As I write these lines, I mourn the passing of Carlos Fernandes, a leading queer activist and organiser in Angola. Carlos was found dead in his home earlier this year under circumstances that are still being investigated.
For lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex and queer (LGBTIQ+) people everywhere, there has commonly been a profound connection between remembrance and mourning. It’s not a coincidence, for example, that queer archives flourished in the 1980s and 1990s at a time when the HIV epidemic brought with it the lived experience of loss.
Since then, there have been a growing number of institutions committed to preserving the history of LGBTIQ+ people. In South Africa, the GALA Queer Archive was created in 1997. In 2013, Carlos became a co-founder of Angola’s first queer organisation, Associação Íris Angola. Back then, as now, remembering the past can be an act of building community and healing.
