Queer Mozambique offers a wide-ranging exploration of Mozambique’s distinctive cultures of sexual and gender dissent and fluidity, from the 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.

Queer Mozambique offers a wide-ranging exploration of Mozambique’s distinctive cultures of sexual and gender dissent and fluidity, from the 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. It includes photography, storytelling and lively discussion among the contributors about the cultural and historical specificities of a uniquely Mozambican gender and sexual dissidence.

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 to queer studies. It aims at a truly global dialogue with acclaimed international scholars and Mozambican authors among them.

ABOUT THE AUTHORS

Francisco P V Miguel holds a PhD in Social Anthropology from the University of Brasília. He is a FAPESP postdoctoral fellow based jointly at the State University of Campinas (Unicamp), Brazil and the Department of Global Development Studies at Queen’s University, Canada.

Marc Epprecht is Professor in the Department of Global Development Studies at Queen's University. He is a visiting research professor at the History Workshop at University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg

Danilo da Silva is founding executive director of LAMBDA, Mozambique’s national LGBTI organization.

Agnaldo Bata holds a master’s degree in social sciences: urban worlds and social inequalities from the Université Paris-8 and is a researcher, writer and a co-founding member of the Health and Society Research Center.

Nicola Biasio holds a PhD in Women’s and Gender Studies at the Department of Modern Languages, Literatures and Culture of the University of Bologna. He is also a literary translator and has translated works by Djamila Ribeiro and Yara Nakahanda Monteiro into Italian.

Maria Judite Chipenembe is a lecturer at the Department of Sociology, Eduardo Mondlane University. She is a gender and social inclusion specialist at the Mozambique Compact Development Office (GDCI-II) in Maputo. 

Gustavo Gomes da Costa is Assistant Professor of Sociology at the Federal University of Pernambuco (UFPE). He is also Affiliate Researcher at the Department of Sociology in the University of Glasgow. 

Ditte Haarløv Johnsen is a documentary maker and photographer. Her award-winning documentaries; One Day, Homeless and Days of Hope, have been screened at numerous international film festivals. Her two photo series Manas and Maputo Diary, which both span over two decades, are the cornerstone of her photographic practice. 

Daria Trentini is Associate Professor of Anthropology at Drake University. She is the author of At Ansha’s: Life in the Spirit Mosque of a Healer in Mozambique (2021).

Matthew Waites is a Reader in Sociological and Cultural Studies at the School of Social and Political Sciences, University of Glasgow. He is co-editor with Corinne Lennox of Human Rights, Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity in the Commonwealth: Struggles for Decriminalisation and Change (2013). 

Agostão José Zitha is a member of the Church of the Nazarene and the National Director of Programmes in the Christian Council of Mozambique.

'Queer Mozambique: From the Mines to the Manas' is published by Wits University Press