Naniwe Innocentia Ntshangase

In South Africa, a country often lauded for its progressive constitutional protections of LGBTQ+ rights, rural areas continue to be centres of entrenched heteronormativity and patriarchal traditions. These socio-cultural dynamics expose queer individuals to increased levels of discrimination, marginalisation, and violence. This paper aims to review South African scholarship by critically reviewing the relationship between rural geographies and queerphobic victimisation through the lens of queer geographies, highlighting how spatial contexts reinforce normative power structures and shape queer experiences. Methodologically, the study adopts a qualitative approach, drawing on 43 secondary sources, including peer-reviewed articles, NGO and government reports, academic theses, and seminar papers identified through a systematic search across platforms such as Google Scholar, JSTOR, and institutional databases. Content analysis was employed to identify thematic patterns related to space, identity, and violence, while gap analysis revealed underexplored areas in the current literature. The study finds that factors such as gender presentation, visibility, and “outness” significantly influence vulnerability in rural areas, where traditional values often clash with expressions of queer identity. This paper contributes to a deeper understanding of spatial injustice and the ongoing geographical disparities that shape queer lives in South Africa.