Dr Van Klinken in BBC Radio 4 programme 'Out in Africa'

Dr Adriaan van Klinken, Associate Professor of Religion and African Studies, recently contributed to a BBC Radio 4 programme about homosexuality and religion in Africa.

Dr Adriaan van Klinken, Associate Professor of Religion and African Studies at the University of Leeds, recently contributed to a BBC Radio 4 programme entitled 'Out in Africa'. In this programme, presenter Charles Adesina explores dynamics of homophobia and the experiences of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people in Africa.

Particular attention is paid to the role of religion in relation to issues of homosexuality in Africa. Among other people, Adesina meets with British-Nigerian gay pastor Jide Macaulay from House of Rainbow Ministries, Rev Mpho Tutu-van Furth, daughter of South African Archbishop Desmond Tutu and herself an Anglican priest who recently married a woman, the openly gay Imam Muhsin Hendricks from Cape Town’s People’s Mosque, and with a group of courageous South African grandmothers who have taken it upon themselves to learn what it means to be lesbian or gay, and defend their LGBT grandchildren from family hostility.

In the programme, Dr van Klinken provides an expert commentary on the historical and socio-cultural backgrounds of anti-homosexuality politics in contemporary Africa, as well as on the complex role of religion. Dr van Klinken is a leading scholar in the field of religion, sexuality and LGBT rights in Africa, and in 2016 he published two edited book volumes on this topic, Public Religion and the Politics of Homosexuality in Africa and Christianity and Controversies over Homosexuality in Contemporary Africa.

The programme 'Out in Africa' was broadcast on 20 December 2016, and is available online through this link.