Film Review: Langidila

African and Asian Studies 7, 4, pp. 423-445; special issue on “Researching African Women and Gender Studies: New Social Science Perspectives” , 2008

In this paper we examine the development of women’s studies in the Portuguese-speaking African countries of Angola, Mozambique, Cape Verde, Guinea-Bissau, and São Tomé e Príncipe. There are notable variations between these nations, as Mozambique has had a strong Gender Studies unit at Universidade Eduardo Mondlane that has supported a range of research projects and publications on women and the law, women’s history, and related topics. The other countries have also produced important studies, often focusing on women’s experiences in the anti-colonial liberation struggle, and on more recent issues such as women’s legal position. The paper draws out the commonalities and differences in approaches to women’s studies by providing an overview of the relevant publications over the past thirty years.

2019

The historiography of Brazilian race relations does not typically include a transnational element. Hence the lack of research on connections during the Cold War between Brazil and southern Lusophone Africa. As the Movimento Negro Unificado gained traction throughout Brazil and built its membership, it went beyond Brazil’s borders. Liberation movements in Angola and Mozambique established Marxist governments, the MPLA and FRELIMO, respectively. Like other black movements in Brazil, the MNU sought inspiration from Africa, whether that be religion, politics, or black identity, and the MNU did not differ. The Brazilian military dictatorship (1964-1985) surveilled and followed the MNU throughout its time in power. The MNU launched an attack against the concept of racial democracy, threatening the status quo during the dictatorship. Racial democracy acted as a cornerstone of Brazilian race relations for the military dictatorship. However, the military dictatorship used two concepts to its advantage during its time in power. Southern Lusophone Africa challenged lusotropicality from abroad. The military dictatorship in Brazil used both of these concepts to its advantage by arguing that Brazil lacked racism and that there existed a brotherhood amongst Portuguese speaking countries. The military dictatorship clamped down on power and movements that challenged it. The MNU sought relationships in Africa, especially Angola and Mozambique. By doing so, the MNU (racial democracy) and southern Lusophone Africa (lusotropicality) challenged two concepts highly crucial to the military dictatorship. Racial democracy began to fail in the 1960s and 1970s in Brazil as challengers argued it a myth. Lusotropicality started to crumble as colonialism collapsed and Portugal lost its colonies. However, three actors, the MNU, MPLA, and FRELIMO, confronted these concepts as falsehoods and contributed to bringing them down. This thesis, therefore, illuminates the larger scope of Brazilian race relations during the Cold War and adds a transnational focus.

2003

2003

2019

This dissertation shows how gay, trans and queer performers in Brazil, Portugal, and Angola, working in traditionally misogynistic, homo- and transphobic popular music genres, have successfully claimed and refigured those genres and repertoires through iterations of transgender voices and bodies. I show how Pabllo Vittar, Fado Bicha and Titica refigure normative gendered conventions of sex and song through trans formations of popular music genres. I locate them within a genealogy of queer Luso-Afro-Brazilian popular music practices and performances that deploy trans formations of voice, body, and repertoire. I trace a genealogy of transgender voice in Brazilian popular music to Ney Matogrosso’s 1975 debut release, through which I reveal a cacophony of queer, indigenous and Afro-Brazilian intersections; and in Portuguese popular music to António Variações 1982 debut, through whom I trace a fado genealogy of Afro-diasporic cultural practices, gender transgression and sexual deviance. Finally, I locate Titica’s music in practices of the black queer diaspora as a refiguring of Angolan postcolonial aesthetics. Together, these artists and their music offer a queer Luso-Afro-Brazilian diaspora in spectacular popular music formations that transit beside and beyond the Portuguese-speaking world, unbound by it, and refiguring hegemonic Luso-Afro-Brazilian discourses of gender, sexuality, race and nation.