Most efforts to promote gender equity in sub-Saharan Africa have been rooted in a Western heteronormative framework inherited from colonialism that aims at ‘balancing’ gender rather than deconstructing it. Dismantling this entrenched, though exogenous, binary is a daunting task, especially since, over time, it has become widely accepted as ‘authentically’ African, while the more radical initiatives of African trans* activists are seen as foreign. African trans* activism is theoretically sophisticated, deeply committed, and highly skilled, but its impact has been confined largely to an ‘Afropolitan’ elite. Based on interviews with leading trans* activists, this paper examines some of the key challenges to deconstructing the imported binary at grassroots levels. It looks at how linguistic and cultural particularities affect trans* activism in Africa and proposes new strategies, using lived cultures as a basis, that will be more appropriate and effective in a postcolonial context in which both indigenous and exogenous elements legitimately interact.

中文翻译：

---

非洲跨性别激进主义的本土性和“真实性”

大多数在撒哈拉以南非洲促进性别平等的努力都植根于从殖民主义继承的西方异性恋框架，该框架旨在“平衡”性别而不是解构它。拆除这种根深蒂固但外生的二元性是一项艰巨的任务，尤其是因为随着时间的推移，它已被广泛接受为“真正的”非洲人，而非洲跨性别活动家的更激进的倡议被视为外来者。非洲的跨性别激进主义在理论上是成熟的、坚定的、技术精湛的，但其影响主要局限于“非裔”精英。基于对领先的跨*活动家的采访，本文研究了在基层解构进口二进制文件的一些关键挑战。