South-South transnational movement building: <i>Changing Faces, Changing Spaces</i> in Africa

Every other year, the Changes Faces, Changing Spaces (CFCS) conference gathers African LGBTIQ+ and sex worker activists. While the transnational activism literature documents the importance of cross-national connections for social movement success, the role of activist spaces like CFCS in their development remains undertheorized. We examine CFCS’ impact on the African LGBTIQ+ and sex worker movement and, based on forty interviews with CFCS 2023 participants, demonstrate how CFCS facilitates three types of interscalar linkages. We argue that face-to-face meetings constitute an important infrastructure for social movements in the South to contest transnational power dynamics.