Queer Mozambique: From the Mines to the Manas

Examining sexual and gender dissent in Mozambique, from colonial histories to contemporary LGBTQIA+ movements, Queer Mozambique foregrounds Lusophone African perspectives in Global South queer theory.

Postcolonial Mozambique decriminalised homosexual acts in 2015. Unlike in South Africa, Botswana and much of the West, this legal reform was not a response to litigation or public pressure, but came from a parliamentary initiative and lobbying by a few organisations. Subsequent public opinion polls show that Mozambique is an outlier in Africa in its relatively tolerant behaviours and attitudes toward non
heterosexual relationships. 

What are the cultural and historical specificities toward gender and sexual dissidence in Mozambique that might explain its distinctive path, and what can we learn from them? Queer Mozambique provides a lively response to these questions. No definitive answer is given. Contributors employ different modes and styles – ranging from photographs to storytelling to text interpretation – to tell stories of Mozambique’s distinctive cultures of sexual and gender dissent and fluidity, from the South African mine compounds of the late nineteenth century to the current LGBTIQ+ movement and the formation of new sexual and gender identities, such as those of the manas trans women.

The first book in English on queer issues in a Portuguese-speaking African country, Queer Mozambique not only assembles and interprets empirical evidence for the Anglophone reader, but also brings new debates and theories from the Global South. It aims at a truly global dialogue between international and Mozambican scholars of queer studies.