COLLEGE LITERATURE: A JOURNAL OF CRITICAL LITERARY STUDIES 45.4 Fall 2018 Print ISSN 0093-3139 E-ISSN 1542-4286 © Johns Hopkins University Press and West Chester University 2018 RENEGOTIATING THE MARGINALITY OF THE MAGHREB IN QUEER AFRICAN STUDIES GIBSON NCUBE It is an almost given that queer studies in Africa have largely been concentrated in and on South Africa. Such a concentration can be explained by South Africa’s liberal constitution which has legally enshrined the rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) individuals. The liberal constitution has also made it pos- sible for open engagement on issues to do with non-conforming gender and sexual identities. Queer cultural productions such as lit- erature and flms have also largely emanated from this region of the African continent. Notwithstanding, such cultural productions por- traying queer subjectivities have certainly developed beyond South Africa. I argue that the way forward for African queer studies lies in trans-continental and inter-regional dialogue that will allow for a fuller and all-inclusive imagining and thinking through non-con- forming sexual and gender experiences in Africa. There is pressing need to address the restrictive regionalism that characterizes the studies of non-normative sexualities in Africa. Alternative geographies, spaces, temporalities, and narratives can undoubtedly be found outside the hegemony of South Africa. One particular region of Africa that profers great potentiality to the understanding of queer experiences outside of South Africa is the Maghreb. 1 In fact, virtually all of the studies published on African CLT 45.4 1st proof text.indd 623 8/16/2018 6:10:07 PM