347-1/83, 2022

347-1/83 is a performance exploring queer Cameroonian identity, which is an especially fraught identity within Cameroon’ deeply homophobic society and legal system. The costume has robes in a queered version of Toghu, Cameroon’s national cloth, using pink thread and triangles as immediate visual cues for queerness; and a headdress designed to transfer all the power and respect bestowed upon juju performers onto the queer community.

Those performers’ movements were reinterpreted by Jess Paris, dancing to music by Not Sarah which interpolates a 1908 Cameroonian flute sample with hyperpop elements as a nod to contemporary queer culture

The performance was filmed at the Belgrade Theatre, Coventry, for Black, Queer & Done, a film produced and directed by Nyasha Daley exploring the experiences and representations of Black Queer people within the UK and global arts and media sectors.