This study examines how “exterminatory homophobia” is constructed through both evaluative discourse and cinematic form in selected African queer films. Drawing on Appraisal Theory (Martin & White, 2005) alongside a multimodal approach to film analysis, the study investigates how language, visual framing, sound, silence, gesture, and spatial organisation work together to encode moral condemnation, symbolic erasure, and queer silencing. Using a qualitative methodology, the study analyses We Don’t Live Here Anymore, Rafiki, and Walking with Shadows. The findings reveal recurrent patterns of Judgement, Engagement, and Graduation that position queer identities as morally dangerous, culturally illegitimate, and socially disposable. These evaluative meanings are intensified through cinematic techniques such as isolation framing, hostile crowd composition, silence, and spatial exclusion. The study argues that African cinematic discourse does not merely reflect homophobic attitudes but audiovisually performs and normalises symbolic violence against queer existence.
