{"id":2902,"date":"1950-01-01T15:47:00","date_gmt":"1950-01-01T15:47:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/transintersexhistory.africa\/?p=2902"},"modified":"2024-09-16T11:45:30","modified_gmt":"2024-09-16T11:45:30","slug":"1950s-to-late-1970s-carnivalsa-safe-space-for-travestis-crossdressers-and-queer-performers-in-mozambique","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/transintersexhistory.africa\/1950s-to-late-1970s-carnivalsa-safe-space-for-travestis-crossdressers-and-queer-performers-in-mozambique\/","title":{"rendered":"1950s to Late 1970s \u2014 Carnivals: A Safe Space for Travestis, Cross-Dressers and Queer Performers, Mozambique\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

While cross-dressing, queerness, homosexuality, and all forms of LGBTIQ+ identities as known today were not widely accepted in day-to-day life in Mozambique, during the 1950s through to the mid-1970s, the annual Carnival provided an opportunity for ‘male’ femininity, cross-dressing, and queer performances.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There was no explicit link to what we now recognise as trans or transgender-identifying individuals during this period. The carnivals, \u00a0or \u201cCarnivalesque\u201d, held particularly on Carnival Tuesdays (just before Ash Wednesday), served as a platform for individuals identifying as gay and others who wished to explore gender identity and cross-gender experiences.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Although the Carnival did not appeal to all gay-identifying or queer men interested in experimenting with gender, it undeniably opened the door for those who would identify, as we describe today, as trans. Additionally, it was a joyful and festive time when freedom abounded, and movement was less restricted without societal disapproval. Carnival parties were predominantly hosted in hotels and exclusive venues catering to the middle-income and upper-class, including tourist spaces. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

A research study by Caio Sim\u00f5es de Ara\u00fajo about the carnivals titled Carnival, Power, and Queer Joy: Chrono-normativity, Carnivalesque Transgressions, and the Spectacle of Gender in Louren\u00e7o Marques, Mozambique (ca. 1950\u20131975)<\/a><\/em> was published in 2023 in the Nordic Journal of African Studies<\/em> (Vol. 32, no. 3) by Caio Sim\u00f5es de Ara\u00fajo and the Centre for Humanities Research, University of the Western Cape, South Africa. In an article published in The Conversation<\/em><\/a>, de Ara\u00fajo writes:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n
\u00ab\u00a0The city of Louren\u00e7o Marques (today\u2019s Maputo), a carnival festival was held almost every year. From the 1950s to the 1970s, the event was more than just a street parade. It also became a space of queer expression and joy. The Mozambique festival opened up a space of freedom to the marginalised. Especially women of colour and queer people, black and white. It also built on and activated transnational networks in the wider Lusophone (Portuguese-speaking) world. Brazilian musicians and cross-dressing performers, for example, travelled across borders to become important presences in late colonial African society. Besides Brazilian musicians, Louren\u00e7o Marques also received travestis, cross-dressing queer performers. <\/em>Travestis<\/strong><\/a> <\/a>were becoming increasingly successful in entertainment culture in Brazil and elsewhere, in theatre and film and nightlife. Brazilian travestis, such as the iconic <\/em>Rog\u00e9ria<\/strong><\/a>, held artistic residencies in Mozambique in the late 1960s and early 1970s. In Louren\u00e7o Marques and Beira, they performed regularly in clubs and cabarets, helping spur an emerging queer subculture.\u00a0\u00bb<\/em><\/h5>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n
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A Carnival poster. Source: The Conversation<\/a><\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Newspaper notice for a performance by Rog\u00e9ria<\/a>. Source: The Conversation<\/a><\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

In the same article de Ara\u00fajo writes:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n
\u00ab\u00a0In 2015, after 40 years of independence, Mozambique joined the growing list of countries to <\/em>put an end<\/strong><\/a> to colonial era \u201canti-sodomy\u201d laws. Despite this legal landmark and the country\u2019s relative tolerance towards LGBTIQ+ people, a <\/em>recent report<\/strong><\/a> suggests that Mozambique still needs to more effectively fight discrimination and violence against sexual and gender minorities. Spaces of queer self-expression and joy exist more visibly now, but they have also flourished in the not so distant past. In remembering the carnival, we are invited to bring joy back to the centre of our collective memory. Not for the sake of history writing alone, but also to undertake the transformative labour of queer liberation \u2013 as the queer icons and dancing queens in Mozambique remind us.\u00a0\u00bb<\/em><\/h5>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

These carnivals continued until 1975<\/a> when colonialism ended in Mozambique and the new ruling party, the Liberation Front of Mozambique (FRELIMO), banned the carnivals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Image from theconversation.com\/queer-life-in-africa-is-also-full-of-joy-remembering-the-carnival-in-mozambique-219165<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

While cross-dressing, queerness, homosexuality, and all forms of LGBTIQ+ identities as known today were not widely accepted in day-to-day life in Mozambique, during the 1950s through to the mid-1970s, the annual Carnival provided an opportunity for ‘male’ femininity, cross-dressing, and queer performances.\u00a0 There was no explicit link to what we now recognise as trans or […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2903,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[335,39,320,35,32],"tags":[326,327,75],"class_list":["post-2902","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all","category-community","category-cross-dressing","category-lgbtqia","category-trans","tag-carnival","tag-carnivalesque","tag-mozambique"],"blocksy_meta":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/transintersexhistory.africa\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2902","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/transintersexhistory.africa\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/transintersexhistory.africa\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/transintersexhistory.africa\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/transintersexhistory.africa\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2902"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/transintersexhistory.africa\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2902\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4177,"href":"https:\/\/transintersexhistory.africa\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2902\/revisions\/4177"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/transintersexhistory.africa\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2903"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/transintersexhistory.africa\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2902"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/transintersexhistory.africa\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2902"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/transintersexhistory.africa\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2902"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}