Taraidiwa ["We Have Been Raided"]: Effects of and Meanings Ascribed to an Assault on an LGBTI Function in Harare, Zimbabwe.

Drawing on first-hand fieldwork experiences, conversations and interviews, this paper describes and analyses the violent attack on a GALZ event in Zimbabwe in 2014. A gang of unidentifiable men stormed the event and assaulted those present. The paper explores this attack on the LGBTI community in Zimbabwe as a sign, drawing on Peirce's theorizing of signs as triadic. We describe the emotions, acts and reflections the raid gave rise to, and the intense speculation about who stood behind the attack. The paper demonstrates how precarious sexual minority activism can be in a context of oppression and opposition, and how unsettling and disrupting hate violence can turn out to work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]