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ABSTRACT
Drawing on first-hand fieldwork experiences, conversations and interviews, this paper describes and analyses the violent attack on a GALZ event in Zimbabwe in 2014. A gang of unidentifiable men stormed the event and assaulted those present. The paper explores this attack on the LGBTI community in Zimbabwe as a sign, drawing on Peirce’s theorizing of signs as triadic. We describe the emotions, acts and reflections the raid gave rise to, and the intense speculation about who stood behind the attack. The paper demonstrates how precarious sexual minority activism can be in a context of oppression and opposition, and how unsettling and disrupting hate violence can turn out to work.
Acknowledgments
The authors would like to acknowledge the support that was received from the Other Foundation, Namaqualand Daisy grant which enabled completion of this work.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
Notes
1. GALZ is an LGBTI organization founded around the year 1990. Until 2013 it was known as Gays and Lesbians of Zimbabwe. The name was changed to just GALZ to better reflect the diverse identities which the organization represents.
3. One widespread misconception in Zimbabwe that has been propagated by anti-homosexual sections is that white people are responsible for the practice as they lure young black men with their resources into homosexuality. Thus there was a possibility that Kåre could be a scapegoat and be targeted in a specific way.