This lecture will discuss the representation of spaces that enable and/or stifle queer desire in the film Dakan (1997) by Mohamed Camara. This discussion showcases heterosexual familial and social structures that push queer characters to reinvent spaces in which they can freely experience love and pleasure. Nwachukwu will argue that the visual and sonic elements of the film reflect competing desires of the lead characters’ families for heterosexuality and the desires for queer freedom of the lead characters. The talk will mainly engage with queer African studies theory to interpret these spaces of desire and intervene in current scholarship about the film to highlight the ability of African queerness to change its environments and confront social conventions.

Cristovão Nwachukwu is an Assistant Professor of Africana and Latin American Studies at Colgate University. He obtained his B.A. in Portuguese and English language and literatures in 2017 from the Federal University of Bahia in Brazil. He received his Ph.D. in English from the University of Florida in 2024. His research analyzes the representations of Black African immigrants in contemporary African novels that take place in the U.S. and Europe and the impacts of racialization, trauma, and geographical alienation in African family units. His writings on Black diasporic literatures and cultures have appeared in the journals English in Africa, the Journal of the African Literature Association, African Studies Quarterly, and the Routledge volume Multidisciplinary Representations of Home and Homeland in Diaspora.

In addition to the Brown Bag, we will screen Dakan on Monday, February 9th at 5 pm in the Center for Women's Studies. This will be catered. 

Our Brown Bag series repeats every Tuesday at 11:30 am. These talks are catered, free, and open to all.