• Project

    In January 2010, the bishops of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Tanzania (ELCT) published the so-called Dodoma Declaration, in which they strictly opposed the blessing and marriage of homosexual couples, declaring them incompatible with biblical teaching and incompatible with Tanzanian/African values and traditions. The Dodoma Declaration caused great unrest in the Lutheran World Federation, although a schism was avoided. Similar discussions have also occurred in other African mainline churches over the past twenty years. Public discussions about homosexuality have only been taking place in African churches, as well as in politics, for about 25 years, since the 1990s. The discourse has intensified since its first appearance in Tanzania, both in tone and in the actual persecution of sexual minorities. Politicians and church leaders can base their positions on the support of the population: According to a 2007 survey by the Pew Research Center, 95 % of all Tanzanians reject homosexuality. In the positions of the ELCT, one motif appears again repeatedly: Homosexuality is rejected as part of a "Western" modernity perceived as immoral and brought into contrast with indigenous Tanzanian-African traditions . Church leaders of other denominations and religions in Tanzania, as well as politicians of all parties, also use this line of argument. Typically, they claim that homosexuality is "un-African" and "un-Tanzanian".

    The aim of the planned dissertation is to identify and analyze these discourses around homosexuality in ELCT on their different levels, with their different motives and with regard to their different contexts, and thus to explain the occurrence and hegemonic enforcement of one or more of these discourses. This project is highly relevant because this discourse is part of a global conflict in which queer lifestyles are increasingly politicized and political discussions on LGBTQ* rights are religionized. It is important to also consider the historical (post-)colonial context. In the case of Tanzania, it was initially the German colonial rule that installed the criminalization of same-sex relationships.

    For the investigation, the different levels of the discourse will be analyzed from the inside to the outside: One after another, the internal level of the ELCT and its patterns of justification, the interconfessional, the interreligious, the national-political, and finally the international-ecumenical level will be examined. Furthermore, with some 'vertical cuts' into the discourses, the historical (missionary) context will be analyzed. As an analytical tool, the Sociological Discourse Analysis (WDA) according to Reiner Keller (as a "theory-methodology-methods-package") was chosen.

    Methodically, various statements of the ELCT on the topic of 'ho-mosexuality', as well as various statements of bishops and pastors in the form of sermons, lectures, video messages, etc. are examined. Furthermore, interviews with key persons from the ELCT, especially bishops, members of the church leadership, pastors and other persons of interest, will be conducted and analyzed. For the analysis of the historical context, the results of research in the archives of the Berlin Mission, the Leipzig Mission and the United Evangelical Mission as well as from church archives in Tanzania itself will be used.

    Bibliography

    Awondo, Patrick; Geschiere, Peter; Reid, Graeme (2012): Homophobic Africa? Toward A More Nuanced View. In Afr. stud. rev. 55 (3), pp. 145–168. DOI: 10.1017/S0002020600007241.

    Bosia, Michael J.; Weiss, Meredith L. (2013): Political Homophobia in Comparative Perspective. In Meredith Leigh Weiss, Michael J. Bosia (Eds.): Global homophobia. States, movements, and the politics of oppression. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, pp. 1–29.

    Currier, Ashley; Cruz, Joëlle M. (2020): The politics of pre-emption: mobilisation against LGBT rights in Liberia. In: Social Movement Studies 19 (1), S. 82–96. DOI: 10.1080/14742837.2017.1319265.

    Dreier, Sarah K. (2018): Resisting Rights to Renounce Imperialism: East African Churches’ Strategic Symbolic Resistance to LGBTQ Inclusion. In International Studies Quarterly 62 (2), pp. 423–436. DOI: 10.1093/isq/sqy012.

    Ellis, Stephen; ter Haar, Gerrie (1998): Religion and politics in Sub-Saharan Africa. In: The Journal of Modern African Studies 36 (2), S. 175–201.

    Epprecht, Marc (2009): Sexuality, Africa, History. In: American Historical Review, S. 1258–1272.

    Keller, Reiner (2011): Wissenssoziologische Diskursanalyse. Grundlegung eines Forschungspro-gramms. 3. Aufl. Wiesbaden: Springer Fachmedien (Interdisziplinäre Diskursforschung).

    Rao, Rahul (2020): Out of Time. The Queer Politics of Postcoloniality: Oxford University Press.

    van Klinken, Adriaan; Chitando, Ezra (Hg.) (2016): Public Religion and the Politics of Homosexuality in Africa. s.l.: Taylor and Francis (Religion in Modern Africa).

    van Klinken, Adriaan (2015): Christianity and Same-Sex Relationships in Africa. In Elias Kifon Bongmba (Ed.): Routledge Companion to Christianity in Africa: Routledge, 487-501 [1-15].

  • Career

    November 2021-November 2022 Member of the Commission for Equality and Diversity in the Cluster of Excellence "Religion and Politics" as representative of the doctoral students
    June-August 2021 and October 2021 - January 2022 Field research in Tanzania, funded by a DAAD scholarship
    since March 2020 Member of the working group "Gender" of the German Association for the Study of Religions
    November 2019-November 2020 Member of the Board of the Cluster of Excellence "Religion and Politics" as representative of the doctoral students
    since October 2019 Research assistant at the Cluster of Excellence "Religion and Politics" at the University of Münster
    since October 2019 Doctoral studies at the Graduate School of the Cluster of Excellence "Religion and Politics" at the University of Münster
    March-November 2019 Research assistant / consultant in the area of "Flight, Migration, Integration", Institute for Church and Society, Villigst
    October 2015-June 2018 M.A. Political Science, Freie Universität Berlin
    January 2013-March 2018 Scholarship Ev. Studienwerk Villigst & Studienstiftung des Deutschen Volkes
    October 2012-September 2015 B.A. Political Science, University of Passau

  • Publications

    Weber, Charlotte. 2021. „Das diskursive Erbe deutscher protestantischer Missionare in Debatten um Homosexualität in der Lutherischen Kirche Tansanias: „Volksgewissen“ oder „Teufelssittlichkeit“?“ Revue d’Allemagne et des pays de langue allemande 53, Nr. 2: 485–501. doi: 10.4000/allemagne.2879.
     

    Vorträge

    · Weber, Charlotte (2022): ‘Performing Moral Authority - The Tanzanian Lutheran Church as a Political Actor in Discourses on Homosexuality’. European Conference on Politics and Gender (European Consortium for Political Research - Standing Group on Gender and Politics), University of Ljubljana, 07.07.2022.

    · Weber, Charlotte (2022): ‘"These days, we should send our missionaries to Europe" - Tanzanian Lutheran Counter Narratives to Homonationalism’. 11th European Feminist Research Conference (ATGENDER – The European Association for Gender Research, Education and Documentation), University of Milano-Bicocca, 17.06.2022.

    · Weber, Charlotte (2021): ‘Stuck in the Middle - Relationality in the Lutheran Tanzanian Position on Homosexuality’. XXXIV. Jahrestagung der Deutschen Vereinigung für Religionswissenschaft. Panel '(Post)Secular Africa?', Leipzig (Digital), 14.09.2021.

    · Weber, Charlotte (2021): „10 Jahre Dodoma-Erklärung: Religion, Gender und Nation in Diskursen um Homosexualität in der Lutherischen Kirche von Tansania“. (Ge)Schlechte(r) Religionswissenschaft!? Multidisziplinäre Ansätze einer kritischen Genderforschung zu Religion. Gründungstagung des Arbeitskreises Gender und Religion (DVRW) (AK Gender der DVRW), Ruhr-Universität Bochum, 01.03.2021.