Project Introduction  

• Location – Maputo, Mozambique
• Project Team –Tirso Sitoe; C Pepetsa Fumo, Raimundo Mangane, Francisco Bendzane, Célia Paulina Naife (Naife), e Lúcio Luis Ernesto (Lulu Ernesto).
• Open University – Craig Walker

What social norms and processes of socialisation can curtail hypermasculinity and facilitate peacebuilding in post-war years? 

In Mozambique, a country ravaged by decades of liberation and civil war, as well as episodic insurgency in years since, this project uses the notion of hypermasculinity as a lens through which to examine everyday experiences of violence but also acceptance and belonging (as aspects of peace) of the trans-community in Mozambique. Hypermasculinity sits at the extreme and harmful end of the gender spectrum, describing men whose definition and performance of their identities manifest in aggression, domination, and violence. The soldier, and war, epitomise a culture of hypermasculinity but during civil wars, wider society (civic populations) exposure to hypermasculinity is amplified and the legacy of these masculinities on social relations can remain long after the fighting stops.

Hypermasculinity is posited in the simple male-female binary. Recognising trans-community knowledges and voices are marginalised or repressed within wider social and political discourses, yet occupy a liminal space in gender binaries, the study aims to explore how transwomen across two sites: Maputo and Nampula, understand and experience conflict and peace both in their everyday lives but also within wider Mozambican society. PhotoVoice methodology is used for the participants to visually express how trans-knowledges, as ‘sexual subaltern’ way of knowing might inform peacebuilding and peace education.

Project Methodology 

The project works with twenty members of the trans-community across two research sites. The first is Maputo, the capital of Mozambique which has a highly active LGBTQIA+ civil society and is, relative to other cities and regions of the country, a more cosmopolitan space for trans people to live. The second is Nampula, in the north. Again, it has a strong trans-community but is largely Muslim and is the urban centre drawing those fleeing the violent Islamist insurgency that has been waging in the Northern province of Cabo Delgado since 2017. Both sites represent quite different socio, political and cultural dynamics that see gender-based violence against transpeople manifesting in different ways.

The research used PhotoVoice methodology. All participants across the two cities held focus group discussions, to talk through gender-based violence, the causes, experiences and effects. Conversely, conversations centred on how participants also felt a sense of acceptance and belonging in their own (trans) and wider community. Participants were then trained in the use of digital photography and tasked with taking a series of images that spoke to violence and peace.

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