of Ottawa).

Date: November 13, 2024
Time: 1:00-2:30 PM EST
Location: Online via Zoom

About the book:

In this book, anthropologists Rogers Orock and Peter Geschiere examine the moral panic over a perceived rise in homosexuality that engulfed Cameroon and Gabon beginning in the early twenty-first century. As they uncover the origins of the conspiratorial narratives that fed this obsession, they argue that the public’s fears were grounded in historically situated assumptions about the entanglement of same-sex practices, Freemasonry, and illicit enrichment.
This specific panic in postcolonial Central Africa fixated on high-ranking Masonic figures thought to lure younger men into sex in exchange for professional advancement. The authors’ thorough account shows how attacks on elites as homosexual predators corrupting the nation became a powerful outlet for mounting populist anger against the excesses and corruption of the national regimes. Unraveling these tensions, Orock and Geschiere present a genealogy of Freemasonry, taking readers from London through Paris to francophone Africa and revealing along the way how the colonial past shapes present-day anxieties linking same-sex practices to enrichment.

Register now to secure your spot!