Dissident Sexualities and Postcolonial Nationalism in Zimbabwe

This paper asks: Do queer Zimbabwean Exists? as an extension of Sabelo Ndlovu-Gatsheni’s book title - Do Zimbabweans Exist? - in which he deploys postcolonial nationalism through frames such as ethnicity and violence in Zimbabwe. This study uses sexuality to deconstruct the official nationalism undergirded and articulated through alliances between state power, religious conservatism, and heteronormative constructions of citizenship. As such, I examine instantiations where queer persons and movements destabilise political and religious symbols deployed in the making of the postcolonial nation in Zimbabwe.