Queer Malawi: Untold Stories

Published by Gay and Lesbian Memory in Action (GALA) and the Centre for the Development of People (CEDEP), this book offers portraits of the lives of gay men and women in Malawi. The accounts in the book portray the joys of love and the heartache of rejection, the dangers posed by homophobia and hatred in communities, as well as the comfort of close friends and relatives. According to the publishers, the twelve life stories are "intended to invoke compassion and support for the rights of African lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex (LGBTI) people to live freely and harmoniously alongside their heterosexual counterparts in Malawi and beyond her borders".

The still pervasive belief that homosexuality has been imported into Africa remains a keystone of homophobia on the continent and is dealt with in the book, as noted by Ollen Mwalubunju, the former commissioner of Malawi’s Human Rights Commission, in the book’s preface: "The stories of experiences of people in this book reveal that their sexual orientation evolved outside the white person’s or foreign influence spheres. In the book, gays and lesbians have repeatedly asserted in their stories that to be gay or lesbian is not something one can borrow from elsewhere, and fundamentally reject the notion that homosexuality is un-African."

The author of the book designed and facilitated oral history workshops in Malawi during which participants' experiences were recounted, recorded, and translated into English. In the book, these experiences are complemented by intimate photographs of the 12 participants by the award winning lesbian photographer, Zanele Muholi.

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