Discreet and Declared

This paper presents an ethnography of the lives of men who have emotional and sexual relationships with other men in the city of Maputo Mozambique. In summary the interviews reveal that a man's emotional and sexual interest in another man is not well regarded by the interviewees' social circles which leads them to live a social life full of identity manipulation in order to avoid social isolation. Homosexuality is seen as a foreign influence outside the values widely considered to be 'African.' Finally the research revealed that the homosexual model disseminated in the West through LGBT associations as well as homophobia are ideas from outside a legacy of the European colonial system.