Black Looks

  • Jon Qwelane guilty of hate speech

    Posted: May 31, 2011, 6:01 pm by Sokari

    Jon Qwelane who published the article “Call me names but gay is NOT OK” in the South African Sunday Sun in July 2008 has been convicted of hate speech by the Johannesburg Equality Court.

    The article by Jon Qwelane – which includes a despicable cartoon equating same sex relationships with bestiality, calls for a rewriting of the SA constitution and the criminalisation of same-sex relationships.   Despite facing charges of “hate speech” Qwelane was appointed in January 2010 as South African ambassador to Uganda – an openly homophobic man being appointed to a country which was considering the death penalty and long term prison sentencing for same sex relationships.   It remains to be seen whether the South African government will do the right thing and relieve him of his position.  This report from the South African Mail and Guardian…… UPDATE - the Dept of International Relations and Cooperation has stated this is a “personal” matter for Qwelane, meaning government officials, are free to make disgusting homophobic statements,  be found guilty of hate crimes but remain in their positions.   A clear message that homophobic statements and actions are acceptable on the basis of small monetary penalty.

    “We are quite pleased that the court has found in our favour … R100 000 is quite a reasonable amount,” said SAHRC spokesperson Vincent Moaga.

    “The focus is not on the money, but the message coming out of this. With recent hate speech and crimes against the community, the court is sending positive messages,” he said.

    The SAHRC initiated court proceedings in terms of the Promotion of Equality and Prevention of Unfair Discrimination Act.

    Qwelane did not make much of an appearance in the course of the trial. He failed to sign court papers presented to him by a clerk and did not file responding papers.

    The court ruled that, as it had only one version of the story, the SAHRC’s argument would be accepted.

  • African Sexualities

    Posted: May 30, 2011, 9:13 pm by Sokari

    African Sexualities’ is a groundbreaking new volume, forthcoming from Pambazuka Press. As well as using popular culture to help address the ‘what, why, how, when and where’ questions, the book’s contributors provide a critical mapping of African sexualities that informs readers about the plurality and complexities of sexualities on the continent – desires, practices, fantasies, identities, taboos, abuses, violations, stigmas, transgressions and sanctions. At the same time, the contributors pose gender-sensitive and politically aware questions that challenge the reader to interrogate assumptions and hegemonic sexuality discourses, thereby unmapping the intricate and complex terrain of African sexualities.

    Continue reading introductory chapter by editor, Sylvia Tamale.

  • Free Gender

    Posted: May 30, 2011, 7:17 pm by Sokari

    Updates on hate crimes -

  • is long time poets a write, a write, a write, a write..” – Cherry Natural

    Posted: May 29, 2011, 9:49 pm by Sokari

    I spent last Saturday in Kingston with Cherry Natural – “reasoning” about poetry, consciousness and Jamaican music. Words to remember:

    reasonings, genetic bleaching, innerviews, verbal labour…… and much more

    ‎”poets write inna han miggle, poets write pan leaf, poets write inna dem head, is long time poets a write, a write, a write, a write..” – Cherry Natural

    Selected poems “Earth Woman”

  • Commentary: “objectively” less attractive?

    Posted: May 27, 2011, 6:48 pm by Mia Nikasimo

    If as Satoshi Kanazawa’s claim that, “Black women are “objectively” less attractive!” is anything to go by racism in academia is at an all time high and we black women must repudiate this passionately. Over a decade ago, I had the misfortune of listening to a Japanese undergraduate saying of the different races: “There are whites, yellow and then at the bottom, there are blacks!” I was furious as much then as I am faced with this fresh slur. Here we are again full circle. My surprise is that the London School of Economics and Political Science is supervising such racist pseudo scientific tripe in the name of evolutionary psychology. Belittling any race in this manner is tantamount to racism and could be said to be academic racial cleansing. As a black woman, it is deeply upsetting and denigrating to black people and black women in particularly and calls into question notions of beauty.

    Such an infraction academic or otherwise must be petitioned in the strongest terms. Sign the petition to Psychology Today to retract the article, apologise and explain why it was published in the first place.

  • Silent, hidden and prevalent – obstetric fistula

    Posted: May 27, 2011, 6:33 pm by Sokari

    A Walk to Beautiful tells the stories of five Ethiopian women who suffer from devastating childbirth injuries and embark on a journey to reclaim their lost dignity. Rejected by their husbands and ostracized by their communities, these women are left to spend the rest of their lives in loneliness and shame. They make the choice to take the long and arduous journey to the Addis Ababa Fistula Hospital in search of a cure and a new life.

    Click here to support the Addis Ababa Fistula Hospital  featured in the film and watch the trailer here.

    Obstetric Fistula is it’s demeaning, it’s painful and wholly preventable and in many cases there is the additional pain of loosing ones child.   FGM and forced child marriages contribute to obstetric  fistula in women and girls for example in Northern Nigeria where it is estimated some 800,000 women are suffering.  MSF produced the video below on the work of a hospital in Jahun, Nigeria which provides free surgery and treatment for women.

  • Tweets Week

    Posted: May 21, 2011, 9:00 pm by Sokari

  • Malika Zarra – just so cool melody from Morocco

    Posted: May 21, 2011, 7:25 pm by Sokari

    Malika Zarra

    When it came time to make this recording, I chose to continue to explore my Moroccan musical heritage in more depth, and especially my Berber (Amazigh) roots. The themes of travel and tradition inspired me to call the CD Berber Taxi. It’s also the title of a traditional song that my mother taught me, on e that spoke about the hope of finding love in distant places. Berber Taxi perfectly ties together my experiences in Morocco, France, and New York City – more on SoundRoots

  • Malcolm X: sisters in struggle

    Posted: May 19, 2011, 7:54 pm by Sokari

    Remembering Malcolm X – Black Canadian women discussing the racism they experience in Canada – Sisters in the Struggle: Dionne Brand & Ginny Stikeman, 1991

  • In praise of older women and stories yet untold

    Posted: May 18, 2011, 7:03 pm by Sokari

    I’ve been scrolling through Tumblr over the past few weeks and noticed so many Tumblrs posting photos of young  Black women – which is great and they are all beautiful but I got to wanting to see ME. Some layers, some texture and depth,  some life lines.  So it was a breath of fresh air to come across this photo of Toni Morrison on Amphitrit accompanied by some incredibly wise words….. I keep looking and looking at this photo –  Morrison beauty is holistic, complete, breathtaking and alive.

    “I know that happiness has been the real, if covert, goal of your labors here. I know that it informs your choice of companions, the profession you will enter, but I urge you, please don’t settle for happiness. It’s not good enough. Of course, you deserve it. But if that is all you have in mind—happiness—I want to suggest to you that personal success devoid of meaningfulness, free of a steady commitment to social justice, that’s more than a barren life, it is a trivial one. It is looking good, instead of doing good.” – Toni Morrison

    Thoughtfully & Expertly Transcribed by @llapen Follow her!

    Some more Tumbling and I came across this post on the Black Lesbian Elder Project - Via GAQ – who also found it a “breath of fresh air”.

    In a youth obsessed culture, and a queer scene where you often have to dig to find good representations of people of color, here’s a breath of fresh air: The Untitled Black Lesbian Elder Project. This new film collaboration is exactly what it sounds like — a feature length documentary on the lives of several black lesbian women in their 60s, 70s and 80s, talking about their experiences in politically important times.

    Older and elderly Black lesbian gay and trans people are one of the most invisible group of people world wide which makes this a hugely important documentary.  The two women behind the project bring even more kudos to the film – Tiona McClodden who was  behind the 2009 documentary black./womyn.: conversations with lesbians of African descent is directly involved with the project and Lisa C Moore of Red Bone Press.

  • African LGBTI Manifesto/Declaration

    Posted: May 17, 2011, 9:48 pm by Sokari

    The African LGBTI manifesto came out of a roundtable session held in Nairobi in April 2010. It is an important document which sets out clearly the foundation of the LGBTI movement and it’s connection to the broader Pan-African struggle for African liberation.

    As Africans, we all have infinite potential. We stand for an African revolution which encompasses the demand for a re-imagination of our lives outside neo-colonial categories of identity and power. For centuries, we have faced control through structures, systems and individuals who disappear our existence as people with agency, courage, creativity, and economic and political authority.

    As Africans, we stand for the celebration of our complexities and we are committed to ways of being which allow for self-determination at all levels of our sexual, social, political and economic lives. The possibilities are endless. We need economic justice; we need to claim and redistribute power; we need to eradicate violence; we need to redistribute land; we need gender justice; we need environmental justice; we need erotic justice; we need racial and ethnic justice; we need rightful access to affirming and responsive institutions, services and spaces; overall we need total liberation.

    We are specifically committed to the transformation of the politics of sexuality in our contexts. As long as African LGBTI people are oppressed, the whole of Africa is oppressed.

    This vision demands that we commit ourselves to:

    Reclaiming and sharing our stories (past and present), our lived realities, our contributions to society and our hopes for the future;

    Strengthening ourselves and our organizations, deepening our links and understanding of our communities, building principled alliances, and actively contributing towards the revolution.

    Challenging all legal systems and practices which either currently criminalize or seek to reinforce the criminalization of LGBTI people, organizations, knowledge creation, sexual self expression, and movement building.

    Challenging state support for oppressive sexual, gendered, discriminatory norms, legal and political structures and cultural systems.

    Strengthening the bonds of respect, cooperation, passion, and solidarity between LGBTI people, in our complexities, differences and diverse contexts. This includes respecting and celebrating our multiple ways of being, self expression, and languages.

    Contributing to the social and political recognition that sexuality, pleasure, and the erotic are part of our common humanity.

    Placing ourselves proactively within all movement building supportive of our vision.

    End!

  • Difficult Love

    Posted: May 17, 2011, 6:07 pm by Sokari

    Difficult Love will be showing at the Toronto LGBT Film Festival

    Review of Difficult Love by Nadia Sanger

    Difficult Love and Faces and Phases do more than merely sketch Muholi’s life, however, or document the existence of black queer people – it can be read as a practice in post-colonial feminist research methodology. In Difficult Love, the centering of Zanele’s role as the viewer/ the gazer, disturbs the often invisible and ‘objective’ role of the producer of images. Through zoning in on Zanele – her words and experiences – we see how power is distorted. Her attempt to channel power to those who make her images possible, who tell their stories through her photography, visibilises black queer people, and turns on its head false ideas of the objective position of the photographer/filmmaker. Zanele’s focus on subverting power and disrupting norms around gender and sexuality is clear throughout the book and film. Principles of reflexivity, located-ness, being-in-the-world, the complex, but often ignored relationships between the ‘viewer’ and the ‘viewed’ are central to Zanele’s work. The ‘owning’ of an image, and the ‘owning’ of a life, which Zanele refers to in the film, is clearly articulated in the black and white photographs in Faces and Phases. The portraits reveal that a life cannot be owned by anyone other than oneself. The expressions on the faces of the individuals in the photographs express pain, frustration, happiness, arrogance, sadness and joy. These photographs reveal diverse and complex human expressions that scream ‘we are here to stay’ in a social and political context that is unkind to gender and sexual non-normativity

    In the film, Difficult Love, notions of ‘race’ are dismantled, while the material ways in which ‘class’ works are highlighted. In the current South African context, ‘race’ still matters, and ‘blackness’ and poverty are often simplistically aligned in ways that might exclude those who continue to exist marginally in South Africa’s townships. Through conversations with Petra Brink and Pra-line Hendricks – a couple living under a bridge in Cape Town, and rejected by the shelter because they are openly lesbian – Difficult Love explores how class and sexuality are linked, and how they work to ensure the marginalisation of nonconforming ‘coloured’ women. This is significant because it reveals the specific moments in current South Africa where the materiality of socio-economic realities and gender non-conformity intertwine.

    Petra and Pra-line’s lives expose how sexual difference is mediated by class, and class mediated by sexual difference – their lives embody the feminist theoretical position that argues for intersections and context as significant in people’s daily lives. Similarly, the viewer’s glimpse into Zanele’s relationship with her partner, Liesl Theron, allows us to see the ways that racialisation, class, gender, sexuality, and slavery intersect. It is clear from this glimpse that the dissection of power relationships is central to Zanele’s work – her 2008 Massa and Mina(h) project referred to in the film, is grounded in the life of her mother, Bester Muholi, who served as a domestic worker to a supportive ‘white’ family for forty-two years. Through this project, Moholi queers the master-slave relationship and reveals how power works in complex ways.

  • African migrant workers: trafficked, trapped & left to die on the high seas

    Posted: May 16, 2011, 7:08 pm by Sokari

    I wrote this post in July 2006 but the thousands of African migrant workers who have been displaced and left to die on the high seas after fleeing Libya, reminded me that this is not a new story.

    I read a report yesterday that there are thousands of African and South Asian migrants amongst the displaced in Lebanon. Unlike other foreign nationals from the Middle East and the West, who have been evacuated by their respective governments, this group have largely been left to fend for themselves without money or papers. Many of them at the lowest strata of society and in a foreign land – part of the millions of Africans trafficked within the continent and beyond to Europe and the Middle East – are the most vulnerable group. It is estimated that there are some 20,000 Ethiopians as well as Nigerians, Ghanaians, Sudanese, Somalis, Sri Lankans and the largest group (90,000) Filipinos working in domestic servitude, as migrant or forced labour and the sex industry in Lebanon. The IOM has been asked to assist in helping some 10,000 migrants from these nations.

    I took a closer look at trafficking across the world and discovered that every country is either a source, a transit or a destination and many are all three (only a few countries in the West are strictly destination countries serviced by the majority world). Looking at Africa specifically there are a number of common trends.

    The first is that every country is involved with the possible exception of Lesotho and the Kingdom of Swaziland although “the existence of significant trafficking in persons” is suspected. Secondly the majority of countries do not even reach the “minimum standards for elimination of trafficking”. Recently there have been a number of cross country initiatives in West Africa to try to address the problem but as far as I can gather nothing has yet impacted on trafficking. Thirdly in most cases, trafficking takes place internally and generally between neighbouring countries which leads to clusters or regions of trafficking roughly as follows: West Africa, North Africa, the Horn of Africa, Central Africa and Southern Africa. Fourthly women and girls are the largest group of trafficked followed by young boys. Fifthly, most trafficking is either for sexual exploitation and forced labour followed by domestic servitude, agricultural labour, child soldiers, street vendors and begging. Finally most countries are source, transit and destination zones meaning that people are trafficked to,from and within those countries. The four main trafficking countries on the continent are Nigeria, South Africa, Morocco (source transit and destination) and Ethiopia (source only).

    In Africa as elsewhere in the South, the majority poor and dispossessed subsidise the lifestyle of the minority world enabled by a system of dehumanization based on cultural, religious, ethnic and racial difference. Psychologically it is easier to oppress someone who is regarded as different and with whom you can distance yourself. In this way, Nigerian children are taken to Senegal to work in domestic servitude and Senegalese children are taken to Ghana. One ethnic group becomes forced labour or sexual slaves for another in a tit for tat series of exchanges that encompasses the whole world. Going outside one’s own community also makes it more difficult for those trafficked to escape. The further you take someone away from their home the more difficult it is for them to find their way back – trapped in distance, language, culture, bonded-debt and in the case of Lebanon abandoned in a war zone thousands of miles from home.

    Source, transit and destination countries in Africa

    Benin: Mainly children for sexual exploitation, forced labour. Internally and to other West African (WA) countries

    Burkina Faso: Women and children for sexual exploitation, forced labour. Other WA countries and a few to Europe.

    Cameroon: Women and children for sexual exploitation, forced labour (domestic servitude; tea, banana and cocoa plantations)

    Chad: Mainly children for sexual exploitation, forced labour. Internally and to other WA countries, some possibly to Saudi Arabia.

    Djibouti: Mainly women and children for sex mostly to neighbouring countries.

    The Gambia: Women and girls for sex within the country, across the region and internationally. Also a source country for European sex tourism. Boys for forced labour.

    Ghana: For sex, domestic servitude, agricultural labour. Internally and throughout WA.

    Guinea: For sex and domestic servitude. Throughout WA, South Africa and to Europe (Spain, Greece)

    Kenya: For sex and forced labour. Internally, the Middle East, Western Europe and a few in America. Also a transit centre for Chinese and Bangladeshi women in transit to Europe.

    Liberia: Sex industry and forced labour. Mainly across WA.

    Mali: Sex industry and forced labour. Across WA, Libya and Europe

    Morocco: A huge centre for trafficking – gateway to Europe and the Middle East. Major source of women and young girls from rural communities for sexual exploitation in Moroccan cities, the Middle East and Europe. Migrants from SSA and Asia trying to reach Europe are caught by traffickers and sent to Europe and Middle east.

    Niger: Caste based slavery, forced labour and sex industry. The first two within Niger and across the region and women and girls for the sex industry as far as Europe and the Middle East.

    Nigeria: Forced labour and the sex industry. Throughout WA, Saudi Arabia and the main country for supplying Europe with women and girls for the sex industry.

    Senegal: Forced labour and sex industry. Internally and across WA. Supplying women and children for the sex industry in the Middle East and Europe. A few to the US.

    Sierra Leone: Similar to Senegal.

    South Africa: Forced labour and the sex industry. Women and girls for sex industry within the country and also to the Europe and across Asia. A main transit centre for sex trafficking. Also receives Thai, Chinese and Eastern European women for “debt-bonded” sexual exploitation.

    Togo: Forced labour and sex trade. Mostly children within the country, but also across WA and to Lebanon and Europe as domestic labour. Some women to Europe for sex industry.

    Zimbabwe: Forced labour and sex trade. Children are trafficked internally for labour and sex. Women and girls traded to China, SA, Egypt for sex industry

    Please sign the petition to demand accountability from NATO for the death of 61 African migrant workers fleeing from Libya

  • Me’shell Ndegeocello – Redefining what it means to be free

    Posted: May 15, 2011, 7:19 pm by Sokari

    Today is Nakba Day – –

    MeShell Ndegeocello – D.N.B. from Souls Survivor on Vimeo.

    Interview with Me’shell Ndegeocello on Women’s Magazine -

  • Kwa-Thema Praying for homophobic victims.

    Posted: May 13, 2011, 6:46 pm by Sokari

    From Free Gender – remembering our sisters who died because they dared to be free.

    Noxolo Nogwaza, Nokuthula Radebe, Xolani, Gairly Nkosi, and Eudy Simelane all died by the hands of homophobes around Ekurhuleni. A prayer was held on Wednesday 11 May at the spot were 24 year old Nogwaza was killed two weeks ago in a horrific manner. In tears, Noxolo’s Aunt Nomalwe Dlomo thanked people for their support, she also asked Noxolo’s blood to “speak and reveal her killers”.

    Relatives of the five victims of Gender Based Violence lit candles to honour their lives. The LGBTI community, various ANC members, human rights organisations, Pastors, Kwa-Thema residents and Executive Mayor Clr Mondli Gungubele attended the event to show solidarity in the fight against hate crime. Traditional incense was burned by traditional healers who appealed to those who’ve been killed to speak for themselves. Speaking to the media, Clr Gungubele said our constitution promotes tolerance and people have a right to be whoever they wish as enshrined in our constitution. “Noxolo’s murder is a demonstration of deepest level of sickness. Perpetrators need help but must face the might of the law. Unless society comes together and condemns this act, they risk being misunderstood as accepting” concluded Gungubele.

    Gender Links delivered a message of awareness. “Corrective rape is a crime and lesbians have rights as well, women must be free to walk at night” said the representative. Ward councillor Dorah Mlambo appealed to the community to be understanding of LGBTI people, “they are our families” she added. Gauteng Premier Nomvula Makonyane was expected to deliver the keynote address, but did not make it to the event, as well as the Police who were supposed to give a message of support.

    “As a young woman I am very sad, today brings pain to all affected people” said Nokhwezi from the Treatment Action Campaign. The TAC activist also said that politicians talk after these events, and then nothing else happens, “are you going to put pressure on the police and judicial system to solve this case?” Nokhwezi asked the Executive Mayor Gungubele. The young woman who had a lot of questions asked why the community was shielding the killers, and where are spaces for LGBTI people created by government. “Police brutality on homosexuals must stop, where must we go?” added Nokhwezi.

    Hamba Kahle (go well) a popular struggle song was sung by a local choir, who declared that they are taking a stand against violence and intolerance. From the Coalition of African Lesbians (CAL) Fikile Vilakazi said “we are very angry and willing to work with the government, we have been talking for long and not being heard. We understand that the government is setting up a task team to deal with hate crimes starting in July, but how many people are going to die before that time?” Clr Mondli Gungubele reminded everyone that humans will always be different and that the constitution comes from the people but the behaviour says otherwise. “Those harbouring information are no different from the killers, South Africa is an angry society” concluded Clr Mondli.

    By Lerato Dumse – Free Gender

  • Helsinki African Film Festival

    Posted: May 13, 2011, 6:04 pm by Sokari

    Wanjiku wa Ngugi is the founder of the  Helsinki African Film Festival. Here she talks about Africa in Finland and this year’s theme “Women’s Voices and Visions”.

    Wanjiku, please talk a bit about yourself and the creation of the Helsinki African Film Festival.

    I was born and raised in Kenya. After high school, I attended New York University (NYU) where I studied Sociology and Political Science. It was actually here that I first met Dr. Manthia Diawara, a film-maker and critic, who was also the head of the Institute of African-American Affairs at NYU. I got a job assisting in his office and thus begun my introduction to African films. Growing up in Kenya, all we got to watch were Hollywood films and seeing black people on the big screen was a very rare occasion if ever. Anyway, a few years back I moved to Helsinki and was surprised at the level of misinformation about African people, both in the continent and the Diaspora. Even Finland has not escaped the Hollywood machine and the chronically negative representation of Africa in the News, so information about Africans is largely informed through the same narrow prisms. Hollywood has not exactly done any justice to the story of Africans, as most of their films—I am thinking here of popular films such as The Last King of Scotland or Blood Diamonds for example, are replete with stereotypes about Africa and Africans. And basically this is how HAFF was born—out of this need to deconstruct the depiction of Africa as this Dark Continent that only produces dark images, one-sided stories, and dehumanised people who should be pitied. Africa is not a country; I want to repeat this over and over again! We wanted to show the diversity of this continent, and begin a different conversation, one informed by a more realistic view as told by the Africans themselves…… Continue reading here.

  • “Indio” being not-black in Dominican Republic

    Posted: May 12, 2011, 6:28 pm by Sokari

    An interesting look at the construction of race through the island of Hispaniola – In the Dominican Republic, there is Cristóbal Colón, Black is Indio and Spain is homeland. In Haiti, there are revolutionaries – Jean-Jacques Dessalines, Henri Christophe, Black is Black and Africa is where I came from. Ok its a bit more complex than that but the point remains and try to ignore the irritating narration by Henry Louis Gates!

    Watch the full episode. See more Black in Latin America.

  • Uganda uses Anti-Homosexuality Bill as a political diversion

    Posted: May 10, 2011, 5:33 pm by Sokari

    The Anti-Homosexuality Bill could be passed in the next 24 hours. After two years of off and on the AHB will be presented at tomorrows parliamentary session. For the past three weeks Uganda has been in the midst of it’s own uprising against the Museveni government – the peaceful “Walk to Work” protests against rising prices and described by blogger Angie Kintu as a protest

    about reality, frustration and desperate times. I am buying a litre of Ugandan made and grown cooking oil for sh6,500. I am paying sh3,600 for a litre of fuel. A tomato has gone up to sh300 at the very least.

    Led by opposition leader Kissa Besigyne, protestors have been shot, killed and arrested including Besignyne. Whilst the AHB is being used to distract protestors away from violence of poverty both The Anti-Homosexuality Bill and the attacks against the “Walk to Work” protestors are interconnected – both are violations of human rights against Ugandan. There is not a huge amount to say that has not already been said except to say its WRONG WRONG WRONG – more here on Gay Uganda

    Two other closely related Bills are also due for discussion tomorrow – the Marriage and Divorce Bill 2009 which also includes a ban against Same Sex Marriages, has a second reading and the HIV and AIDS Prevention and Control Bill 2010 which will criminalise “intentional transmission of AIDS virus, has a third reading. For more explanation on the implications and commentary on the HIV & AIDs Bill see here

    Tomorrow will be a shameful day for human rights in Uganda.

    There is a petition to try to stop the AHB being passed – see here

  • Tweets Week

    Posted: May 7, 2011, 9:00 pm by Sokari

  • Funky music – Nigeria sweet times

    Posted: May 6, 2011, 7:02 pm by Sokari

    The Don Isaac Ezekiel Combination – Ire by Strut

    Via SoundRoots

  • Transgender dreams

    Posted: May 4, 2011, 6:25 pm by Sokari

    Via Gender Dynamix and Things I feel Strongly About

  • LGBTI youth of Kwa-Thema say they do not see the freedom that everyone is celebrating

    Posted: May 3, 2011, 10:15 pm by Sokari

    Black Easters for Lesbian Community

    “As South Africa celebrates 17 Years of independence – Freedom day on Wednesday, 27th April, the LGBTI community of South Africa and beyond, especially black lesbians in Kwa-Thema mourns the death of the latest hate crime victim Noxolo Nogwaza. She was brutally killed on Sunday, 24th April in what her family describe as a horrific murder.

    Nogwaza (24) was the mother of two, a 7 years old boy and 4 year old girl. What makes her murder even more ironic is that she was killed on the same weekend that former Banyana Banyana player Eudy Simelane,was murdered in the same community in 2008 under similar circumstances. LGBTI youth of Kwa-Thema say they do not see the freedom that everyone is celebrating, activist Khanyi Mtungwa said: “We are fighting for our rights as lesbians, the way Noxolo was killed is not right they must stop killing us”. The Ekurhuleni Pride Organising Committee (EPOC) held a meeting on Freedomday, to discuss amongst other things how to fight homophobia as well as hate crime in townships especially in KwaThema where curative rapes and murders of lesbian have become a norm. Four lesbians have been murdered since 2008 in KwaThema township only. This murder happened less than a month after Nokuthula Radebe’s body was found murdered in Thokoza township in March.

    The main point or on top of EPOC’s agenda was Nogwaza’s killing. EPOC’s public relation’s officer Bontle Khalo said: “ as an organisation that fights for the rights of homosexuals, we are not going to take this lying down. We will ensure that justice prevails. A murder case has been opened and the police are investigating, marches will take place before and after the funeral. We are appealing to the community to assist in sending messages to the killers”. Noxolo’s body was found by construction workers in a ditch on Sunday 24 April. It is alleged that her pants were pulled down with several used condoms around her, a beer bottle was inserted into her vagina and a concrete block/ bricks were used to smash her head and left face deformed. In relating the story Nogwaza’s uncle explained how, he picked up several parts of her face which were splattered around the gruesome scene. Speaking for the police Captain Petros Mabuza said: “Our people don’t have humanity anymore, how can someone kill another human being like that? You wouldn’t even kill an animal in that way. Perpetrators must be brought to book, no one should take someone’s life just because they dont like the way that person lives.

    The funeral took place on Saturday, 30th April 2011 where hundreds of people – LGBTI members and organisations such as Forum for the Empowerment of Women (FEW), FreeGender, POWA, 1 in 9, Coalition of African Lesbians (CAL), Treatment Action Campaign(TAC) and many respected individuals and concerned citizens across South Africa came to pay their respects and show their support to the Nogwaza family. Speaking during the service Noxolo’s aunt Nyaniso Nogwaza thanked the LGBTI community for their support “I am strong because of you guys, I wonder what message the killers were trying to send by this senseless killing. If we had all accepted her choice to be lesbian, who are they to find anything wrong with that”. The crowd chanted struggle songs and vented their anger towards the killers and the community for being silent on the matter.”

    Via Free Gender

  • Dakan – A coming out story

    Posted: May 2, 2011, 6:45 pm by Sokari

    Dakan begins with the most sexually explicit opening scene in African cinema. Rather than the usual rural landscape or urban panorama locating the characters in a recognizable social or geographical context, the camera focuses on an isolated couple locked in a clandestine embrace in a sports car at night. The shot becomes even more transgressive when we recognize the couple are two young men. When one of them later tells his mother he’s attracted to another man, she replies: “Since time began, it’s never happened. Boy’s don’t do that. That’s all there is to it.” Dakan thus becomes the story of two men who by “coming out” disappear, become invisible to their families and society, because their society has no language which recognizes their love.

  • Growing Up

    Posted: May 1, 2011, 7:40 pm by Mia Nikasimo

    You shiver not from the ice cold chill of winter white deep in you bones,
    You stand there rooted with eyes wandering lost in their sullen sockets,
    You can’t find words to call me by my name so you call me scores, yours,
    Your fear dances jaundiced jigs across your impassioned face, pace by pace,
    You perambulate in those hood-winked footsteps that defy believe, sore, grief,
    You congregate at every grocery, newsagents, cafés to catch the word, the sword
    You raise your phobic voice four octaves above normal to draw passing attention,
    You loose your tongue by moving so fast as to sink your teeth into me, into me,
    You rally support of like-minded phobics all foaming at the mouth en mass,
    You shout sick vengeance at the amber glow of age old curtains, deranged
    You tear my virgin hair out of my scalp in protest because yours is receding,
    You lump me together with the down and out for daring to be myself,
    You, with pained and questioning eyes, you put out a victory cry to hide your failings
    You cast your eyes inward lost and tormented when I walk by,
    Every time I walk by you hear incomprehension in your mind’s ear: dum, dum, dum!
    Don’t blame me for the unanswered questions nobody answered for you, growing up.

← April 2011 (24 items) June 2011 (22 items) →

Blah blah blah

Fish cakes

Alas a fish cake.

Yet more fish cakes

Guess what ... yeah ... fish cakes.

The end of the fish cakes

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