Queering Creole Spiritual Traditions: Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Participation in African-Inspired Traditions in the Americas.

Queering Creole Spiritual Traditions Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Participation in African-Inspired Traditions in the Americas.

Randy P. Conner, with David Hatfield Sparks New York: Harrington Press, 2004. 390 pp. $59.95 cloth, $29.95 paper.

As the title indicates, this book is a study of queer practitioners of African-derived spiritual traditions. Relying on both personal experiences with members of these religious communities as well as information gathered from surveys and interviews, the authors conduct a thorough investigation into the participation of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgendered/transexual (LGBT) persons in Vodou, Lucumi/Santeria, Candomble, and other spiritual practices inspired by Yoruba religion and philosophy. Rather than look at a few of these religious communities and all of their members, Conner, as the primary author, has highlighted certain persons based on their sexual identities, affiliations, and behaviors. That Conner isolates a particular set of identities, namely gender and sexual identities, from their larger religious communities and contexts is perhaps questionable. Conner himself notes, "In part because of the necessity of assuming multiple identities, roles, and tasks, a number of practitioners I interviewed seemed surprised, indeed others seemed perturbed, that I had chosen to foreground lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender identities or subjectivities in this text" (p. 309). Throughout the text, Conner addresses this discomfort as a function of internalized homophobia and fear of being "outed," of not wanting to be categorized in Western definitions of gender and sexuality, and of a prioritization of identities where one's sexual identity is of lesser personal importance than one's religious identity in pursuing a spiritual practice. Nevertheless, Conner underscores the queerness of queer practitioners in order to discuss the impact that gender and sexual identifications have on the roles people are encouraged to play and the positions they are allowed to attain within their religious communities. Conner casts a wide net, trying to capture as many individual experiences as possible.

There are several tensions maintained throughout the text, which reflect the tensions that exist in the religious communities where LGBT people practice. Some practitioners and religious leaders argue that gender and sexual identities are a nonissue, while others note that queer people, especially gay men and male-to-female transsexuals, cannot occupy some religious positions that require a certain "manliness" for their fulfillment. For instance, LGBT practitioners "are generally not permitted to play bata, to join Palo or Abakua households, or to become babalawos" because of their perceived effeminacy (p. 153). Straight women also encounter some of these same prohibitions. While most communities seem to welcome LGBT practitioners, others close their doors to queer people, arguing that queer identities are colonized identities and that homosexuals did not exist in Yoruba culture (pp. 26-30). Those attempting to "purify" their religious practice by eradicating Catholic elements and all other perceived Western cultural influences wish to return to a precolonial and therefore "authentic" spirituality where queers have no place. Ironically, many artists and writers who figure prominently in the book (Conner devotes a whole chapter to artists and art-making) have turned to the same precolonial practices to justify their queerness as rooted in African traditions and social structures. These tensions remain unresolved in the text as they are in life. Conner quotes Dr. Kola Abimbola, who states, "To the best of my knowledge, Ifa, the holy scriptures of Orisa Religion, is silent on precisely those sexual orientations that some people find offensive. If there are no Ifa poems that deal with these issues directly, all we can do is to extrapolate and offer interpretations" (p. 139). Unfortunately for readers, Conner does not offer his own interpretations, having chosen to "keep theorizing to a minimum" (p. 7). As a result, readers are encouraged to draw their own conclusions or, perhaps, to reach no conclusions but to respect the complexity and burden of maintaining multiple and sometimes contradictory identities. In refraining from theorization, Conner allows the text to fragment and forces the reader to experience the same confusion and negotiation of cultural and religious inconsistencies that LGBT practitioners confront on a daily basis in expressing their spiritual selves.

Conner's explanations, which include overviews of the spirits and deities encountered in Vodou and Yoruba-diasporic traditions and a glossary of religious/ritual terms, make this text accessible to those who are little acquainted with the religious practices under discussion. Furthermore, this is a good introductory text for those who have not considered or are interested in sexual and gender complexity among practitioners as well as among the orishas/lwa themselves. While remaining easy to read, Conner packs a lot of information into his book, surveying current literature in the field while developing his own project.