Sexuality in Cosmopolitan Maputo: The Aesthetics of Gendered Practice Through the lenses of Class (original) (raw)
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In 2003 Mozambique's parliament approved a new legal code that proposes a "Western" view of family and gender roles. These changes question the social organization and the symbolic views of gender in Mozambique. We show how men are reconstructing their identities when caught between tradition and male dominance and the Westernized values of the modern equalitarian family. We analyze change at the levels of individual practices and identities and of societal symbolic models to show how entanglements are produced at both levels. At the macro-level the law legitimates Western values and deals with hybrid realities. At the micro-level, men live entangled trajectories in which they mix different references and social times when relating themselves to hegemonic masculinity(ies). The analysis draws on data collected in urban Maputo both through a survey applied to Eduardo Mondlane University students and in-depth interviews with men from several generations and contexts.
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Eroticism, kinship, and gender all intersect in transactional sexual relationships between young women known as curtidoras and older white men in Maputo, Mozambique. I draw on postcolonial feminism to argue that curtidoras’ erotic powers are a central part of sexual–economic exchanges with men and that senior female kin are deeply involved in processes of seduction and extraction of money. I conceptualize relationships between curtidoras, female kin, and male partners as “gendered triads of reciprocity” to unsettle Western stereotypes of female victims and patriarchal structures in Africa. Transactional sex often makes the partners mutually dependent and emotionally vulnerable, and, although moralities of exchange collide, young women tend to redistribute accumulated money from men among female seniors and kin.
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CRIA-IUL December, 2016 iv v Preface and Acknowledgments: Zzzzzzzzzzzz... they follow me around, it's not just the exasperating noise they produce, but also the insistence on having a rest on my skin. I go in the water a lot, not only to free myself from the persistent flies but also to feel that warm embracing sensation, freedom from my own weight, like I'm being carried. In fact, the water is warm and at the same time refreshing. If I'm supposed to be relaxing, why am I biting my nails? Maybe it's time for another dip in the water. The lagoon is blue turquoise surrounded by coco trees. It is amazingly appealing, irresistible. I'm sweating, literally dripping. I think my skin might also be burning, the sun is strong. I should go in the water but instead I light another cigarette. I wonder, why it is that despite the perfect environment in which to relax, my thoughts seem to be running back to Maputo every five minutes. (Quissico, 17 Febuary 2012)