Kabaka, An African LGBTQI focused literary magazine, seeks your submissions

Kabaka, An African LGBTQI focused literary magazine, seeks your submissions.

Literature which focuses on the queer aspect of Africa life has slowly being making its mark in the African literary scene. The first encounter this blogger had with this was the wonderful 2005 novel Walking With Shadows by Jude Dibia where a man outted by a colleague is the main protagonist. We loved that one book. Then there are publications like Queer Africa which was awarded a Lambda Literary Award for best LGBT anthology in 2014, its 2017 sequel Queer Africa 2 as well as the Kevin Mwachiro edited Invisible (which we also loved).

Very recently, Romeo Oriogun won the Brunel International African Poetry Prize this year for “His poetry is wide ranging but at its heart are deeply passionate, shocking, imaginative, complex and ultimately beautiful explorations of masculinity, sexuality and desire in a country that does not recognise LGBT rights.” Winning the prize was good for him but it became very tricky for the man as being queer in Nigeria isn’t just frowned upon. It’s actually illegal.

There is a new kid on the queer (in East Africa we love using the term gayism) block and its name is Kabaka Magazine. The name Kabaka goes back to that famous leader Kabaka Mwanga who was well known to not completely hate those on the fringes. We assume that this was why his name was picked but I can be wrong and am happy to be corrected.

Kabaka is a literary magazine published quarterly aimed at publishing work in the form of poetry, fiction, visual arts, photography, videos, non-fiction: interviews, reviews, memoir pieces and essays. It hopes to be home for LGBTQI voices in Africa interrogating what it means to be queer and African. You can live either on the continent or in the diaspora (even Rongai).

Update: The deadline for this callout has passed.