Queer Fragmentation as Method: Nairobi’s Example

Abstract

The everyday life of queer individuals, their experiences and scopes are lived in relation to the various fragments that structure sociability. Queer lives are first and foremost fragmented and fragmentary in their everyday survival practices and tactics. If we understand fragmentation and its various components as part and parcel of the everyday — that the vicissitudes of the transient and liminal everyday come to us as fragments, what then does this mean for a sexual politics that is predicated on or relies upon this fragmentation? I propose in this article, that queer individuals need to negotiate deftly and creatively ways in which they exploit these everyday practices. As a result, therefore, the various strategies that result and their attendant metaphors required for their survival becomes crucial. In this paper I propose a matrix of ‘fragmentation’ of the ‘everyday practices’ of queer individuals in Nairobi. Specifically, I tease out the various fragments that cohere within the everyday rubric in lives and experiences of these sexually marginalised groups through a set of specific fragmented installations within the city. To this end, I contend that these fragmented installations shape a particular narrative around notions of becoming and being queer in everyday Nairobi.