International Cooperation, Homosexuality and AIDS in Mozambique

Abstract

The current paper is an ethnographic study of an international cooperation project between an international organisation for the fight against the HIV/AIDS epidemic and the organisation LAMBDA, the largest LGBT NGO in Mozambique. The objectives of this paper are, firstly, to demonstrate how due to the international flow of financial resources attached to certain concepts and agendas, these projects end up somehow institutionalising a homosexuality project in Mozambique, in addition to reviving potentially neo-colonial practices. It also seeks to demonstrate how external bureaucratic practices can clash with local cultural practices, in what has been called ‘NGOisation.’