Lecture
Public Anthropology Seminar
- Basile Ndjio, Jasmijn Rana, Naomi van Stapele & Francio Guadeloupe
- Date
- Tuesday 4 November 2025
- Time
- Address
-
FSW building
Wassenaarseweg 52
2333 AK Leiden - Room
- SA49
Garçons manqués and femmes fortes: Two ambivalent figures of butch lesbianism in women’s football in Cameroon
In collaboration with the antropology department as part of the Public Anthropology seminar series, we invite Basile Ndjio, Jasmijn Rana, and Naomi van Stapele for a broad discussion on their work in anthropology at the intersection of gender, sports, sexuality, and diversity. The seminar will provide ample space for open discussion, allowing the audience to ask questions and share responses.
Basile presents his research, which highlights the ambivalence of the Cameroonian government’s queer politics regarding sports, particularly football. It demonstrates that “butch” or masculine lesbians, viewed as a threat to the dominant hetero-patriarchy, are often categorized as "tomboys" and dangerous "sexual predators," whereas those who contribute to the government's success in international football competitions are lauded as femmes fortes or strong women. This indicates that Cameroonian officials strategically combines heteronationalism and homonationalism to foster national pride.
The short presentation will be followed by an intervention of our discussants Jasmijn Rana based on her research into gender, sports diversity, and emancipation and Naomi van Stapele’s activist-scholarly informed work on gender and sports in Kenya and the Netherlands.