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The Mauritius decision is part of a wider trend of Southern African courts protecting LGBTQIA+ rights following sustained strategic litigation and advocacy by activists and civil society organisations, write Sylvia Mbataru and Mawethu Nkosana.
In a historic decision last month, the Mauritius Supreme Court struck down a colonial law that had criminalised same-sex relations between two consenting men on the island nation.
The ruling was an enormous tribute to the possibility of people-powered change. LGBTQIA+ people and groups in Africa who worked for years for this moment celebrated the court's forceful and accurate assertion that anti-homosexuality laws do not "reflect any indigenous Mauritian values" but were, in fact, imports from Britain.
