Lene Bull Christiansen

“In Our Culture”—How Debates about Zimbabwe's Domestic Violence Law Became a “Culture Struggle”

This article analyses a debate about the political definition of “culture” and “tradition” in Zimbabwe, sparked by the introduction of domestic violence legislation in 2006. The debate is analysed against the back-drop of the Zimbabwean governments nationalist identity politics, rhetorically dubbed the “Third Chimurenga”, in which insiders and outsiders of the nation are depicted via a cultural and historical discourse of indigenous authenticity. The relations of gender and power which are inherent to this political discourse are analysed as functioning through the formulation of discourses of marriage, Christianity, and “tradition”, which are the contested elements in the debates. The article concludes that the nationalist discourses of the government were maintained as the discursive framework within which the debates about the legislation could take place. And while those who opposed the law saw it as an attack on patriarchal powers, the law can from an analytical point of view also be seen to transfer patriarchal authority from the private sphere to the authorities. Furthermore, the debates over the definition of Zimbabwes “culture” and “tradition” are seen as part of a contingent process of cultural and political change, which the Zimbabwean womens movement is engaged in.

Versions of violence: Zimbabwe's domestic violence law and symbolic politics of protection

This article argues that political uses of violence and discursive representations of violence are part of a political discourse of legitimacy in Zimbabwean politics, and that this discourse relies on a gendered power matrix in which acts of violence are depicted either as legitimate protection or as illegitimate aggression or terror. The analysis is based on public debates about domestic violence legislation and media representations of political uses of violence in 2006 and 2007. However, this is viewed as part of a longer history of political violence, entailing a symbolic politics of protection and political legitimacy, in which the protection of the nations women figures as metonymy for ‘the people’ in need of protection.

Celebrity-black: the meanings of race and performances of aid celebrity outside the mainstream Hollywood/UK circuit

This article studies the intersection between race, culture and celebrity in the context of Danish ‘aid celebrities’ by analysing the radicalised ‘celebrity persona’ of the Gambian-Danish A-list actress, singer, director and comedian Hella Joof. The analysis pays particular attention to her performances as Fairtrade Ambassador and as host in an annual aid telethon Danmarks Indsamling. These performances of the ‘aid celebrity’ position are read against the backdrop of the cultural constructions of race and celebrity in the Danish context, and of Joof’s own performative interpellations of these throughout her career. The article posits that a celebrity figure like Joof can be read as occupying a liminal position vis-à-vis Danish relations to ‘Africa’, which comprises a particular celebrity position: ‘celebrity-black’. The analysis shows how the cultural meanings of both celebrity and race were troubled by Joof’s performances during the telethon show, which was split between performing the figure of ‘the African woman’ and Danish ‘cultural insiderness’. The article concludes that unlike the US context where the category of ‘black celebrity’ has been analysed as connecting to a particular social group, the Danish cultural context and the cultural imaginaries around race in this context illuminate the fluency of the celebrity sign. Hella Joof is not a black celebrity, she is ‘celebrity-black’ – a cultural insider who can, via her celebrity position, simultaneously embody ‘Danishness as whiteness’ and ‘the African other’.

‘Respectable Women’ versus ‘Small Houses’: Feminist Negotiations of Sexual Morality, Marriage and the Challenge of HIV/AIDS in Zimbabwe

This article investigates the gendered cultural politics around HIV prevention in Zimbabwe through an analysis of feminist narratives of sexuality, marriage and HIV/AIDS. The analysis employs a cross-reading of three texts, including two novels: Whose Daughter, My Child? by Grace Mutandwa (2006) and The Uncertainty of Hope by Valerie Tagwira (2006), and a regular newspaper column ‘Lets Talk About AIDS’ by Beatrice Tonhodzai in the Herald. Written between 2005 and 2006, these texts reflect the social and cultural crisis of AIDS and the social and cultural politics of the Zimbabwe African National Union (Patriotic Front) – ZANU(PF) – government in power at the time. Although all three texts challenge and renegotiate cultural norms of sexuality and marriage in response to the crisis of AIDS, they do so from within a position of ‘married respectability’. This places their critiques in an ambivalent position regarding the institution of marriage and the cultural norms of respectability upholding this institution. I conclude that ‘respectably married women’ can challenge the norms of marriage only by setting themselves apart from ‘un-respectable, non-married women’ – women who are referred to using the term ‘small houses’, compared to the ‘main house’ of the married woman.

Organised Cultural Encounters: Interculturality and Transformative Practices

ABSTRACT The article introduces the special issue by presenting the concept of organised cultural encounters that are encounters organised to manage and/or transform problems perceived to originate in or include cultural differences. Inspired by Pratt’s conceptualisation of the contact zone, a critical perspective on the particular historical and spatial context of any encounter and how this context frames and mediates what takes place during an encounter is applied. While the articles of the issue present different varieties of organised cultural encounters, it is argued that they are not only of the same kind because of our analytical framework, but also because they share various features. They are scripted events tied to the particular social arena with which the encounter is associated and thus shaped in important ways by the existing norms, discourses, roles and hierarchies that govern these arenas. Furthermore, they also share the idea that the transformative potential of the encounter is inherently risky, since their potentiality is tied in with unpredictability, while risk cannot be left out because it at the same time is a precondition for transformation. The articles of the issue illustrate how script and risk come up in a different way.

Celebrity witnessing: Shifting the emotional address in narratives of development aid

This article deals with emotional address in the narrative modality of celebrity witnessing in the marketing of development aid. We analyse Danish celebrity narratives of global caring, drawing on Luc Boltanski’s work on a ‘politics of pity’, Lilie Chouliaraki’s notion of the ‘aspirational discourse’ and Sara Ahmed’s engagement with the concept of ‘orientation’. We argue that while criticising the dominant narrative modality is highly relevant, there is a risk that a too narrow focus on its reproduction can bar our view of the fact that it also enables discursive completions that can engage the spectator in alternative ways, thus creating space for alternative types of emotional engagement. The analysis demonstrates that the narrative modality of celebrity witnessing is more flexible than what is usually presumed, since it enables different completions and can be pried open for articulations of different kinds of passion.

‘Are you Married to a Maasai?’ Gendered Cultural Encounters Between Tanzanians and Danes in ‘Global Citizenship’ Training

ABSTRACT The article analyses the dynamics of ‘cultural difference’. It is based on the fieldwork among a group of Danish seniors at a three-week adult education course entitled ‘Global Citizenship’ in Tanzania with the Danish NGO Mellemfolkeligt Samvirke. The article analyses encounters between the Danes and their Tanzanian teachers. The article explores the training centre Danish, which hosted the course, as a chronotope in which ‘being Danish’ holds special meaning, and analyses how gender became a lens for depicting culture. The article concludes that normative hierarchical positionalities of gender equality vs. inequality were created in the interplay between students and teachers.

Basim Mouhajid’s (non)immigrant celebrity: flying the flag ‘as a Dane’

In March 2014 Danes were in a festive mood. The previous year Denmark had won the European Song Contest (Eurovision), and national pride was at a high as the next Danish contestant was being elected at a live event organised by the national broadcaster Danmarks Radio. The contestants included a number of popular and well-established performers; among them was the young pop idol Basim Moujahid (stage-name Basim), a favourite among bookmakers and tweens alike. As expected, the show was a big success with high ratings, audience participation through SMS voting, beautiful performances and suspense. In the end Basim won with Cliché Love Song, a sweet, easy-going and danceable pop-melody. Everything seemed perfectly aligned for another successful entry. However, the following day debate erupted on social media and in newspapers (Engmann and Nordvang 2014, Møller and Bjerge 2014). As part of his stage show, Basim had used a huge Danish flag that unfolded in the background during his performance. This caused uproar among some commentators, who saw his use of the flag as a deliberate provocation or as populist pandering. This article is an attempt at unpacking the negotiations around celebrity and nationhood that unfolded around this event.