QUEER MOZAMBIQUE, from the mines to the Manas

298pp., illus., paperback, Wits University Press, Johannesburg, 2026

ISBN: 9781997461043

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.

Contributors: Agnaldo Bata, Nicola Biasio, Maria Judite Chipenembe, Gustavo Gomes da Costa, Daria Trentini, Matthew Waites and Agostão José Zitha.

"Queer Mozambique elegantly tackles the complex interplay of language and law, seduction and secrecy., religion and violence in the making of queer experiences. Spanning across disciplines, the book makes an imaginative and indispensable argument for the central importance of the Mozambican context to rethinking sexual diversity in Africa and beyond." George Paul Meiu, Professor of Anthropology, University of Basel

"Urgent and necessary testimonies, written by Mozambicans who, it is said, do not exist in the eyes of the State, provide a break from silence, ignorance and arrogance masquerading as unquestionable wisdom." Professor Isabel Maria Casimiro, Department of Development and Gender Studies, Eduardo Mondlane University

Francisco 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 and a visiting research professor at the History Workshop at University of the Witwatersrand.