#AfricanAunties: performing diasporic digital disbelongings on TikTok

Bimbola Akinbola

doi:10.1080/10462937.2022.2044071

#AfricanAunties: performing diasporic digital disbelongings on TikTok

Bimbola Akinbola^*

^*Corresponding author for this work

Performance Studies

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

Abstract

The “African aunties” hashtag has over 21 million views on the video-sharing app TikTok. Akinbola examines how African women and girls embody and perform the African auntie on TikTok, focusing on three types of videos: Deprecating auntie performances, celebratory auntie performances, and re-staged encounters with aunties. Specifically analyzing videos created by and/or featuring African women and girls, Akinbola argues that these content creators practice “digital disbelonging” by embracing the personal and cultural importance of their African aunties, while explicitly rejecting the forms of gendered surveillance, discipline and shame that shape their day to day lives.

Original language	English (US)
Pages (from-to)	284-297
Number of pages	14
Journal	Text and Performance Quarterly
Volume	42
Issue number	3
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1080/10462937.2022.2044071
State	Published - 2022

Keywords

African aunties
Disbelonging
TikTok
digital performance
kinship

ASJC Scopus subject areas

Communication
Visual Arts and Performing Arts
Literature and Literary Theory

Access to Document

10.1080/10462937.2022.2044071

Cite this

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title = "#AfricanAunties: performing diasporic digital disbelongings on TikTok",

abstract = "The “African aunties” hashtag has over 21 million views on the video-sharing app TikTok. Akinbola examines how African women and girls embody and perform the African auntie on TikTok, focusing on three types of videos: Deprecating auntie performances, celebratory auntie performances, and re-staged encounters with aunties. Specifically analyzing videos created by and/or featuring African women and girls, Akinbola argues that these content creators practice “digital disbelonging” by embracing the personal and cultural importance of their African aunties, while explicitly rejecting the forms of gendered surveillance, discipline and shame that shape their day to day lives.",

keywords = "African aunties, Disbelonging, TikTok, digital performance, kinship",

author = "Bimbola Akinbola",

note = "Funding Information: I am beyond grateful to all of the African Auntie TikTok creators for their brilliance, courage, and creativity, and to Maame Adwoa (@jowodaaa) for trusting me enough to share her story. Her insights were invaluable. I also thank Kareem Khubchandani for asking me about the place of aunties in my project, which led me to this exciting project and for his ongoing feedback on this article. Lastly, thank you to the anonymous reviewers for their comments on earlier drafts of this article. Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} 2022 National Communication Association.",

year = "2022",

doi = "10.1080/10462937.2022.2044071",

language = "English (US)",

volume = "42",

pages = "284--297",

journal = "Text and Performance Quarterly",

issn = "1046-2937",

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T2 - performing diasporic digital disbelongings on TikTok

AU - Akinbola, Bimbola

N1 - Funding Information: I am beyond grateful to all of the African Auntie TikTok creators for their brilliance, courage, and creativity, and to Maame Adwoa (@jowodaaa) for trusting me enough to share her story. Her insights were invaluable. I also thank Kareem Khubchandani for asking me about the place of aunties in my project, which led me to this exciting project and for his ongoing feedback on this article. Lastly, thank you to the anonymous reviewers for their comments on earlier drafts of this article. Publisher Copyright: © 2022 National Communication Association.

PY - 2022

Y1 - 2022

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AB - The “African aunties” hashtag has over 21 million views on the video-sharing app TikTok. Akinbola examines how African women and girls embody and perform the African auntie on TikTok, focusing on three types of videos: Deprecating auntie performances, celebratory auntie performances, and re-staged encounters with aunties. Specifically analyzing videos created by and/or featuring African women and girls, Akinbola argues that these content creators practice “digital disbelonging” by embracing the personal and cultural importance of their African aunties, while explicitly rejecting the forms of gendered surveillance, discipline and shame that shape their day to day lives.

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KW - Disbelonging

KW - TikTok

KW - digital performance

KW - kinship

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#AfricanAunties: performing diasporic digital disbelongings on TikTok

Abstract

Keywords

ASJC Scopus subject areas

Access to Document

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