by Yaya Mavundla

Two days before the wedding (19/12/13) everyone at Inkanyiso is confused about when the wedding is.
Is it Saturday or Sunday, we contact a few people in Daveyton and NO one knows about the wedding.
Then we called Lesiba Mothibe (Uthingo Chairperson) who was also unsure.

“You are hereby Summoned to Appear as a Witness for the two Accused, Promise Meyer & Gift Samonne.
Charges: Falling in love.
Court: 607 Vivian Drive, Chris Hani Park, Daveyton.
Sentencing: 22nd December 2013, 14h00 for 14h30”

Promise & Gift sharing a kiss after photo shoot at O.R Tambo gardens, Wattville.
© Photos by Zanele Muholi

Need I say more?
All I can say is we had so much fun after reading the invitation.
We then started with task delegations and were looking forward to the wedding.
I of course had to worry about what to wear, but trust me I wasn’t the only one worried.

Sunday 22^nd Dec. 2013, at 11h30 we were ready to rock and roll. We drove to Daveyton with the team and got there around 12h00. At first we couldn’t find the venue, but eventually we got there after driving around.

“Who is getting married” was my first question when we got into the house.
I was confused; perhaps it was the environment, the setting. I didn’t get a clear indication of what was happening, who was doing what?

At around about 12h15 a very tall gay guy, light in complexion wearing a leopard print vest arrived while we were still chatting to the people who were busy decorating the tent for the wedding. “Hi, I’m sorry I’m late, things are hectic, thank you for coming” and that was Promise, the bride!

We sat next to the tent and asked him a few questions and you could just tell that he was under so much pressure, but I mean it’s his wedding day, its normal.

The honest truth is we were exhausted, we really wanted to see things starting to roll already. I will not lie, I was skeptical that things will be in place by 14h00 to start the programme as the person who was getting married was still busy with the dishes and cooking, basically all over the place, making sure that everything was in order. He eventually got dressed, but I wasn’t convinced that things would be ready by 14h00!

To my surprise, things were ready before 14h00.
I really loved the Kilt skirts, such a statement! The taxi that was confirmed to transport bridesmaids and groomsman to O.R Tambo Cultural Precinct for pictures didn’t pitch!
Luckily we came to the wedding with a taxi so things came together and were off to O.R Tambo.
The energy from everyone in the taxi was amazing, we partied so hard on the way and everyone was ready to pose like a cover girl.

When we got to the venue, the bride (Promise) directed everything very smoothly. It was his task to do so, as he was also the wedding planner.
As always, there will always be show stoppers and the ones that just don’t get it, like they would say on twitter #TheStruggleContinues, trust me that’s exactly what happened.  Some of the grooms men just didn’t get it, but then again, they are “butch” so we can forgive them.

While we are busy with the pictures, I had a chat with the bride, Promise Samonne-Meyer, I could tell that he was now a bit calm than he was when we were at the house earlier.
I asked him, what would you like to tell me about today’s experience?
He immediately responded “I am so happy knowing that everything is going on as planned, we are making history in Daveyton, we are the 1st Gay Couple to get married here” I was impressed.

Even when he was posing for pictures with his husband, you could tell that he was happy.

After wrapping up at the Precinct, we rushed back home. When we got there, boom, everything was ready and people were all over the place including curious neighbors.
The deco was stunning in red and white. I loved how they made everything look intimate.
Proceedings started immediately after everyone was seated in nice round tables of 10 seats.
Mini platters with samoosa’s, small pieces of fried chicken and onion rings were placed amongst glamorous cutlery, and of course a bottle of champagne.

Before the programme director, Eric Motsema even started with the programme people started helping themselves with the food.
Then the official opening of the ceremony started by prayer led by female Pastor Ndlovu.

The process got disturbed for a while because Promise had to connect with his ancestors, since both newly weds are sangomas (traditional healers).
Eventually things got back to the programme, the Pastor mentioned “njengoba nilalana anihlukanga ndawo, okwenzakalayo phakathi kwenu ningakukhipheli ngaphandle ngoba kuyohamba nomoya, uthando luyabekezela.”
After the Pastor finished preaching, family and friends began sharing their thoughts, wishes and experiences they had with the couple.

The most moving message came from the mother of the bride, Mrs Shezi who spoke so fondly about the couple and her son Promise.  She confirmed to everyone that she supports and gives the two her blessings.

She went as far as saying “angizange ngitshele muntu ngalomcimbi, abantu abaningi nje engibabona lana ng’yaqala ukubabona. Abanye ngike ngababona emagcwabeni. Anginandaba ukuthi abantu bathini, uPromise ngumntwana wami, ukuthi omunye umuntu uthini anginandaba.”

You could tell who was there to see where ‘will this end.’
And you could also tell who was there to support, as there was a minority that was very shied away and not even willing to turn their faces towards the cameras.

Promise’s mother receiving a gift from the son-in-law, Gift…

Towards the end, the couple shared their wedding vows, flittering and so excited.
With a beautiful smile, Mpho made it clear that he “will always be there for Promise to comfort, love, honour and cherish” him at all times.
He also promised to be a true and faithful partner.

While Promise said he will comfort his husband in times of sorrow and struggle, to cherish and always hold him in highest regards.
The couple decided to use double barrel surnames for their union.
Then the couple cut the cake and fed each other.

The guests were smitten, and then it was time to pop the champagne.

The guests were served with variety of food between rice, pap, chicken, beef, fish and a number of salads.
I spotted a lot of exciting people, some of them were the former Miss Gay Daveyton, Lesiba Mothibe, and dancer Xoli Ntsebeza to mention a few.

L-R: Xoli, Xolani, Lesiba, Yaya & Thembi

The atmosphere was just beautiful, you know when people are happy, and that’s exactly what was happening there.
Inkanyiso media were the official documenters of the whole event.
Some well dressed persons wanted to shine, forgetting that it was Mpho and Promise’s moment.  All in all we had a great time.

About the author

Yaya Mavundla (25) is a writer, cultural activist and events organizer.
Previously worked with Exit and Miss Gay Lesbian Soweto.
Currently contributes to Inkanyiso media.

Edited by Fikile Mazambani

Anele ‘Anza’ Khaba, KwaThema Community Hall, Springs, Johannesburg, 2011

AneIe Khaba is a young black woman, born in Heidelburg on the 30th of May 1992 and was raised in Springs, Kwa-Thema.
She lived with her parents and would spend time at her grandmothers’ as well until 2012 when she moved to be on her own.
She moved to Midrand and then to Bramley where she currently lives alone.

Khaba who has two siblings, a brother and a sister who still reside with her parents, is very close to her family.
She visits her parents and siblings on most weekends.
She says “I capture people’s hearts, eyes and smiles. I’m a very kind, friendly and understanding person.”
She says she is proud of who she is but her sexuality does not define who she is as a person.

Her family knows about her sexual orientation she says. ”I first came out to myself when I was 12 years although it was kind of confusing. My family was understanding and supportive.” Her family has met her girlfriend whom she says she is committed to.
They have been in a committed relationship for close to a year now.

A Desktop Support Engineer at ABSA capital in Sandton, Khaba has a serious side to her when it comes to issues of social justice around lesbians.
“One thing I don’t like is the “corrective rape” term, like how can you rape someone – a crime and violation – and think you are correcting something?”
Homophobic attacks sadden her because she says “we don’t do anything wrong, we are not harming anyone.
We are just living our lives!”

She says she is “enforcing my existence!”

Anele ‘Anza’ Khaba, KwaThema, Springs, Johannesburg, 2010.
Featuring in Faces & Phases by Zanele Muholi

Related articles

2013 Aug. 19: The importance of self acceptance

and

2013 Aug. 22: Am exactly where I’m supposed to be

and

2013 Oct. 12: I just feel she deserves much better

and

2013 March 10:  ”I love women and they love me”

and

2013 February 28: I am not a Victim but a Victor…

by Aluta Humbane

Zanele Muholi, the 2013 Prince Claus Laureate, put on what could be best termed a conversation starter of an exhibition during the prestigious Prince Claus Laureate Award ceremony.

The Ambassador of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, H.E. Mr Andre’ Haspels was at hand at the Wits Art Museum to honour Zanele Muholi’s contribution to culture and development. The award ceremony was followed by the opening of Love and Loss exhibition at the Stevenson Gallery in Braamfontein, Johannesburg.

Muholi in a custom made coffin.
Photo by Bongi ‘Thekwane’ Mphisholo (2014/02/14)

Attendees had this to say:

“Powerful, Zanele is very brave, when I came in and saw the coffin with flowers – I got goose bumps and thought…what’s happening?”
Fariba Derakshani (Prince Claus Foundation, Amsterdam)

“This is an example that one day it might be us”
Bakae (Vosloorus)

“If it weren’t for her, we would know each other, but the world would only know us through their eyes and voice, I see myself in this exhibition“.

Mpume (Turtfontein)

“These pictures touched my soul, they look so in love, it seems I’ m not the only one who desire love.”

Tshepiso

“Siyabonga Zanele. You are our black lesbian hero”

The 14th of February 2014, marks many people celebrating Valentine’s Day worldwide often in the comfort of their homes, but Wits Arts Museum and Stevenson Gallery had a different idea. They brought the broody holiday to the art museum.

At 18:30, the museum was buzzing with more than 200 black LGBTI guests, allies and gay patrons from all over Gauteng townships.  The majority of them had never been afforded the opportunity to be in in such a space, prior to this moment.

The award ceremony and exhibition provided an opportunity to claim a space previously reserved by suppressive ideology, an era past of racial segregation in South Africa that would have deemed the invitees invisible and not worthy of such a space.

Now this space allowed us an expression and artistic engagement where we explored and revealed our true being without fear.

The prevailing tone in the air was that which acknowledged Muholi as a messiah, who has united us all; black, white, drag queen, Butch, township dwellers and suburbanites in a space where the societal and cultural etiquette was challenged to fit the context of diverse people in the Museum and Gallery, thus embraced the contrasts of love and loss under one roof.

The accolade of messiah follows Muholi, who has used her passion to create photography and art as a vehicle that advocates for the emancipation and celebration of the black LGBTI community who are previously and presently marginalized in mainstream media.

In documenting and voicing the different queer identities and their multiplicity, Muholi has created a visibility that had been swept under the rug.  This new platform has allowed for a celebration of Queer and Trans beauty and existence.

I entered a gallery that was charged with a rush of positive energy and in my eyes I immediately understood what the late and great Nelson Mandela envisioned. It was a free space where all could “BE”

The Prince Claus award ceremony boasted colours of love, which were celebrated with struggle songs and chants of freedom and power by the fired up crowd. It became a melting pot of culture and norms as all protocol was abandoned.  Songs of freedom were chanted in celebration of a ‘soldier’ who had fought a good fight and was now being rightfully honoured.

In her keynote, Fariba Derakshani the Prince Claus representative resonated with the audience, most of whom were or have been part of the creation of Muholi’s work. Derakshani said that she was “a revolutionary who has had great impact in advocating and empowering black LBGTI communities of South Africa.  Through her lenses, she has shot and offered a voice for black LGBTI stories which will live ahead of time in history.”

As she was acknowledged and given the award, the venue was illuminated by prayer and loud singing, using liberation struggle songs which lyrics had been altered to fit an LGBTI context. One could not help but feel part of the revolution that captured the mixed emotions of love, celebration and mourning for those gone prematurely.

The ceremony ended with some words of appreciation from Muholi.  She spoke of her vision of being in a world where black LGBTI are part of the mainstream cultural and artistic production, where they are able to tell their stories not through someone’s voice, as a third person, but the first. She said her objective was that “of empowering black LGBTI whom are discriminated and silenced by a society which in principal has constitutional obligation to provide a platform to tell their stories, through their own voices, which currently is not the reality.”

It is clear that her selfless efforts are driven by the passion to leave a legacy of sorts, that of an empowered and productive black gay and community.  Her works speaks to the fact that lesbians should be judged only by their actions and not sexuality, gender or race.

When the award ceremony ended at 20:30, the attendees moved to Stevensons Gallery, which was a street away. In numbers lesbians, gays, bisexual and intersex marched in unity, down the streets of Braamfontein in a proud moment of belonging.

Upon entering the gallery, all your senses went into over drive as Zanele Muholi’s live performance art installation, threw everyone for a loop and left them momentarily shocked.

Muholi was inside a custom made glass coffin, which was strewn with rose petals and shreds of flowers on top of it, as she laid there naked, an allusion of death!!
The celebratory mood quickly changed to a sad and a somewhat sombre mood.  There were expressions of awe, sadness, and shock.

Some people were streaming tears at the sight of Muholi’s “corpse”. The feelings of pain, anger, and fear resurfaced as they were forced to confront everyone’s worst fears – those of losing a child, aunt, sister, friend to hate crimes.  Suddenly death was staring us in the face.  The reality of losing a friend or lover, a sister or brother registered fully!

Others were comforting the shaken ones.

We had been confronted with Of Love and Loss – a juxtaposition of love and loss was punctuated Muholi objectifying her body, to quantify her experiences beyond language. Her work has become synonymous with the likes of South African Born Steven Cohen and Italian millitary leader’s daughter, Marina Abramović

The exhibition engages through photography, the love, flamboyancy, identity and changing scope of tolerance towards homosexuals. Through their persistent acts of “Being” regardless of expectation, dangers, ideological and socio-political control.

Muholi’s really pushes the boundaries to compel one to think, reflect and engage with not only the plight, but an elated representation of the beauty of queer black gays and lesbians. In her bid and fight to create a space, and mouthpiece in which the beauty and love that exists in Homosexuals is shared with society and the world, where people can understand that we too live, we too love and we too feel.

Of Love and loss, engaged patrons as it evoked a myriad of emotions all at the same time.  The installation forces one to face the hard truth and in the next instance makes you swoon.  Some of the liberating images were of a gay sangoma couple’s wedding, who believe that their union was accepted by the ancestors.

Soon after there are images of friends and family mourning lesbians and gays killed in a bid to correct and or diminish their existence.

Other images depict love, beauty and metamorphosis of queer and flamboyant and butch identities.

Muholi’s work is a celebration of homosexuality, queer identity, and love against all odds and an encouragement to reflect which can be the beginning of healing.

In a series of compelling narrative images, Of Love and loss exhibition is opened until the 4th of April 2014 at the Stevenson Gallery, Braamfontein, Johannesburg.

About the author
Aluta Melvin Humbane was born and lives in Inanda, Durban.

He achieved a BA Degree in Drama & Performance and Media & Cultural studies from UKZN Howard College (2012), A Postgraduate Certificate in Education from Edgewood Campus (2013); and a LUCCA International Leadership Certificate.

Aluta’s passion for humanitarian work has seen him work in Durban LGBTI NGO advocating for LGBTI human rights and well-being.

He is currently in an Australian based Organization (Spark Changemakers*) network of change makers in South Africa through an organization he founded, called “Injongo Movement” in Inanda. (Focusing on arts for a change)

In past four years has written and directed 2 Dramatic plays which aims to create awareness through shock, the issues of homophobia, woman abuse and negative impacts of a Gesellschaft community.
Which has toured Durban and used in 16 Days of Activism campaigns.

Aluta is also a singer/songwriter and has braced stages around South Africa.
He is also a Playhouse Performer since 2009 till present.
He also volunteers at Inanda Community Radio as an art show producer and guest show host.

He has received two awards, one from UKZN Humanities College for outstanding Mentor (2011); and the Pink Feature Award for Most Influential Gay person in Durban (2010)

Currently working for Department of Education.
He is also working on his first Solo music album “Identity “through his music production co. and directing his Theatre Project, A play called “Mandela could be Jesus” which will open towards end of 2014.

Portrait of the Self, Sly…

by Selaelo “SlyPod” Mannya

My name is Selaelo, affectionately known as Sly, the Pod, Poddle Puff or whatever else takes the fancy of the woman I am with. I’m 26 years old and work as a strategist in digital advertising. I am also head of the social media department of a political party. If I had to classify myself for a medical discovery, I would say I am androgynous.  I loathe the idea of being boxed in by self or others

In December 2007, I rocked a big afro, the Pitch black type of big. My grandmother did not like it because it would get untidy from the dust in rural Polokwane. I was born and bred and will be buried in Polokwane and so things like dust do not bother me. Village folk did not see a dusty fro, they saw it as free hair color.

One day my cousin and I were bored and she decided to give me a head massage so I obliged, it was a win for me!! She decided to go ahead and twist my hair, to actually start the hair locking process. I will forever be grateful to her. She reminds me with each inch my hair grows. My hair is her project.

Given the location where my hair was started, little did I know that I was further confirming my lesbianism.
I’m tall, medium toned, with dreadlocks. I’m certain that you can write a list of 5 lesbians who fit that description. Apparently it’s a typical lesbian look. It’s the easiest look to go for because it looks good on a lot of people. I do not know if I am good looking or if my hair accentuates my features, but you will be the judge as beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

My hair is fairly long, and besides my cousin’s foundation, I have had the same hairdresser since I started my locks.   I am very anal about people touching my hair. He charges me R150 for a wash and re-twist. I try to keep to my 2 week hair twisting interval.
Gift, my hairstylist, gives the best head massage.
The only problem I have is that his crotch rubs against my shoulder when he moves during the twisting process.

I would lie if I were to say I’m not my hair, I mean why else am I so attached to it. Besides, my hair has been the only consistent thing in my life. It is stuck on me, therefore stuck with me. Ok, maybe that sounds like a description if a psychotic, abusive relationship. And I don’t want to rip my soul to pieces by making a statement with my hair. It will be misunderstood anyway, so it’s more of a fashionable one than a deep rooted, heartwarming, poetic one. So I answered a few questions about my hair. Check below.

1.     Ever met anyone who likes YOU but not your hair. 

Who hasn’t? I work for a political party, and so when I am at the adult table, I have to contribute to the conversation to curb the idea for those who might assume I smoke weed.

2.     Are you defined by your hair 

It is a part of me; it is part of my package. Others may define me by my hair, but my hair has no voice. It is like wearing a watch. Some may assume it is to tell time, but I might just be wearing it as an accessory.

3.     What would happen if you cut your hair?

I would die.

4.     If there was a death in the family, will you be forced to cut your hair? 

Not at all it would be unfair to end a 8 year relationship over the end of someone’s life, which is natural to our natural timeline.

5.     Does your hair interfere with your sex life ( for example, when going down on her)

Which hair are you referring to? The hair on my leg doesn’t interfere unless the woman I’m with has a leg fetish, for which she’d have to look forward to having hair stuck in her teeth. As for my pubic hair, which is always kept at a reasonable length, which is, less than a centimeter. I normally tie by hair during sex, this means I need to add an extra 20 minutes to the session to look for a hair band and retie during thrusting because the closer to cuming we both get, the faster and aggressive the movements and the higher the chances of my hair coming loose.
But I tend to make love to women who love it untied. In fact, they untie it during sex. I don’t know how the tingling caused by hair on flesh contributes or heightens the sexual sensation.

6.     Would you wax your pussy, but not cut your dread locks?

Yes, not entirely though. I do not piss with my head. So the comparison is unjust. These are two organs with two different functions, even though they are synched.

7.     Do people’s perception of you change when they realize what hair you have.

Yes they do, Rastafarians and the girl used her dreadlocks to traffic drugs fucked it up for all of us. The other breeds an untidy, weed smoking, no meat eating perception and the other grants me stares and prompts people to touch my hair, just to make sure I’m not a drug mules.

8.     Does your hair make people assume you are Rastafarian?

Hell yes, and no I don’t mind the assumption. Rastafarians are social beings, so I get high fives, ola rasta pleasantries because of my hair.

9.     Who has the best dreadlocks according to you? 

(Dreadlocked icon)

Tracy Chapman. Her soul and music influenced this choice.

10.  Are your locks African rooted?

No, they are head rooted.

11.  Do you plan on ever cutting your hair?

Never, but I think my family is waiting for me to die so that they can chop it off.

12.  What is your cut off length that you plan on growing your hair to?

As long as gravity can pull it.

13.  Do you ever get disregarded because of your hair?

A lot, until I speak up and everyone that was paying no mind to me, realizes I’m very smart.

14.  Are you spiritually connected to your hair?

Oh yes I am. It has taught me a lot about consistency, beauty and patience.

15.  Does your girlfriend like your hair?

Women I sleep with love my hair.

16.  If a girl you like asked you to cut your hair, would you?

No I would not. My hair is part of the package.
There is no Sly without the hair.
There is a lot to me than my attraction to women.

Sly in a red jacket featuring some members of Vintage group in the background

Previous by Sly

2014 March 1: Journeyed 3 cities in less than 30 hours

Photos by Zanele Muholi
Where: Oakland, CA
With:  Valerie Thomas and Selaelo ‘Sly’ Mannya
What: Brown Bois Retreat
Link to:
Brown Boi Project
Topic: How to increase Personal Communication Skills chaired by Melvin

by Yaya Mavundla

Bubbly, honest, fashion forward, dramatic and of course smart are some of the things that comes up when one thinks of the KwaZulu Natal, Durban born Mzamo Gcabashe.
Amongst so many things that he does, he’s such a great dancer and singer. I remember when I first saw him dance to a Beyonce hot single “Single Ladies” at Miss Gay Durban 2010 that I had booked him for to perform at I was blown away!
I literary melted!
Such a great performer that some of our artists fail to deliver in their concerts.

Mzamo Gcabashe (2013)
Photo by Zanele Muholi

I then saw him perform again at KZN LGBTI Fashion Show where I was one of the models in 2010, such a great voice. He sang a song by Lady Gaga, “Bad Romance” and the whole auditorium came to a standstill.

When he told me he was in Joburg I knew he is here to work and he will make it, especially with such a great combination he has, they call it a full package. I always say talent isn’t good enough on it own and I know with Mzamo it is indeed a full package.

Early last month I heard he will be on Big Brother Mzansi and I was so excited. Not only because I know him on a personal level and as a friend but with the fact that he is openly gay, smart, knows his story.  What was the most important fact was that he won’t make fun of us on national television and will be the total opposite of what the society perceive when they think what Black Gay Man is like or how  he behaves. I knew I could count on him to changing such stereotypes and I was right.

On the first day of Big Brother I checked my twitter and came across @TrendsSouthAfrica tweet “#Mzamo is now trending in South Africa” I was not worried at all that he might be trending because of the wrong reasons.

I then clicked on #BBMzansi which is a hash tag of Big Brother on twitter and what I read there was amazing. The fact that people acknowledged the fact that Mzamo is Gay but behaved just like anyone else who the society consider normal.
People were praising Mzamo on twitter, I was so happy.

I knew he was not going to win million rand, for one, they expected a Gay guy who will be over the top, too much make-up, someone who will subscribe to what seems normal and exciting on Big Brother and someone who will basically seduce men because they are Gay. We all know that in the world we live in, Gay people are associated with sex and drama which is what I always thought it’s sick and I can’t associate with people who think that about me! Mzamo didn’t do that, he proved the whole nation wrong.

As smart, consistent and frank as Mzamo is, that not what Big Brother wanted for them to survive and get more viewers. We all know, TV programmes survives not to be canned because of the numbers, no numbers, no slot on TV. Mzamo was perhaps a let-down to the producers and people at home who find entertainment when a black gay guy or anyone else do silly things such as the incident of Lexi and Mandla who had sex and their pictures of the two naked men went viral on social media, and of course that attracted more people to watch the show.
Mzamo didn’t do any scandals that will attract more viewers and it was time for him to go.

What I know is that most people especially his parents and friends are proud of Mzamo.
 No one will ever search for Mzamo on google and read about his dirty laundry.
For me, Mzamo being on TV is so much about activism and that will help sensitize most people in our society.
I’m sure there are parents who have changed their minds about their children after watching Big Brother. There are parents who now understand that all the stigmas that are associated with LGBTI people are actually not valid. Mzamo made us as LGBTI people look normal, which is what the people we grew up with fail to understand about us. I am proud.

Mzamie, a photo grabbed from his facebook album.

When Mzamo was announced as one of the house mates that were evicted I was sad, I went on twitter to check what the rest of the people who follow Big Brother Mzansi thinks.

People were furious, they were sad and they didn’t expect it.

The eviction happened after I read a tweet from Candice Nkosi “@Leornard_Sifiso: Umzamo akayi ndawo” she tweeted.
I read harsh tweets from others that read: “BULLSHIT! I’m never watching Big Brother, how could they let Mzamo go”, the other one read “They want people who will have sex, kiss on screen and abuse alcohol and Mzamo was the total opposite hence the eviction” while the other one read, “Ay ave ehleba, akahambe”.

Reading all these tweets made me realise that Mzamo made such an impact while on Big Brother.

“This is our starlet … watch out this space”

To interact with me please follow me on Twitter and Instagram @YayaRSA or follow Inkanyiso AND Muholi on twitter @Inkanyiso_Org @MuholiZanele

Previous by Yaya

2014 Feb.8: Mixed emotions at Miss Valentine 2014 in Daveyton

The task of a writer engaging with the work of artists and activists is an important one.

The critic does not only draw attention to the work of particular people but provides a way for readers and viewers to translate and understand the works they view. What is written about the work of visual activist Zanele Muholi, for instance, can help us to think about questions of race, sexuality, violence and intimacy post-apartheid. On the other hand, a writer responding to her images can compound problematic ways of seeing and thinking and can, even if unwittingly, reinforce homophobic views. This is unfortunately the case in art critic Mary Corrigall’s review of Muholi’s latest exhibitions in Johannesburg published in the Sunday Independent on the 2^nd of March 2014.

In a tone strangely reminiscent of a conservative right-winger in the United States, Corrigall argues that the art world has provided Muholi with a place for “her” (quotation marks in the original) community because the art world “has always been a gay-friendly if not gay-dominated one”. In this way the review elides the fact that black women artists, let alone black lesbian artists, number few in our context. At the same time it fails to consider the psychic toll and physical risks involved in being South Africa’s most visible queer activist in a context of extreme homophobia and violence. Corrigall also questions whether Muholi’s activism extends beyond the art-world. This betrays her ignorance of the organization Muholi founded, Inkanyiso, as well as what Muholi’s work has meant for queer activists both here and abroad.

The review focuses on “Of Love and Loss”, a series of photographs that record and celebrate queer weddings and that document the funerals of lesbians who have been raped and killed. These two kinds of ceremonies are important social rituals for queer communities and are both private spaces of joy and of grief as well as political spaces that show how far we have come and how far we have to go before there is justice for all in our country. Corrigall also mentions Muholi’s current show with Gabrielle Le Roux at the Wits Art Museum, “Queer and Trans Art-iculations: collaborative art for social change”. Corrigall argues that the uniformity of Muholi’s treatment of those she photographs in her “Faces and Phases” series reduces the space for the expression of individuality. My own reading of Muholi’s work is that something much more complex is at work in this extensive portrait series. “Faces and Phases” mobilises the conventions of memorial portrait photography to open a space for mourning and at the same time queers that space by juxtaposing images of the dead with multiple portraits of living queer subjects.

Corrigall insists that Muholi’s desire is to “normalize” homosexuality. It is important to point out here that homosexuality is not abnormal and therefore does not require normalization. It is should also be noted that while Muholi claims a place for queer subjects within the dominant order this is not to say that her photographs normalize people and practices considered by some as deviant. On the contrary, what her work aims to do is to refuse the bounds of the so-called normal, by not simply expanding but by exploding such limits.

There is a growing body of scholarly writing about Muholi’s work by academics in South Africa like Desiree Lewis, Pumla Gqola, Zethu Matebeni and myself, and by people like Andrew van der Vlies, Brenna Munro and Henriette Gunkel in the UK, the US and Europe.
Corrigall would have done well to have read some of this work or spoken to some of the writers. It also would have helped had she spoken with the artist or read some of Muholi’s insightful reflections on her own work.

As it stands Corrigall’s piece displays an astonishing lack of consciousness about the politics of race and representation as well as of the intersections between compulsory heterosexuality and sexual violence as experienced by women in South Africa, queer-identified or not, and by men who do not perform heterosexist normativity. She critiques Muholi, whose life’s work is to portray black queer experience after the end of apartheid, and black lesbian experience in particular, for not documenting the lives of white lesbian women. She goes on to write, “Similarly, what of all the heterosexual women in this country who are raped and murdered because they don’t conform to conventional or traditional ideas about women imposed on them? Or is this too everyday a subject?
Who Muholi photographs doesn’t only determine who turns up on opening night, but exposes who is in, or out.” Violence visited upon heterosexual women is bound to the violence queer people experience in South Africa. Addressing homophobia is at the same time to address heteronormative patriarchy.

What are the connections between the murder of Anene Booysens who was raped and disemboweled in the Western Cape in 2013 and the murder of Duduzile Zozo who was raped and killed, her body found with a toilet brush inserted into her vagina in Gauteng in 2013?
Was Anene straight or queer?
Was Duduzile a mother?
Why does this matter?
It matters only in as much as certain people are marked for death as a result of their choices about who to love; about what they wear; about how they choose to think and about whether and with whom they choose to have children. Should all acts of rape be understood as hate crimes?
Are white women subject to the same kinds of violence as that experienced by black women in South Africa?
These are important questions that Muholi’s work opens up and that the series of rhetorical questions that Corrigall’s review poses, but makes no attempt to answer, shuts down.

Corrigall’s closing line, in which she writes that Muholi’s choice of participants for her portrait work “exposes who is in, or out” implies that Muholi’s work has aestheticized lesbian rape and has made of homophobic violence a kind of fashionable topic. This is offensive on many levels and makes clear that Corrigall fails to grasp the political force of Muholi’s work and overlooks the artist’s personal position in relation to this subject. Not every review of Muholi’s photographs can or should necessarily serve to amplify the message of her work. However, when you consider that her message is that all people, queer or not, have a right to a place in this world then you have to ask what it means to write against this. When the then Minister of Arts and Culture Lulu Xingwana walked out of the Innovative Women exhibition in 2009 she left, not, as Corrigall claims, because she thought the works she saw there were pornographic. She left because she claimed the photographs on display were “immoral, offensive” and “went against nation-building”. This kind of statement from those who hold power in our country and who determine who is afforded a place in the nation- state is in fact, what, to quote Corrigall, “exposes who is in, or out”.

Kylie Thomas

14 March 2014

kyliethomas.south@gmail.com

This piece was written in response to Mary Corrigall’s review of Zanele Muholi’s work,
“Sense of Belonging” published in the Sunday Independent, 2 March 2014.

About the author

Kylie Thomas lives in Cape Town where she teaches and writes about the history and representation of the HIV/AIDS epidemic; violence during and after apartheid; and about photography and visual activism.

Related articles on “Of Love and Loss” exhibition

The Constitution of Love and Loss

and

Zanele Muholi’s new work mourns and celebrates South African queer lives

and

Spreading hate in the name of God

L-R: Jelena Kuljic and Maureen Velile Majola at backstage before their performance at Studio 44, Constanza Macras in Berlin last night. 

Jelena Kuljic about to sing “Senzeni na?” 

Maureen Majola lit the candles and prayed hard… God please end hate crimes in South Africa

L-R:  Tamar Saphir, Zanele Muholi responding to questions, Eckhard Weber (moderated the session after the performance and ‘We Live In Fear’ screening) and Maureen Velile Majola on the far right.

Lerato Shadi, Tamar Saphir and Sabelo Mlangeni

Zanele Muholi franked by Arnold and Ulrike Sommer of Kultuur.21

Emma & Mamello chatting after the performance at Studio 44

Our friends in Berlin.
L-R:  Signe, Muholi, Eva, Lerato, Maureen, Tuleka and Michelle

Photos
© Zanele Muholi and Erik Dettwiler
(2014/04/05)
BERLIN

Part of the text below was first posted on Dorkypark website

The performance SIFELA I AYIKHO - which is a Zulu expression translated loosely to WE ARE BEING KILLED FOR NOTHING - is exploring parts of South African social landscapes in which the lives of black lesbian and trans women in South Africa, including our own, is always exposed to danger.

The project is an effort to reclaim citizenship and is also a call for an end to queercide, a term coined by Zanele Muholi for the systematic atrocities and hate crimes against lesbians, gay men and trans people in South Africa.

The project is motivated by the ongoing epidemic of brutal murders of black lesbians in the post-Apartheid South Africa.

© Zanele Muholi  (01/04/2014)

We are in a crisis.
One lesbian death is a loss to the entire nation.
Children have been orphaned by hate crimes.
Lovers lost their beloved.
Family members mourn their relatives and children.
The workplace and classroom is robbed of its professions.

South Africa’s democratic laws instituted by the Constitution of 1996 are meant to protect the LGBTI community from all forms of discrimination, but our communities have been invaded by an epidemic of violent hate crimes, including callous murders and ‘curative rapes.’

Therefore we need to take action as concerned members of larger the society.Innocent individuals have been dismembered due to sexuality and gender expression.

The performance takes form of a stage protest, poetry, song and musical instruments are used to emphasize the ongoing incidents.

The performance will expand on an existing body of work that documents hate crimes against black lesbians that Zanele Muholi developed since 2004 and consists of three parts:
PART 1 – Blank Portraits
PART 2 – Crime scene memorial (motion picture)
PART 3 – Previous Film titled ‘Isililo’ – projection

Zanele Muholi is a visual activist born in Umlazi, Durban and currently lives in Johannesburg. Studied Photography at Market Photo Workshop, Newtown, Johannesburg and later, MFA: Documentary Media at Ryerson University, Toronto. Muholi is the founder of a collective call Inkanyiso with a Queer Art Activism media outlet. She has contributed her photography to many queer and art publications and academic journals.

Maureen Velile Majola is an activist, poet and writer from Alexandra township, Johannesburg in South Africa. She is a young feminist and currently associated with Coalition of African Lesbian (CAL) as the Documenting Officer. She is a crew member of Inkanyiso.org founded by Zanele Muholi.

Jelena Kuljic was born in Serbia and moved to Germany in 2003 to study singing at the Jazz Institute Berlin. Along with her own band, Yelena K & The Love Trio (Double Moon Records 2010), she has been a featured guest in many music and theatre projects through-out Europe. Jelena has worked extensively as a singer and actress with the director David Marton. Some of the their productions have included such important theatres as Vienna’s Burg Theater, The Royal Theater of Copenhagen, Volksbuehne Berlin, MC93 Paris/ Schaubühne. Since 2013 Jelena is working with Constanza Macras/Dorkypark. In March 2014 Jelena’s band KUU! is releasing their first album Sex gegen Essen.

Texts by Yaya Mavundla
Photos by Smanga Shange

I usually sit front row at Fashion Week, mingle with the crème de la crème of the entertainment industry at A-list events and I found myself at Miss Gay Jozi held at the Wits Theatre, Johannesburg on the 17^th of May 2014 seated at a very noisy block which was like 7 rows away from where I’d usually sit. Not to mention I had to buy a ticket to come watch drag queens lip sync for their life, mind you I’m used to getting an exclusive invite to watch Who’s Who sing live. Not that I’m complaining, just putting it out there.

Miss Gay Jozi 2014 logo

2014 May 17 Miss Tee Menu about to take her 1st walk as the Queen of Miss Gay Jozi 2014

Best pageant in Jozi

It’s been a while since I attended such a great pageant hosted by the LGBTI community. At Miss Gay Jozi I felt like I was watching Miss World Pageant. From the outfits the one MC wore Zsa-Zsa the girls and the performances. For the first time I was convinced that they did research to understand what we people want. The introduction of the Club Simply Blue reigning queens was the BEST! The traditional wear introduction the girls killed it! Out of 12 girls only 1 girl didn’t get it right, Thibi and if RuPaul was present she would have said “Sashe Away” and that will mean end of her journey in the competition. The swim suit, such perfection! For a second I imagined Miss Universe swim suit competition that’s how good it was. Like the usual, there will always be bad girls and this time around it was contestant number 2 and 4 who wore lingerie. Such disappointment! Listening is a skill girls, and you clearly don’t have it.

The cocktail wear all the girls were such stunners! Miss Tee and Somizy wore it best! I could see myself in Somizi’s white dress at this year’s Style Awards.

The best dress, as prize for the overall winner

And then there was evening wear, Ball Gowns… Well clearly contestant number 1, Sjarmante Diamante didn’t get the memo or she probably didn’t want to listen as she got it wrong! She was is in a wedding gown, more like she is about to walk down the aisle. My favourite was Somizy, Miss Tee and definitely Davy who looked like she was at the Miss Universe pageant. She looked amazing in a blue dress with open sleeves. She reminded me of Lwandle Ngwenya, Miss SA 12 finalist.

Too many performances

There was a point where I wished they could ask the audience if we still want more performances. Besides the fact that they were all AMAZING but truth is less is more. I felt like I was in a concert rather than a pageant. The opening performance by Divas of Drag was “OK”. Ella has grown, she’s more of a performer now than an entertainer. She sings! Perfect for the theatre.

Labelz D’Glamour, actually no! LABELZ D’GLAMOUR. Nhlanhla Ncinza of Mafikizolo would be so shy if she were to see this girl’s performance. She nailed it! If she was in attendance she would probably hide somewhere, when a drag queen gets a standing ovation for performing your song better, joh!
Tina Turner’s performance was Simply The Best just like the tittle of the song she performed! I won’t be surprised if some people were convinced it was her performing.

There were too many performances in a way that if I were to bore you with the details it will be two pages.
Drama at thee most dignified theatre

Wits Theatre is such a dignified space, more like you are on Broadway, there is no way you would imagine that people can let loose just like that. On arrival with Maureen Majola and Smanga Shange, just after paying for our tickets I asked one of the organizers if it was possible to interview the girls. “Not in this competition my dear, how can you arrive at 8pm and want to interview the girls, the media people did that at 6pm” that’s the response I received from one of the organizers. Despite me humbling myself saying “its owk I understand” he still made it a point to go on and on forever. I was so B.O.R.E.D I needed a drink to loosen up again.

Jerome Camp – one of Miss Gay Jozi 2014
organisers

Just like at any other pageant in the world, when close friends and family are proud of their girl they would go up on stage and hug the winner, take pictures with her, like Donald Trump at Miss Universe pageant would say. I will keep the memories and he does that through pictures. At Miss Gay Jozi it was a different story, when Lesiba Mothibe, Miss Tee’s mother and I were on stage to congratulate Miss Tee and take pictures, pageant organizer Dino Abrahams came on stage and screamed like someone who is watching scary movie One Missed Call. I couldn’t believe it! “Get out of my stage, you don’t belong here” He said.

While I was still digesting that, Dimpho all the way from Vaal with her friend Leroy were in such bad behaviour, in a way that Leroy was so drunk that she could not contain herself and found herself a comfortable corner inside the theatre to get some sleep, I don’t know if she passed out or she decided to take a break from the 5 litre boxed wine they were busy with and puffing smokes like they in a tavern, so embarrassing!

Labels the “it” girl

Labelz D’Glamour belongs in Rio! She was the BEST, basically the highlight for the evening. Her performances, I mean, I’ve seen the best girls on stage perform in Cape Town, CREW amongst other venues and at Miss Gay Western Cape but I can say they have nothing on her. More like how Beyonce did it at her “I AM” World Tour. Her Waka Waka performance was the best, from her grand entrance, the outfit and the whole performance, even RuPaul would give her a standing ovation had she been there.

The Mafikizolo performance. It will take time for me to think of Nhlanhla Ncinza when I hear Khona by Mafikizolo. She owned it.

Fake everything

Fake eyelashes are allowed, most contestants and performers wore them. Padding to add curves, I don’t get it but fine. Fake flowers for the winner! A NO, NO! I don’t know what the idea behind it was and where did they get it. Maybe they want the winner to hand them over to the next year’s queen when her reign finishes? I have never!

Girls at their usual best, not able to answer judges questions

Gorgeous girls wearing gowns that would pay a BMW 1 series deposit combined together but NO brains. Majority of the contestants couldn’t answer the questions. Even the simple question as “If you were to be on a cover of a magazine, which one would you choose to be on and why?”
I mean if the Acting Editor of True Love who was previously Editor of Real Magazine before it was canned was present, she would have been so embarrassed that there are beauty queens who want to be cover girls with no stories to tell.

Second princess was just lucky to place on the Top 3 as she also couldn’t answer the question. She explained something about the bible for about 5 minute and only made one valid point which was also not really answering the question.

The right girl wins

Despite contestant number 4, Cheaza Jaars failing to answer the judges question she still took the Second Princess spot. I would say she deserved it since there was no one else would have been the contestant to take that position as most girls were the weakest links when coming to answering what was asked. The first princess position went to contestant who I didn’t expect to be on the top 3, Thibi Monale. She failed dismally to answer the judge’s question and yet she wishes to be True Love Magazine cover girl with no story to tell.
Miss Tee Menu, Shaka Zulu’s daughter as she introduced herself in her traditional outfit. It was clear that to me that she was the obvious winner with her well presentation of traditional, swim suit, cocktail, Ball Gown and nailed the final question. “For the first time a deserving girl wins” – Jason Samuel said after Miss Tee Menu from Daveyton was crowned Miss Gay Jozi 2014.

Best performance by Mr Carter who was almost naked on stage…

To interact with me, please follow me on Twitter and Instagram @YayaRSA

Previous by Yaya

2014 March 30:  Dressed in the Jackson 5 assemble, exotic dance moves and performing hit singles with no support from friends

and

2014 March 30:  Bright future for Mzamo

by Collen Mfazwe

Growing up was never easy but it was kind of fun because I did not understand some of the things I was supposed to understand, e.g. why did I have to menstruate every month?
Why did my breasts have to grow?
It is not like I had to feed a baby. Those where the questions I always had when I was growing up since I identify as a butch lesbian.  Even now I still have those questions. I just do not understand and I do not want to understand, why do I have to understand things that I do not  like or things that I do not want.

Collen Mfazwe, Daveyton township, Johannesburg, 2012.           Featuring in Faces and Phases by Zanele Muholi

I grow up in a family with two boys and three girls and I was the other boy to balance
the numbers to three boys  and three girls.  We were raised by our late lovely mother who always knew what she wanted for us and was always with us.  No matter how hard the situation, she always stood by us. I am talking about the woman who taught us all the things we needed to know in life. I mean sharing, cleanliness, respect but most of all she taught us how to pray the Lord’s Prayer  because God was our only father we had and even today he is the only father  we have .

My mom was the strongest woman I ever known and her passing on distracted me so much. I remember leaving school and going to hang around with friends and becoming a stranger to my own home because I could not stay at home anymore. Things that I did before I did not do them anymore because I thought I wanted to prove to my mom that I can be stronger than her and I wanted to do things that she had not done for us to make her the happiest woman in the world but God took her from us.  That is where I gave up everything and started to be something else to the extent that my aunt went to police station to report that I was not schooling and was not staying at home, asking the police to help her by taking me to the cell every weekend, just for me to be safe.  I was with her when she filed the report. I promised the police that it would not happen again and they took my word for it. Right after we left the station I disappeared just like that.

One night we went out with friends drinking and smoking having fun, walking drunk at night and feeling invincible.  Fun turned out to be my worst nightmare.  A group of boys robbed us, taking my friend’s phone and stabbing another of my friends.  It was so shocking, painful and scary.  We thought she would  die so we carried her to a nearest police station to look for an emergency ambulance.  Luckily we got one there, she eventually survived and that was my wake up call. I went back home and started going to school but I didn’t pass my matric and that didn’t make me a failure because life was really hard and there was no income at home so I choose to do things that I knew the will feed me and my family. I started to open a small business selling snacks and ice creams.  I was also gardening and painting so that I could put bread on the table for the young ones.  My elder brother and sister were doing their best as well. This is what allowed me to pick myself up.

I always wanted to be a successful businessman and I always saw myself staying in a big house when I grew up.  I was raised in a shack and always had dreams.   I wanted to be a Forensic Accountant but all that has not happened yet.

I am now a photographer, not by mistake but because God wanted me to be one. Zanele Muholi found me at the 2012 Miss Gay and Mr Lesbian contest in Daveyton. Later she introduced me to photography and took me to the Market Photo Workshop to study photography and now I can say I have a career.  I need to maintain it and make sure I do not repeat the mistakes of yesterday. Muholi is everything to me.  She showed me that one could be anything if they want.  I am the holder of my future.  It is in my hands and I am the controller of my life.  I just have to be responsible for my every action, thanks to Muholi.

Today I receive emails from people I never met but they only experienced my work saying, “Dear Collen Mfazwe can we kindly have the permission to use your work for our article or book?”
How fascinating is that?
It is possible if you believe.

Previous articles

2013 Aug. 31:  Best mark followed by death news

and

2013 July 13:  Picturing Duduzile Zozo’s funeral

My name is Abongile Matyila.
Abongile is a Xhosa name which means to be grateful. My uncle gave me that name.
I’m a 22 year old Bachelor of Arts (BA) student studying at the University of Fort Hare, East London in the Eastern Cape.

Born in Mdantsane, the second biggest township in South Africa, I was raised with three younger siblings and brought up by both my parents. Due to socio-economic pressures to find a good qualification, I entered my first year of university as an Accounting student, but subsequently developed an interest in the fields of Sociology and Philosophy which are his current courses of study. My love for these subjects offered me a platform to explore much of my own identity in relation to the world around me.
Growing up as a person with an ambiguous sexuality fuelled my interest towards understanding the complexities of sexuality, gender expression and the act of sex itself. I was afforded the opportunity to present on the topic of sexuality in a philosophy colloquium at the University of Fort Hare. I assisted in coordinating a student LGBTI group at the university in 2011 and proceeded to join the Eastern Cape Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender Intersex organisation, of which is currently appointed as the Provincial Organiser.

Apart from being politically active in the field of LGBTI rights in the Eastern Cape, I have always had a burning passion for the performing arts. I was considered a stellar jazz soloist in high school, and participated in various local theatre productions during my teen years.  Later on danced in a performing group called Creative Pulse which offered a platform for LGBTI artists.  It is where I found freedom to express myself as a performer whilst interacting with like-minded artists. As much as I loved performing, although my love for the arts has always defined the person I am.
I felt that need to ground and identify myself in my hometown where a change of perceptions towards LGBTI people – cultural and religious – was needed.

As an individual, my desire has always been to champion one’s sole expression, regardless of whom or where they are. Being a gender non-conforming black person meant I had to mediate between my gender expression, sexuality and cultural values, which might not have been aligned under ‘usual’ circumstances. Having to find a common ground between these components encouraged me to find myself, and thus live an assertive life full of expression and liberty.

I wish to see myself walking on the ramps of Paris Fashion week. I want to be in a big stage production or as a well-recognised activist, a proof that every individual is unique and has as much a right to a full life as any. Everyone should be treated with respect, as we are all human beings, and afforded the liberty to live their lives as they see fit; a life free from pressure to conform, inequality and prejudice.

Understanding and embracing one’s individuality is key to accepting who one is, which creates room to live your life to the fullest. The act of being yourself is indeed the best person you can ever be.

ABONGILE MATYILA Scenery Park, AMALINDA. East London. (2012)                                                          Photo by Zanele Muholi.

I found myself at 22

Seems like I’ve been walking aimlessly
Dodging bullets of hate and vile perceptions
What are you, where do you come from?
Am I not supposed to be here?

The life I had come to know
Did not recognise who I was
Not my love, nor my face
Nor my need to breathe the same air
The hard cold of its back offering thick clouds of judgment
I don’t know who I am anymore.

I lost the warmth of the sun in my sleep
The feel of the morning dew on my feet
I forgot the smell of the waking world at dawn
The mornings filled with joy,
days filled with happiness

But this is not my home

There is no place for me here.

I catch a glimpse of a photograph
A spot of distant hope in my eyes
A hope of dancing at the Theatre
And walking the streets of Paris close to midnight
The rain misty
and soft
against my smile, warmed by a content heart
This air is filled with crisp dreams
And a life full of worth for the living!

But where is this life?
If I this one is not mine to live,
In my own way?
How is it that you impose your thoughts about my body,
As if repainting an old wall worthless to the space it occupies?

Man, what has my love for another spoken to you
That encourages you to crush my dreams
and devalue my self worth?

Tell me
I need to breath; a space to be visible
To be loved

I need a place I can call home.

Transgender pupil continues to face transphobia within school premises from his peers and without any assistance from the school

Transgender and Intersex Africa (TIA) announces with great dismay that a transgender pupil from Pretoria,*Tshepo (not his real name) whose sexual harassment was brought forth in May 2011, has yet again been sexually harassed at school. He was singled out by his fellow pupils (and their older friends who are not pupils at the school) who tried to disrobe him, threatened him and posed uncomfortable questions which implied that Tshepo’s gender expression existed because he is afraid to sleep with men .Since the incident Tshepo has been absent from school as he feels that he is not safe, school is a place thought to be safe but in his case it has become a place of fear. Tshepo’s mother Kedibone claims that the school principal does not consider the seriousness of the matter and has not offered any aid for her child.

The series of events mentioned above  occurred on the Pretoria Central High School premises ; one of the school’s key mission is to “promote values like mutual respect for one another’s right to religious conviction, expression and association” in this case the mission statement has not been upheld for Tshepo’s  sake. The school’s vice-president is aware of the of the incident including the previous one, but yet when we asked for comment regarding the matter, He asked we direct all questions to the Department of Education.

This proves to us that the rights of this transgender pupil have been violated and his wellbeing has been placed at jeopardy.  When He was referred to a psychologist at Kalafong Hospital by TIA in regards to his gender reassignment therapy, the Psychologist refused to assist Tshepo* because she felt that the need for his surgery was not a priority as compared to cancer patients and furthermore stated that Tshepo must accept that he has breasts and that whether or not he gets the surgery his gender will never change. The psychologist clearly lacks respect for transgender patients. This highlights the reality that gender reassignment therapy is not seen as priority in most health institutions, even when people seeking this important intervention in their lives continue to take their lives when denied access to it. Tshepo is one of the people who are currently suicidal because of prejudice and the failure by medical service providers to recognize the need for gender affirming services within healthcare facilities, in his note that he had left for his mother before attempting to overdose on pills he says” I feel so small. I just want to die and get over this.”

His mother Kedibone has been his pillar of strength although she knows she cannot change the perceptions of others, she stands firm in supporting her child through this.

Although South Africa is the most liberal country on the continent when it comes to LGBTI rights, traditional values still hold strong in rural areas and townships. This case highlights the multiple layers of oppression that transgender people in South Africa face, especially young black transgender people. The case indicates the violations that they have to overcome on a daily basis, schools are rarely safe places because of the transphobia from pupils and sometimes from teachers as well, this significantly contributes to the high levels of school dropout rates within the transgender community.

The case also shows that transgender healthcare is not prioritised in most of our healthcare facilities. It is disheartening to hear of health service providers that turn transgender patients away claiming that there are more “serious” cases that they have to concentrate on. Transphobia in healthcare is unhealthy.

After TIA contacted the school regarding this matter on the 9th June 2014, we received a call from the schools social worker to schedule a meeting with department of education along with the schools disciplinary committee. The meeting will be held at the Department of Education’s district offices on Wednesday, 11 June 2014

We urge The Department of Education to investigate the matter further and provide the much needed support to the pupil and his family. We cannot turn a blind eye while transgender people face discrimination, inequity and prejudice within our education institutions. We need to change the mind-sets of those who are meant to protect us, key role players such as the police, doctors, teachers and so forth.

For more information please contact

Tebogo Nkoana

Executive Director

Transgender and Intersex Africa (TIA)

012 7972612

0793677108

Transgender.intersex101@gmail.com

by Tsepo Kgatlhane

Last week was rough, NO! The past couple of weeks were rather hectic.  So much has been happening in my life. It feels as if I have lived a year in less than 4 months. I am trying really hard to remember everything I do and the emotions I go through on daily basis, hence I have decided to start keeping a
journal and share with you, what I go through weekly, in my pursuit of being the change I want to see in the world.

“I work very hard and I want young men and women to know you have to work very hard”- Maya Angelou

“They are all my children”
-Maya Angelou

When asked, I describe myself in four words: I am an educator. I work from Monday to Friday. I wake up at 6am to be at school at 7:15am to start teaching Life Orientation to grades 11 and 12; English FAL to grades 9 for 8 periods every day till 2:30 pm.  During breaks I also run various projects such as the Youth Citizen Project (YCAP) with grade 10 and 11 students focused on various campaigns to address the social and environmental issues in our school community.

I love my students and they love me too because I continuously motivate them to dream and have a vision and show them the critical role, education can play in their lives. I lead by example and excellence; I always make sure they see me work hard.

 “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me”
-Philippians 4:13
I was recently nominated in the Volksblad, Anglo American, Northern Cape Citizen of the Year competition for all the philanthropic work that I do in my community.  ‘What an honor!’ is what I said to myself when I went for the interview round this past Friday in Kimberley. I hope it all goes well.  If you have ever been to the Northern Cape you would know how big this province is. I am one of 6 people to have been nominated in this category. I haven’t really expressed how happy I am, I have just used the
expression ‘I am humbled by the nomination’ over and over.

I do not want it to get to my head; I am truly humbled by it. I am trying. The Gala award ceremony was held on the 28 May in Kathu, approximately 45 kilometers away from Kuruman.
What will I wear and who will I take with me?
I have so many people who claim to be my friends just because they know me.

Wednesday, 28 May

I have been invited to address The Kuruman Women Agricultural Association (KWAA).
Not sure what it is but at least I got a brief about what they want me talk about, my Afrikaans show on Kurara FM. I cannot wait, it has been a long dream of mine to expand my brand and grow in the Afrikaans community. How am I going to do all this on Wednesday? Have to be productive at school, deliver a speech at the KWAA, get an outfit and be on time for the Gala event.

“If a human being dares to dream a great dream, dares to love somebody, dares to be Martin King, or Mahatma Gandhi, or Mother Teresa, or Malcolm X. If a human being dares to be bigger than the condition in which she or he was born, it means so can you” – Maya Angelou

Finally decided to call Thato Tfee Kaebis, spoke to him a few weeks ago and told him on night out that I need someone who can help me with my various projects and just be there like an assistant. So he came on Monday and he is going to be shadowing me for the next few weeks. I introduce him as my assistant but he is more than that to me. Thato reminds me a lot of my friend Gift, he is very talented.
He is only 23 and I remember where I was at age 23, gay and confused.

I was uncertain of what I was supposed to do with my life and whether teaching was the right career for me. My assistant, as I refer to him when I introduce him to people, came at the right time!

Today I was reminded that I need to submit my Grade 11 and 12 master files and learner portfolios for district and provincial moderation in less than 2 days, about 200 learner portfolios. How am I going to survive?

“I was here” – Beyonce

School has become a place that I do not like. I feel like I am always on defense, making my voice heard. Everyone has congratulated me on my nomination but I could not help but notice that the people whom I spend most of my time with did not say anything. I do not know what to make of it.  Is it jealousy, envy or hatred? Don’t know all I know is that I can stand people who do not like me because of my sexuality because that is largely due to ignorance but people who cannot even congratulate you when it is deserved are another story.

Haai Ke! Lucky enough for me, my mom warned me about such people who never give credit where credit is due. Today I was forced to say something in the information session and inform the staff that one of my students would be accompanying me to The Northern Cape citizen Gala dinner where the announcement will be made.  Only then was I congratulated.

“I have a dream that one day little black boys and girls will be holding hands with little white boys and girls” – Martin Luther King JR.

School came out at 2pm today and luckily I managed to get a lift to the venue where I was to deliver my speech. I couldn’t bear the thought of taking a taxi to town, hike to the venue and get there late. I hate being late and it is something that I am working on.

The Kuruman Women Agricultural Association is a women’s organization which offers its members personal growth which offers opportunities for personal advancement and community service. So after reading that on the program which was handed to me as I entered the hall I realized why I was invited to be the first speaker for the day and have to address middle aged and old women who made me feel welcome despite my skin colour. They were very interested in what I had to say and as to why I had been invited to address them.

“Goeie Middag dames en meneer, Ek voel baie geeerd om vanmiddag saam met julle hier te kan wees. Baie dankie vir die uitnodiging.”
They didn’t expect this. I spoke to them about my radio show which is on Saturdays and how I felt in 2012 when I was one of the first two presenters to have gone live on air. What an experience! One lady who gave me a lift back in to town  remarked that today’s KWAA gathering was very refreshing not sure what she meant guess she enjoyed having me there. I made a lot of contacts on the day and saw my former Librarian, Me Erasmus. She is old now and could not remember me but it was nice seeing her after all these years. It was a nice experience and wish I could have stayed longer but needed to get an outfit for the Gala dinner which was took place 3 hours later.

“There is no failure except in no longer trying”- Elbert Hubbard.

I got a very nice white shirt with black detail that I decided to wear with my white and black blazer and black chino pants. Outfit sorted. So now I needed to check on all the people I invited to confirm as to where we would meet and what time we would be departing. I invited my mom, aunt, her husband and younger brother. I also invited one of my students to come and bear testimony to what I always tell them and show them.  Nthabiseng, my friend who always travels with me, also accompanied me and I had to organize alternative transport at the last minute and invite 3 additional guests at the last minute one of them being a friend of mine.

I arrived about 15 minutes late – remember I hate it and I am working on it – to what was a beautiful event. If ever I wanted to feel appreciated Volksblad showed me how much they appreciated all I do. Got to meet some of the 6 nominees in my category and got to hear what they had done in their communities.  I am inspired not only by their stories but by Nianel singing too. I have always loved her.

Being nominated in the Northern Cape Citizen of the year competition and having my family and friends who have supported me in all my endeavors their really meant a lot to me .Words cannot adequately describe just how much. Unfortunately I wasn’t selected Northern Cape Citizen of the year for 2013 .The award went to a man who rescued a dog from the Big hole last year and who has dedicated his life to helping people. He forms part of the SAPS.

His beautiful wife whom I had the privilege of speaking to accepted the award on his behalf. He was a worthy winner as this was his second time having being nominated.
I feel honored to have been nominated alongside such a great man who has inspired me to keep on trying to be the change…

Previous by Tsepo

2014 May 17: Unforgettable IDAHO speech

by Pam Dlungwana

How do you describe Inkanyiso to a foreign audience?
What is it?
Is it an artist’s itch to get back into the activist pool because that is how they have framed their practice in the global sphere?
Is it an anthropological knee jerk from someone who has some cash flowing their way and wants to channel international guilt funds via the afro-queer expressway?
Is it an effort of one individual to Sankofate* back into that which they are most familiar, a space of radical and grassroots (to borrow a once abused ANC expression) community activism with links to an umbilical narrative digital reality and reportage on afro-queerity and all that encompasses in one easily accessible space?
I think it’s the latter, that at least is what I told a room full of Belgians attending the screening of ‘Difficult Love’ on Monday  the 16^th of June 2014 at Bozar Palais Des Beaux Arts.

Zanele Muholi was invited to be a part of Christine Eyene’s ‘Where We’re At!’ exhibition in Bozar this past week and because she had obligations with her alma mater at Ryerson Image Center, Ryerson University in Toronto,  Canada, she asked me to go along as her avatar, charming! I look nothing like Zee and have none of her charismatic church leader qualities but we booked the flight and after a 13 hour flight I was on a train full of drunk Belgian football fans headed for the festival. I read up on the festival, on Christine and on some of the panelists featured in the festival programme. That I left South Africa on my birthday counts for why it is I was able to fly with ease, I am a nervous traveller and find that copious amounts of booze ease the grease, I snoozed all the way to and from, bless the prohibition mavericks.

On landing I met a friend at the Sheraton for a light lunch and ‘Howzit? I took a shower and later a tram to Bozar for the artists’ talks (a nightmare I thought I had long left behind in my days as Greatmore Studios residency coordinator) and found this event informative, the audience curious and engaging. Euro 1 – South Africa 0.

I arrived at Bozar in time to hear Alberta Whittle speak on her works, which unlike other works (here I am talking on medium versus content) are throw-aways, are posters which the very anti-thesis of commercial art but manage to pose pertinent questions on female representation in dance hall culture in the Carribean. I was struck by the nature of the work, where it performs itself (a hyper-public sphere) and how immediately accessible it was in terms of its visual content and was forced just minutes of that awe to reflect on it’s accessibility in terms of discoursive content within that space (the taxi rank, the club, random public wall). I nodded and cheered as she spoke, she was one of a handful of artists that spoke in English and I was unashamed of my inability to express myself in French, fuck ‘em, they can’t even say my name right.

Post the talks we were entertained by the Palais Des Beaux Arts for a dinner at a restaurant close by, we mingled, mindless chatter (chatter of the networking kind – painful) and from this I was saved by Veronique, long time friend and collaborator of the centres CEO and Christine the exhibition curator. Thank you lawd for major miracles, I cannot lie where it counts.

At the end of the dinner we walked back to the hotel, we chatted, we were tired from the travel from our various homes (South Africa, Australia, DRC, France, etc…) everybody just wanted a slow lie in.

On reaching the hotel, I left my newfound crew and went out in search for queer central instead where I met Manuel and Mateo and enjoyed Chimay Blonde (a beer I have an APB on in our local fridges it’s not even a slight joke) and some tasty ass Brussels drag fun. Gawd bless the Queens!! I slept at four am, happy as a lark. Happy birthday Ms Pam, you sure deserve the fun!! I dreamt of little, not my talk at 8pm the next day, not of shopping, not of my girlfriend or that tasty piece of ass I couldn’t get two breaths in to even mac at the club. Sleep of the dead.

Muholi on Agenda cover… for “Where We’re At! Other Voices on Gender”

Previous by Pam

2013 April 30:  this summer

All Photos by Lerato Maduna
© 27/11/2012

What:  Faces and Phases exhibition opening

When:  2 Years ago (27th November 2012)

Where:  Goethe-Institut Südafrika, 119 Jan Smuts Ave, Parkwood. Johannesburg.

 Where are they now?

Ayanda Moremi got married to Nhlanhla Moremi on the 9th November 2014 in Thokoza and Vosloorus townships, Johannesburg.

Ntobza work and live in Durban.  Yaya Mavundla writes for Inkanyiso

Alia has since moved to Georgia…
 Sly Pod travelled with me to San Francisco and presented her story as a participant in Faces and Phases and on the state of being a young black lesbian professional in South Africa.
See: Photos from Brown Bois Retreat in Oakland, California.

Collen Mfazwe is finishing Photography –  Intermediate Course at Market Photo Workshop.
Collen’s best article “The special boy”

Neo Ntsoma had her documentary produced by AlJazeera 

https://buni.tv/video/artscape-new-african-photography-neo-ntsoma/

Neo is the first black woman recipient of the CNN African Journalist Award for photography...

The number of friends, participants in Faces and Phases series who attended the exhibition… More than 300 individuals were there.

Lesego Tlhwale volunteered for Inkanyiso as a writer and currently work for SWEAT in Cape Town. Lesego’s partner is featured here with her partner, Baitiri.
Best read article by Lesego is “A dildo is not a man, it’s a fantastic toy…”

Ayanda Msiza photographed Tumi Nkopane and Maureen Majola.
Majola performed “Sifela I Ayikho” at Studio 44, Berlin in Germany.
Lerato Maduna, one of the best Black Female Photographers in South Africa, she took the photos featuring in this photo album. Lerato is franked by Siphiwe Mbatha and Collen Mfazwe both from Daveyton township.

Teekay Khumalo, Pinky Mbangula and Sne Lunga are some of the participants in Faces and Phases…

The handsome Teekay contemplating…
He came all the way from Durban to Johannesburg to attend the special event.

L-R:  Visual Artists Humbu Nsenga and Renee Mathibe came to support…

Xana Nyilenda is one of the best young filmmakers and writer.
Read her travel-log:
“Cramps were killing me.”

Members of my bio family who attended my exhibition for the first time in Johannesburg. So wish my late mother was physical there.

Responding to journalist question why I think Visual Activism is so important in South Africa….
Read article:  Poise, Pride and Prejudice

Lungile Dladla is a dedicated young activist. She wrote her first story for Inkanyiso which touched so many readers’ hearts. Titled “I am not a victim but a Victor”

Candice Nkosi won the second princess on Miss Gay Jozi (2013).
She is featuring in the Beauties and Beach series.

NB:  To read related articles CLICK on underlined links provided on this post.

To be continued…

Featuring in Faces and Phases series, Mamello ‘Meme’ Motaung, Daveyton, Johannesburg, 2014.   

My name is Mamello but am also known as Meme Motaung. Mamello is a South Sotho name meaning perseverance. I was named Mamello by my grandmother and I do not know the reasons behind my name.

I am a young proud black lesbian and I was born on 27 November 1994, at Boksburg Hospital, now known as O.R. Tambo hospital.  My mother tongue is Sesotho but I also speak Zulu, Sepedi, English, Setswana and a bit of Xhosa. I was raised by my grandparents, as I lost my mom on the 14th of February 2003 and I have never known my father. I am the first born and I have a pretty sister named Bohlale.

I live in Daveyton with my aunt, sister and my two cousins – my aunt’s daughters. I am currently unemployed, am working on uplifting my organisation named Team Dress Fresh it is all about clothing and fashion because I am really passionate about clothes. I passed my matric with a symbol ‘B’. I love reading books, watching movies and socializing with people. I want to study film and television next year.

I am a lesbian I do not like people to classify me. I am masculine, I consider myself beautiful not handsome because I am a woman. My family accepted me for being me and not living a lie around people and they support me in everything I do. I do have a female lover and both our families are very aware of our relationship. Love is beautiful, Love has no definition but love is a verb ‘doing word’ love is unconditional, loving one another is not a sin even Jesus himself said love one another as my father loved you.

Meme’s photo featured with Black Queer Born Frees in an exhibition held at the Wits Art Museum (WAM) in Jan. 2014.
______________________

In 2013 February I entered the Mr & Miss Valentine Gay and Lesbian held in Daveyton. It was my first time entering a beauty pageant and I really felt nervous but happy at the same time.  I did not get any title but it was so much fun that I would not mind entering a beauty pageant again because now I have a better knowledge about the pageants. I really love clothes because I think they define me as well as make me feel good about myself. I really am into vintage clothing.

I think lesbians should enter beauty pageants and they should be seen for the potential and skills that they possess.  I would love to study Film and Television because I really love it and I am also passionate about it.  I fell in love with it while I was in high school where I took Dramatic Arts.  I did not like the practical side of it but I was best at theory. I would love to study Film at AFDA but due to financial problems with my family I must consider a government university such as Tshwane University of Technology  (TUT) or Wits University because those are the universities I know that have Film designations.

I attended a drama conference where we were given an opportunity to be on set and do a short film.
I really enjoyed it.  I would like to start a clothing line but my team and I, have not approached anyone yet because we just started the organization and we are still lacking in finance, but one step at the time we are going to reach our goal.

I am turning 21 but have not thought about my 21^st birthday celebration but all I know is that I would love to have a party attended by friends, haters and family.

L-R: Meme Motaung, Shaz Mthunzi and Refiloe Pitso, all the three participants featuring in Faces and Phases series (2014) and the photos were exhibited at WAM in Jan. 2014

I agreed to participate in Faces and Phases because I knew people would love to know about me and I love being recognized even if it is for small things. I was really honoured to work with Zanele Muholi because she is well known photographer abroad. I agreed because I wanted be known for my sexuality, out and proud to be a young black lesbian.

Previous life stories

2014 May 24:  The special boy

and

2014 May 7:  I don’t like being identified in terms and definitions

and

2014 May 18:  Behind the beautiful face you see is a lesbian who is torn into a million pieces

and

2014 May 30:  I was a boy who would one day grow up to be a man

and

2013 Oct. 22:  I thought university was for the rich

and

2013 Oct. 16:  I am a beautiful young dyke, a woman lover

and

2013 Oct. 12:  I just feel she deserves much better

and

2013 Oct. 2:  I am a normal transgender woman’

and

2013 Aug. 22:  Am exactly where I’m supposed to be

and

2013 July 15:  The virus has become a silent relative

and

2013 June 27:  Who I Am

and

2013 February 28:  I am not a Victim but a Victor

 by Sebenzile Langa (previously known as Nkosi)

As hard as it is, it is so worth it. My marimba band performed at this year’s Sasol Bird Fair 2014 and they have been performing at the festival since 2011. Every year they get better. The hardest part is starting a new band every year as pupils leave to go to high school. Teaching music comes with its joys but it is also hard because students grow so fast and so do parents, and as much as things change, they also stay the same.

It is proven that music makes one smarter. One then wonders why when the pass rate of our country is 30%, a small number of children are picking up instruments and many of them in the sports field?

Our education department has grown a lot, adding arts and culture in its curriculum. However many of these children are being taught by people who have no training in the field. It is criminal really.  The grade 7 textbooks is really the best book in arts so far, however I wonder how those teachers are coping in teaching activities that require marimbas.  In the suburb I teach in, in the south of Johannesburg, we are the only school with marimbas. Most schools have recorders. There are not many teachers trained or that can even play instruments, while many trained musicians go without jobs hoping for get employment from the army or police bands.

Playing in orchestras is not cheap, you have to pay a fee, just for the experience.

Two of my students made it into the National School of Arts (NAC). As happy an occasion as it is, this means I now have 6 pupils that have made it through. I pray for their future.

25 June is instrument demonstration at Mondeor Primary School. I hope more children pick up an instrument and stay off the streets.

Previous by Sebenzile

2014 April 30:  Good spirit dampened by my grandfather’s death

What started as a hobby and mission to be read and recognized lead to a therapeutic process. Inkanyiso has grown from just a simple blog to a major information hub. I was thinking of how I could start an informal platform of information sharing having gained knowledge working as a reporter/photographer for the defunct Behind the Mask (www.mask.org.za).  End of January 2013, at the height of winter day in Paris at Michel Bizot, my partner’s former apartment when I created Inkanyiso blog. One of those days when I bled and suffering from period pains unable to deal with personal issues and deadlines that never ends. I juggled between wiping blood on the wooden floors and emails. In between all that commotion I bought a url for a space of visual activism and queer arts because there wasn’t any relevant site of queer media that spoke to me at that time.

Knowing me being a careless creative when driven by ideas, for logo I took an A4 sheet of white typing paper and made cut outs to spell I-N-K-A-N-Y-I-S-O. I then placed the cut outs on a green, purple, yellow and black checked scarf that I was used daily to save myself from the wintry Paris and then I took a photograph which still stand as our logo on this day on our blog.

I never anticipated the kind of support that I was about to get from contributors ranging from writers, photographers and readers. In my mind, the contributors to the blog were going to be the participants in my projects who would be writing about their lives and also allow youths to get cameras, photography their communities and write about them. There was a lot of interest and buzz around the blog as many people wanted to be part of an organization that I started but soon became a collective.

Inkanyiso stats on the 27th June 2014 @10h59

In February 2014, Inkanyiso celebrated its first anniversary of hectic blogging. By end of June 2014 we had 319 568 views. The most hits the blog received in 2013 was on sexual pleasures “A dildo is not a man, it’s a fantastic toy”…
Followed by the March 2013 intimate article “I love women and they love me”.
In June 2013, we documented “The Durban Lesbian Wedding of the Year” which was most viewed and still celebrated up until this day.
Also in  2013 we covered fully the memorial service and funeral of Duduzile Zozo.
End of June 2014 mark one year since she was brutally murdered in Thokoza township.
In 2014 were on the 10th of January  with 1576 hits. We had posted Brenda Mvula’s memorial service. This indicates that Inkanyiso has become a queer contending news source. My next post will be on the most read articles since our first day of blogging.

Inkanyiso became a place where facts were not sensationalized and individuals could read and comment in a safe and like minded atmosphere without being judged on how they writes out their feelings and truths.

Our coverage has spanned five continents: Africa, Asia, Europe, North America and South America.  We have covered the following; lectures, exhibitions, weddings, funerals, pride marches and community based projects, to name a few. Most of the articles posted are in English since it is our readers’ common language. We intend to expand and have posts translated in various languages as well.
Any ordinary person is welcome to submit their work, regardless of literacy level.

It is my wish to ensure that we increase women’s part I participation in photography. It is my duty as a professional photographer and a visual activist, to share my vast knowledge and resources.  Some of the members of Inkanyiso collective have accessed spaces that they would otherwise not have been able to. Every member has camera equipment and they are encouraged to pursue their own endeavours helping them to generate their own income.  Some are studying photography at Market Photo Workshop and I am impressed by what they have produced so far. This means that the visibility of female photographers in South Africa is on the rise.

As we continue to celebrate our first anniversary of hectic blogging, I would like to give a heartfelt thank you to all who have made Inkanyiso possible, from our dedicated Inkanyiso team members, the writers, editors, photographers, videographers, poets and most importantly the readers. Without you there would be no Inkanyiso. Makwande!

 2013 January, some of Inkanyiso team members and friends…
Back row:  Nqobile Zungu, Lerato, Collen, Jade, Lerato, Muholi.
Front row:  Mimi, Nqo’s friend, Penny, Nomthandazo, Kopano, Nqobile and Lesego.

 2013 Jan. Featuring beautiful souls we met along the way… 

L-R:  Charmain & Nqobile, Zet & Kopano, Lesego & Baitiri,  Maureen & Renee, Muholi and Andiswa & Noluntu.

Reflection by Tshidi Olive Legobye

I still remember when the Forum for the Empowerment of Women (FEW) started and  wanted to run LGBTi workshops in Vaal. We didn’t know where to start, but I came up with a plan and the first person came to my mind was Ausi Ouma.
I phoned her and explain the tasks we have at FEW and those tasks should be done as soon as possible. She didn’t deny the thought. She just said please do so especially for this kids who are coming up and those other lesbians who are living with hatred. It was one of the most memorable days of my life.

I phoned Donna Smith and Zanele Muholi and they were happy with those ideas and everything was possible. Arrangements were done. And Ausi Ouma offered us the space “Her House” to hold the ceremonies.
She never said NO to anything that builds LGBTi community.
Those are the kind of things that she will be remembered for – making people smile and bringing laughter in their lives.
Most of the Vaal Lesbians came out of closet for the first time at her place…her house in our presence. She was still supportive to the coming up lesbians and gays, she was so open and was also a teacher to most of the Sebokeng lesbians.
And while it’s going to be very difficult to think of this world without her, it is a happy thought knowing that wherever she is, she is only spreading happiness.

the late Ausi Ouma Baba Mahlabezulu

Baba Mahlabezulu’s house was warm and you’ll always feel at home.
There was peace and love in that house.
She taught her biological kids and Mathwasana /Sangomas to respect young and adults. And they have smiles on their face all the time.
Sebokeng/Vaal/Evaton was our territory Me and Zanele Muholi. We visited many places in those areas almost every weekend and even attended sangoma ceremonies “Mokete” Zanele even contributed some of the photographs for the researched stories in Tommy Boys, Lesbian Men and Ancenstral Wives a book edited by Ruth Morgan (former GALA director) and Saskia Wieringa.

“What moves through us is a silence, a quiet sadness, a longing for one more day, one more word, one more touch, we may not understand why you left this earth so soon,
or why you left before we were ready to say good-bye, but little by little, we begin to remember not just that you died, but that you lived. And that your life gave us memories too beautiful to forget.“

May her soul rest in peace.

The funeral service of Baba Mahlabezulu “Ausi Ouma” will be held at No: 13971, Ext 7, Evaton West-Graceland.
Service starts at: 8:00 – 10:00
Proceeding to cemetery at: 10:30

Teaching photography to young women at Aurora Girls High school
with my 3 collaborators/ facilitators: Lindeka Qampi (SA photographer and activist), Linda Mankazana (SA educator and activist) and Valerie Thomas (French physician and activist).
We started the visual project in February 2014 at Aurora Girls High School.
The participating learners’ age group (13 – 20).

Our major goal is to have photography introduced as a course at township schools in South Africa. AGHS is our pilot project. We will host a conference on Young Women and Visual Activism where an exhibition featuring mainly the students photographs will be on show. We wish to have a publication to mark this project.

So far the project is not funded by any donor, Muholi pays for equipment, field trips and compensates the main facilitator for her time. She regards this visual project as part of her social responsibility.

Photo Experience (PhotoXP) was founded by Muholi in 2004 and more than 50 black women have been trained in Basic Photography skills.

2014 April 16:  Our photography facilitator Lindeka Qampi at the centre with our photography learners at Aurora Girls High school, Soweto.

2014 Feb. 17: Photo XP facilitator and founder, Zanele Muholi with one of the young learners at AGHS

2014 July 2: Our beautiful and brilliant facilitators outside French Institute, Paris.L-R:  Lindeka Qampi, Linda Mankazana and Valerie Thomas.

2014 July 2:
…with Lorraine Gobin of RubisMecenat at Zanele Muholi’s studio – Cite Des Arts in Paris.

2014 July 3: At the back Linda & Valerie (at the back) with Sandra & Camilla (front) looking at Lindeka Qampi’s presenting Aurora visual project.

2014 July 5: … at Muholi’s art residency studio, Cite Des Arts in Paris, France.
with Sandra Terdjman and Camilla of Council (an agency for artistic researches)
L-R: … with Valerie,  Linda,  Camilla,  Lindeka,  Sandra and Muholi in front.
Self timed photo captured by Zanele Muholi with Canon 6D.

2014 July 5:  After our meeting and presentation
… at Muholi’s art residency studio, Cite Des Arts in Paris, France.
… with filmmakers from Chromatic Existences - Valerie Urrea and Nathalie Masduraud, who recently launched a documentary on South African photographers.

L-R:  Linda,  Nathalie, Muholi, Lindeka and Valerie Urrea.
Self timed photo captured by Zanele Muholi with Canon 6D.

2014 July 5:  After dinner in Bondy, Paris. France
Our last meeting was with the physician Emmanuelle Piet, director or the Collectif feministe contre le viol and in charge of the PMI organization in Seine-Saint-Denis for the conseil general. She has just launched a campaign against incest in France.
We discussed with her the possibilities of extending the PhotoXP in Seine-Saint-Denis.

The 2014 Cite Des Art Residency in Paris, has given me more than a chance to create but to network with many creative/brilliant minds and also to further my collaborative strategies.

_______________

Origins of the concept

In June 2004, Zanele Muholi started teaching photography skills to black youth and women under the Photo XP banner while she was a photo-journalist and webmaster at Behind the Mask.
WomensNet provided a space for the resulting exhibition during their Gender Stats launch at Museum Africa for Women’s Month that year.

In July 2004, Zanele trained women in Ngotshe, in the Eastern part of KwaZulu Natal, with the support of the Market Photography Workshop. The third Photo XP took place in 2006 under the auspices of Forum for the Empowerment of Women (FEW), of which Zanele is a co-founder.
FEW’s 2007 calendar was the primary output.
The next was in 2008, with Lulekisizwe black lesbian youth from Gugulethu and Nyanga townships in Cape Town.

In 2009 was commissioned by Triangle Project to train young black lesbians photography for research, themed Ndim’Lo. The participants came from various township of Cape Town. A book for research was realized from that experience.
In 2011 – 2012 worked with FreeGender, a black lesbian organisation based in Khayelitsha and the experience was themed Ikhaya.
I co-facilitated the project with Lindeka Qampi who is currently working with us in 2014 PhotoXP.
We partnered with  with Greatmore studios and  exhibition took place at their premises, Woodstock, Cape Town in May 2012.
The Photo XPs are thematized like Indawo Yami – My Place, since the central idea was for participants to capture everyday images from their immediate environment.
The previous projects included field trips where participants were exposed to gendered mainstream sites, corporate boardrooms, museums, galleries and archives.
The overall objective of the Photo Experience Project is to continuously promote and support the self-production of photographs that will trace, document, and preserve black, female, lesbian and queer existences within the South Africa social and cultural landscapes.

So with this visual literacy initiative, the idea is to increase women’s participation in Photography so that they learn about South African history and rewrite their own as a way of celebrating 20 years of Democracy in South Africa.
Siyafundisana (meaning we are teaching/ learning from each other) aims to embrace the question of women’s empowerment, by giving participants a platform to talk about their lives – how they are being raised and educated in Soweto and beyond – through the production of their own images of their daily lived realities.

3.         PROJECT DESCRIPTION

This pilot project was started in February 2014. Ten students who showed interest in visual media and journalism were identified. Capturing images of their daily life became a long journey of storytelling. They have explored many aspects of their reality, documenting, among other things: the challenges of the environment including poverty, sexual abuse and rape, teenage pregnancies, and living and aging with HIV; local history reported by the oldest witnesses of the community; sexual orientation; and tradition,

The project borrows from the conceptual and strategic approaches of previous Photo XPs,  and involves the following:

Activities:

• Provision of cameras and other production equipment
• Training in photography, film-making and related skills
• Train the learners interviewing skills before the photograph is taken
• Assignment of areas and/or events for trainees to document, with a focus on their own communities
• Field trips
• Guest workshops and discussions facilitated by subject matter experts
• Coaching and mentoring
• Paid assignments
• Dissemination of trainees’ works through online portals, live events and self-produced publications

The subjects being covered in the pilot include school activities, social landscapes, daily experiences in the communities where they live, and the activities and portraits of family members and friends.

Objectives:

• To train ten learners in photography, creative writing and basic entrepreneurial skills
• To enhance the number of black women photographers in South Africa
• To encourage them to document their daily realities, produce visual materials that speak the truths, have the final production exhibited and published in various publications: book, journals, magazines, etc.
• To empower the learners regarding their needs, career choices and personal expectations in life
• To open a visual space for them to address their education, safety, freedom of expression, sexuality and health-related concerns
• To conscientize the participants on gender-based violence and health related issues
• To use visual media as a priceless way of understanding adolescents’ knowledge and perceptions
• To provide participants with the opportunity to question mainstream media representations of them
• To increase young women’s participation in photography
• To introduce a different approach to life skills training

Expected outcomes:

The project facilitators play the role, not only of trainers, coaches and mentors supporting the learners to document themselves, but of archivers and documenters themselves, helping to produce a photo-history for the school and community. The following outcomes are expected:

• Participants are equipped with skills and knowledge to make an independent living from photography
• An exhibition of the images produced
• Visual Activism conference with female participants
• A publication and other photographic products

Participation

The pilot involves the following ten learners from Aurora Girls High School in Soweto:

Photographs taken by Aurora Girls High learners will follow…