Quietly queer(ing): the normative value of<i>sutura</i>and its potential for young women in urban Senegal

Abstract Sutura (discretion, modesty) is a central element in Senegalese Wolof culture that, among other things, promotes feminine honour through chastity, silence with regard to discussing sexuality elders, and refraining from articulating same-sex desires general. Consequently, sutura seen as limiting the space for non-normative sexualities. However, lesbiennes Senegal strategically employ navigate this gender sexual normativity, whereby they queer initially heteronormative framework. This article explores how, at frontiers of international rights activism its antithetical Islamic social code, young women open new avenues thinking Africa. The women's diverse tactics turn framework into vehicle expression. These demonstrate constant yet indeterminate possibilities negotiate between normative expectations lives. They furthermore propose an alternative frontier overt resistance protest, suggest that silences prescribe are more productive queering their urban environment. By balancing simultaneous intimacies, family life, societal success, these pioneers offering routes ‘queering Africa’, Stella Nyanzi has described it.