Stereotyping queerness: The mythic contents of Cameroonian urban music

Abstract

The bulk of scholarly works devoted to homophobia in Cameroon’s elite media mainly focus on television, newspapers and cinema. These works also concentrate essentially on the role of Western broadcasters and the Internet in the propagation of LGBTQIA+ messages and westoxification in the country. No modicum of attention has so far been given particularly to Cameroon popular music’s representation of the local LGBTQIA+ community. Meanwhile, this form of artistic production (popular music) is not only avidly consumed in the country, but also represents a key purveyor of popular myths in the country. Given its massive reach, music is likely to play a central role in the proliferation of institutionalized homophobia in the country. This role is likely to be subtle, complex, evolving and thus worthy of scholarly attention. In view of filling the aforementioned gap in knowledge, the present paper shows how Cameroon urban music has since the early 2000s, tapped into various popular myths and idiosyncrasies to perpetuate and vulgarize LGBTQIA+ bashing in Cameroon. Hinging principally on secondary sources, critical observations and semiotics, the paper attains three principal research goals. First, it examines how mediated cultures create and perpetuate homophobic myths in Cameroon. Second, it explores LGBTQIA+ people’s agency in the Cameroon music industry and finally, it analyses ways in which homophobic myths are reflected in the country’s popular music.