The practice of drag in Africa allows Africans to challenge gender roles. There were many different expressions of masculinity and femininity in pre-colonial Africa. Colonial powers introduced written laws that enforced rigid gender roles that devalued women and femininity. African drag performers, specifically drag queens, now challenge this strict binary and its subsequent criminalization of queer people. Their performances navigate various intersectionalities of gender, sexuality, and race that are legacies of colonialism. Because of the association of drag with queerness, as well as its inherent challenge of the gendered social structure, drag performances are innately political and often dangerous.