© Zanele Muholi
Where: San Francisco Golden Gate Bridge
Country: United States
Featuring: Selaelo ‘Sly’ Mannya and Valerie Thomas
When: 14th March 2014
Camera used: Canon 6D with 85mm lens. f stop: 2.8
How: The photos were taken set on multiple shots.
The story about how we ended up doing this will follow.
Sly and Val will share their part.
To be continued…
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 2nd 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
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
… A photo of the day by Zanele Muholi, featuring Maureen Velile Majola rehearsing ‘Sifela i Ayikho’ to be performed at Constanza Macras STUDIO 44, BERLIN on Sat. , 5th April 2014.
More photos to be added later…
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.
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.
A impression by Signe Tveskov
__________________________
Performance: Maureen Velile Majola & Jelena Kuljic
Video: “Isililo” by Zanele Muholi
Where: Constanza Macraz/ Dorkypark – Studio 44. Berlin
Heavy sounds of breathing. The sounds are somehow disturbing. We don’t know if it comes from pain or pleasure. I have no visuals to attach these sounds too.
The uncomfortable tension is soon relieved. Two female voices, the voices of Maureen Velile Majola and Jelena Kuljic, in detail describe the source of this heavy, now very sexual breathing. Following each other’s rhythms they create a narrative of female bodies moving in, on, with and before each other. Nibbles, skin, breasts, sweat. The whole scene is suddenly very visible, more than the smiling faces of the two women with each their microphones, now projected onto a set of doors. It is a scene of queer sex, intimacy between women. The intimacy between the women does not directly let the audience be part of this pleasure, but they open up a space for a pleasure, which does not exist in an otherwise heteronormative world. We have entered a space I don’t want to leave again. It is an almost aggressive conquering of a visual and emotional space. It is a public demonstration of queer intimacy and pleasure. Presented is an aggressive manifestation that can’t be ignored. A pleasure and intimacy which can’t be doubted.
But the sexual rhythms become songs of mourning as the silhouette of Maureen enters the dark stage singing, while lighting candles carefully laid out on the floor around her. It is a dramatic change of scene. Projected on the doors is now a video showing a row of women walking in mourning. Our participation in the previous, exciting manifestation of love, sex and intimacy has now brutally been stopped and we as the audience are forced to take part in a completely different reality. One candle after the other is lit. Everything still follows a rhythm. It is the same voices in a completely different scene now. Maureen creates a beautiful space on the floor. She is not alone; Maureen carries the mourning of a whole community.
Metallic, loud, aggressive rock music invades the scene. The music violently interrupts this mourning; it feels disrespectful and over-dramatic. Another poem is sung and screamed while being projected onto the doors. This somehow seems like a testimony to the source of the mourning.
Maureen is silent, the candles are still the only light on the stage. We are taken back to a before, before the mourning. Another before than the scene of the queer intimacy. Two experiences so far from each other. I fear to learn that there is a connection.
Maureen now walks across the stage and sits down. She starts laying out and re-arranging bricks on the floor. She pauses and I realise that she has spelt the world hate with the stones. Hate is what connected the two spaces leading up to the mourning. Maureen looks up at the audience and reveals the reason for the twenty bricks. Each brick represents a South African hate crime victim or survivor. Their names are said out loud. They are victims and survivors of hate crimes committed against Black LGBTI people. To each victim or survivor a date, a year and a couple of sentences are attached, bringing their personality, their importance and the hate crime closer to the audience. Maureen lights up the memory of each person by lighting two small candles on each brick.
The words “Sifela i Ayikho” appear projected onto the door as Jelena and Maureen again start singing. It translates; “We are being killed for nothing”. They leave the stage and their songs of mourning become lower and lower as they disappear. Left on the stage is the word hate lit by the twenty names of hate crime victims and survivors.
Movement, to move, can mean a transition from one phase to another. One can also be moved emotionally. A movement is a group, a community moving for social or political change.
Maureen and Jelena’s performance moved.
About the author
Signe Emilie Tveskov is a student of Art History and Gender Studies with a focus on and interest in queer art, theory and culture. She is living, working and studying in Berlin.
Related articles
2014 April 5: ‘Sifela i Ayikho’ photos
and
2014 March 29: Is it violence or love between two men?
by Lebohang ‘Leptie’ Phume
I have attended fashion shows before but never of this magnitude.
Attending the SA Fashion Week on 4th & 5th April 2014 at Crowne Plaza Hotel, Rosebank, Johannesburg. The other event was South African Film and Television Awards (SAFTAs) at Gallagher Estates, Midrand was a true blessing to a fashion lover and an aspiring model like myself.
The events gave me the platform to engage with the fashion industry ‘big sharks’ and I learnt a thing or two from them. It is anyone’s wish to go from one exclusive ‘invites only’ event to another in one night, and I was very fortunate to have been in the midst of it all. Walking the red carpet at the SAFTAs, with the cameras flashing in front of you is just something you see on TV. When it happens to you, an unknown it both inspires and gives you hope that one day you too will walk the red carpet of all exclusive events, being known for who you are and what you do. No one will be asking for your name after every photo that is taken. Those photographers capturing every moment of the red carpet inspire you to work that much harder on achieving your goals.
One day I will not be asked to take a photo at a photo booth by random ladies just because I am beautiful but because I am a highly accredited model, stylist and blogger.
I met plenty of well-established individuals at the fashion week but the highlight of the whole weekend was engaging with the king of fashion himself, David Tlale.
L-R: David Tlale posed with Lebohang ‘Leptie’ Phume
Many people have characterized him as this serious, arrogant so called diva, but I beg to differ. He is a very humble and fun human being. I mentioned to him that I am an aspiring model and would love to walk the runway some day. With just a single gaze, top-to-bottom he said, “forget about runway, you’re too short for it, but keep modeling”. My spirit was crushed about but I am not willing to lose hope. I will prove it to him that nothing is impossible.
If there is one thing I have learned about this industry, it is that you are defined by your status, so if you don’t have one you will not be taken seriously.
For instance Anele Mdoda once walked the runway, but David said I am too short for it. The difference between us is that she had celebrity to leverage, which created a platform for her career whereas I am just a random lesbian who is still trying to make a name for herself. This will not break me; it will not stop me from pursuing my dream. There is one thing I forgot to ask Jerry Mokgofe a fashion blogger. I wanted to ask why bloggers never roast each other.
Was it because they were too scared to do so because they will be roasted in return?
Anyway I will get a chance one day. It has been a weekend of experience for me, a lifestyle I’m embracing and look forward to adopting as my second nature. I was born for this.
Previous by ‘Leptie’
by Buli Vimbelela
On the 30th of March 2014 a crowd of people gathered in Zola, Soweto to witness Promise Mavundla and Sanele Shabangu’s umqomiswano (engagement), a gathering which many were unsure of, but had piqued their interest nonetheless. There were unsure if it was a wedding or what? They were peering into the home of Mavundla, who identifies as a butch lesbian who was welcoming her soon to be wife, Shabangu, who identifies as a femme lesbian.
This is how it all started…
When asked how the two met, Sanele said, “For a while, I had been keeping an eye on S’thembiso, as she affectionately calls her, when one afternoon my sister and I bumped into her along the road.
I was too shy to ask for her number, but my sister did on my behalf”, she chuckles!
“From then on, I contacted her and initiated a relationship”. She says she knew she would marry her one day, as they hit it off on first contact.
It was in January 2014 when Promise introduced Sanele to her sister as “a woman I’m going to marry”. There weremixed reactions from both sides of the families. When Promise introduced Sanele to her mom as her girlfriend, they instantly hit it off and built a strong relationship as mother and daughter. She was receptive because she had already accepted her daughter’s lifestyle as a lesbian. On the other hand, Sanele had reservations about introducing Promise to her mom, because she had not been too impressed by her daughter’s previous partner. She was subsequently encouraged by a woman close to her, to tell her mom about Promise. She eventually did and her mom requested to meet Promise.
The woman in love and loved… ‘itshitshi’
It was then that Sanele’s mom informed Promise that since Sanele was a tshitshi (virgin) and their family still followed tradition; they needed to perform the umqomiswanoceremony. She agreed. Umqomiswano is a ceremony where one says ‘yes I am now ready to date steadily’ and put a beaded necklace around the man’s neck to show other women that he’s ‘taken’. In this case, it was the femme giving the necklace to the butch-. It may be likened to an engagement ceremony. Preparations began as they gathered all the ‘amatshitshi’ to practice song and dance for the day. They were also expected ‘ukugonqa‘ loosely translated to mean to fast and ready oneself for the day.
Fast forward to 30 March 2014, we attended their umqomiswano/ engagement ceremony. The day started off quietly at the Mavundla home, where they were expecting the arrival of the amatshitshi and preparations for lunch were happening. Meanwhile at the Shabangu home, singing and dancing was heard aloud, as they were about to depart for the Mavundla home to hang the flags before the bride-to-be gets there.
It was beautiful seeing the procession on the streets of Soweto, as people stopped along the road to watch as this was an unusual sighting around the township. On arrival at the Mavundla home, members of the family, friends and some more people were waiting in anticipation. There were some passersby who asked amongst themselves what was happening, “was someone getting married?” they asked.
As the tradition goes, the procession got closer to home. They stopped to dance as they waited for a family representative to welcome them, with a specified amount of money. After that was taken care of, they proceeded to the yard, amatshitshi bearing gifts for the groom and all the while, the bride-to-be was amongst them. Promise, being the shy person that she is, was called in to sit in the center to receive her gifts. I must say she rather looked different, yet cute, in her men’s traditional outfit. More gifts were exchanged from one family to the other.
The dancing to Zulu songs started again, while amatshitshi took turns to dance with Promise also showcasing bits of her dancing. Then the biggest surprise of the day came, Promise immerged carrying a beautiful jewelry box. She got everyone’s attention and asked Sanele to join her at the center where everyone was watching. They were both kneeling down and in her shy voice she asked Sanele to marry her and she without hesitating, said yes! There were loud cheers and ululations as the beautiful ring flashed around and pictures were taken.
Quick words of congratulations and encouragements were said by both families. Promise’s mom had this to say, “Today I’m happy to see our kids do the right thing, the right way. What makes my daughter happy makes me happy”. She urged Promise to take good care of Sanele. What struck me most was Sanele’s mom’s words when she said “Today I’m a proud woman, proud that my daughter kept herself pure to this day. I’m proud to show the people of Soweto that there are still 22yr old virgins” – she said. To Sanele she said, “Just like you came to us saying you love Promise and you wanted the world to know, I want you to know that we didn’t take that lightly and there’s no turning back now. I will not have you say you don’t want it anymore”. And to Promise she said, “I know you will do the right thing and marry my child, I wish you well”. And to that there were more cheers and ululations and the party began.
It was indeed a beautiful and colourful day as we experienced our culture within the LGBTI community and of course the Inkanyiso crew was there to capture it all.
Previous by Buli
2014 Jan. 21: Living an active life
and
2013 Nov. 19: Love is a beautiful thing
Inkanyiso member on the left meeting our stars…
Where: Joburg Theatre
When: Sat. 2nd May 2014
Featuring who: L-R: Smanga Shange and a friend, Lebo Mashile and Pamella Nomvete.
Photo by Zanele Muholi
Text by Smanga Shange
© Photos by Zanele Muholi (02 May 2014)
What: Full Moon
Where: Joburg Theatre till 11th May 2014
‘The best part was the last act, specifically when there was a war between a man and a woman. The woman had three dogs while the man had one. The man’s dog ended up concurring all three dogs making the man show that he has spirit’, said 15 year old Siyabulela Colephi from Qwaqwa, who came his family to see Full Moon, the dance performance of Vuyani Dance Company (VDC) on Friday the 2nd at the Joburg theatre.
Full Moon is a contemporary piece choreographed by Gregory Vuyani Maqoma with the help of artistic director Luyanda Sidiya and Lulu Mlangeni – first recipient of the Sophie Mgcina Best Emerging Voice Award – as the rehearsal director.
Music is composed by Isaac Molelekoa and played by The National Youth Orchestra. Costumes are inspired by the synopsis of the whole story and designed by Black Coffee. Make up for the cast was applied by the House of Queen.
Before the performance starts all I see is the live band, and I wonder if that was what’s in store for night. Then the curtains open, the lights go on and I start seeing dance movements.
The music starts playing, which is visible in the lower stage, it so intense that I got goose bumps.
The next scene on stage I see a man and a woman, dressed in all white and they start dancing. I notice a light from the back of the dancers, the light forms a moon on the rising and eventually ascends. This process happens again but this time the moon descends.
‘The first act is a bit challenging for me in terms of genre and the putting together of the whole thing. I like how they illustrated the good and the bad and eventually, no matter what happens the good will always come through’ says Charity Mohlamme, a member of the audience.
She went on to say she liked the whole idea behind ‘Full Moon’ because the moon itself cuts through the darkest night and that is exactly what is depicted in the performance.
‘It is a great experience, and lovely too. It wasn’t easy but at the end of the day everything came together. We had to research about full moon, purity, rebirth among others, there was also inspiration from Thabo Mbeki’s poem, I am an African, says Phuti Mojela, one of the VDC cast members.
When I asked Lulu Mlangeni how she feels about having achieved this much as South Africa celebrates 20 Years of democracy, she said ‘It is not about proving a point, it is about what you love and making sure that it is being recognised out there, no matter what. Yes it comes with a lot of hard work but you need to push’. She was referring to her love for dance.
The second act is a change of scenery from the first. The costumes changed and the orchestra picked up the tempo. This is where we saw the bad and the evil.
The hour long performance ended with lead dancer Lulu eventually reconciling with all the evil that had happened. She, along with her fellow dancers were celebrating their victory. At this point I was overwhelmed by the motion and the movement was so healing.
‘In this performance we see how one can go through a period of darkness where they have to face those demons. In so doing, you face your own calling’ says Vuyani, the choreographer of the Full Moon. He went on to say, ‘within our chaos and within our contradictions as a black nation we have the ability to succeed. We can put up works of this magnitude. I hope people will get a sense of possibility from this’.
About the author
Smanga is an Alexandra resident and upcoming film director.
Recently completed a project with Global Girl Media.
She is an active member of Inkanyiso’s Black Queer Youth (BQY 5) initiative.
by Lebohang ‘Leptie’ Phume
Based on the 12th April 2014 photo shoot experience in Parktown, Johannesburg
I have never imagined myself behind the camera, instructing or photographing. But that perception changed few weeks ago when I found myself watching from behind the scene and gaining insight on how Zanele Muholi operated behind the camera. I am sure by now dear reader; I need not inform you of my love for being in front of the camera and “making love to it”. It’s very hard for me to look at people do what I love most, and that is modeling. The experience from behind the lens made me want to learn more about photography and I believe it will somehow benefit me with my modeling career. I stood behind Zanele while she did what she does best, and as time drifted by I got the hang of things, and really started to enjoy the experience.
I pride myself on being punctual, and it came as no surprise to me that I was the first to arrive. Not that I am complaining of-course, it reflects well on me.
The ladies literally took hours to get ready, from hair to make up, leaving the floors in an absolute mess from the preparations and of course not forgetting to look at themselves in the mirror one too many times. And boy did they look pretty. Nervousness was the order of the day when the shoot began, tension filling the room. One could feel that they were scared and this was evident in the photos taken. They were reserved and not showing us what they made of or who they were. One of the models was deaf. So it was a bit of a challenge when it came to giving direction during the shoot.
I have since placed learning sign language as one of my top priorities now that I have seen how vital it is in the world of photography, be it professional or an amateur because communication and understanding is key between a photographer and her model.
L-R: Eva, Somizy and Kat. photo shoot took place in Parktown, Johannesuburg
on the 12th April 2014
Photos by Zanele Muholi
Most of the ladies didn’t know how to strike poses and you could read from the expressions of uncertainty on their faces that they would think of a pose then change it because they are not too sure what they want to do next and whether or not it would work. I believe, in order to make your life easy do the first thing that comes to your mind. Chances are that will be your best angle.
Because we relied greatly on natural light – sunlight – to capture the shots required, my experience behind the lens was short-lived as the sun began to set and the day came to an end. Once again it was a weekend filled with experience for me. For all the aspiring models like myself I just want to add that it is wise to know your good side when you strike a pose, if not, the uncertainty will show in your photos.
Our gorgeous Kat…
Fierce Somizy…
Cool Yaya…
More photos to be included later…
Previous by Leptie
and
by Bonolo Mokua
I could never hold her hand
Though I would always get lost in her eyes,
I could never hold her hand
In fear that everyone would see that I am madly in love with her
And they would all be in on my sweet little secret
I could never hold her hand
Though sometimes I would find myself in her personal space,
I could never hold her hand
In fear that someone might be watching and give a violent sneer that would steal away from this love that I felt for her
I could never hold her hand
Though I knew that whenever she would call I would come running
I could never hold her hand
With the knowledge that if her parents knew that she lives in my soul she would probably find herself without a family
I could never hold her hand
Even when all words would be lost and the only thing left to express would be a touch,
I could never hold her hand
For I would always be looking over my shoulder in fear that someone might see and tell about this glow in my eyes every time she would smile and we would have to answer
I could never hold her hand
Though in our private moments I knew that it fit perfectly in mine
I could never hold her hand
And that is why she found a hand that she would write about on social networks and be excited to tell her parents about,
A hand that could ask her parents if it could take hers to have and to hold,
A hand that could stand in front of the world and put a ring on her finger
I could never hold her hand
Because of what I had under my pants, between my legs
I could never hold her hand
Because of your homophobia
Our love will remain unrequited and we will steal moments in the dark to be together.
About the author
Bonolo is a young black accounting profession by day and recreational writer by night. Just passed the rubicon into the dirty thirties. Avid soccer lover. Always smiles away life’s issues.
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.
I found myself lost.
Unable to find home.
A warm safe place that lived in the depths of her gaze
with walls that echo her unforgettable scent.
It haunts me, her scent.
It seems she left it behind just to taunt me.
A strategic dab of incredible on everything
I own so that even when I strip to my bare skin,
I can still smell her…
on my sheets, and the blankets that cover me.
Steering emotions that swallow me.
At glimpses of a hollow me.
A hollow caucus
Empty
Numb
Alone
All that we stood for, gone.
Packed neatly in a portable suitcase of insignificance,
didn’t think it would fit but she made sure that it did.
She always was a good packer.
I was woken from a peaceful sleep by the loud shatter of heartbreak.
The day my love released her gentle grip of my heart to the mercy of gravity.
Look closely.
What you see in my eyes is not regret.
It is a prayer for times tapestry
to unweave the threads of the love and promises unmade that day.
Yearning for my missing link.
Reduced to faint breathing and hearts bleeding…
the aftermath of love’s leaving.
The truth of what was once our beautiful story
with a happily ever after moulded with our bare hands
to the shape of words.
The same words that still linger in thoughts of she.
© Nthabiseng Mokoena
2014
About the author
Nthabiseng Mokoena is a 30-year-old artistic visionary of South African descent born and brewed in Umlazi (a township in Durban, Kwazulu-Natal).
Although currently practicing as a Technologist in the field of Architecture (which she strongly believes to be an art form in it’s own right). Nthabiseng expresses herself through poetry (amongst other art mediums) and although new to the scene, she has a strong interest in linking the artistic members of the LGBT community in and around the Durban area in hopes of creating an expressive platform to raise awareness of everyday issues within this community through art. This she hopes to achieve via the Soulful Percussions Sessions which she, along with a fellow friend and artist, host in the Durban area. Soulful Percussions has been in existence since 2012 and has produced a series of shows that incorporate, live music, poetry performances, contemporary dance and art exhibitions and was proud to be part of the program for the Durban Pride week in 2013.
When not busy with Soulful Percussions, Nthabiseng runs a charity organisation called Helping Hands which is aimed at broadening the horizons for disadvantaged children by empowering them to see beyond their circumstances.
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 philanthropological 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 is the latter, that at least is what I told a room full of Belgians attending the screening of ‘Difficult Love’ on Monday the 16th 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, Christine and some of the panelists featured in the festival programme.
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 Hotel for a light lunch and ‘Howzit?
I took a shower and later a tram to Bozar for the artists’ talks and found the event informative, the audience curious and engaging.
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. There were posters which were very anti-thesis of commercial art but manage to pose pertinent questions on female representation in dance hall culture in the Caribbean.
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
by Charmain Carrol
On the 6th of June 2014, I had the pleasure of accompanying the Ndlela’s to Cape Town, to celebrate their first wedding anniversary. It seems like it was just last month when I attended their wedding in Durban on the 15 of June 2013.
Archived wedding photos from 2013/06/15
On my way to Johannesburg O.R. Tambo International airport all I could think of was how long it had been since I had been to Cape Town. It was 10 years to be exact. I kept on wondering about the changes. Were there drastic changes to the place and the people I knew?
I landed at the Cape Town International Airport after 23h40 and there they were, Mrs and Bab’ Ndlela, waiting and happy to see me just as I was excited to see them. It was around 12 am in the morning when we met since we all came from different cities. They boarded they flight from Durban and I, from Johannesburg. We went to the hotel that we were booked in, in Green Market square situated at the city centre.
We got up in the morning to the buzz of the market opening as we walked down through the market browsing at the amazing stuff that was on sale, on our way to have breakfast.
We caught up over breakfast. I wanted to find out what they would like to do and which places they would like to see and visit in Cape Town. Shopping was on top of the list as we went past all the shops and window shopping, but realised that we needed hats and scarves as Cape Town was freezing cold.
I took photos of everything we did and ended up on the red tour bus and to the top of Table Mountain. Mam’ Ndlela was afraid to go on the cable car but Bab’Ndlela assured her it was okay, she would not die alone.
Finally, we got to the top and as much as it was cold they had fun meeting people and taking photos of each other, helping each other to the top of big rocks. They seemed so in love and in sync with each other. I looked at the way they smiled with each other, the way the laughed and hold hands through my camera lens. It seemed they were falling in love all over again. The could not stay away from each other.
Bab’Ndlela read everything that was on the stones, every little inscription that was there had his attention. We saw Robben Island from the Top of Table Mountain and they were both intrigued by how people had lived on the island as prisoners.
When we got back down from the mountain we had some cappuccino and scones before finishing our tour, that took us next to Camps Bay right, Sea Point, Waterfront and back to town.
The next day my friend Yolisa came to take us around as she had earlier promised. She came with her husband Zola, who was such a gentleman driving us all over Cape Town. We went to Hout Bay and ended up KwamZoli in Gugulethu.
I stood in a long queue to buy meat and some drinks but had trouble finding somewhere to sit. We went next door and waited for out meat to be done and had some drinks, while we browsed the stalls outside kwaMzoli.
Familiar faces started popping in; Zimaseka Salusalu, Vice and Noluntu had came to see me as cold as it was. We met new people too. Everyone was happy to be in our company. Mam’Ndlela was now mamMfundisi as she was recruiting ibandla (congregation) and said she would be back with uBab’Mfundisi and maybe open a branch in Cape Town.
On the 9th June 2014 we had to return to our homes. It was sad to part, but it was time for us to leave and get back to our realities.
Cape Town was awesome.
Previous article
2013 June 17: The Durban Lesbian Wedding of the Year
by Fikile Mazambani
36 of more than 240 black and white portraits that make up Faces and Phases (2006-2014), hung in the Ryerson Image Centre as part of an exhibition meant to coincide with Toronto’s World Pride celebrations.
Zanele Muholi, a Ryerson University documentary media alum turned visual activist, was at hand to give a talk about her work, and this particular project that radically challenges the conventional perception of black lesbians, transgendered peoples and their visibility in South Africa and beyond.
After tinkering and setting up, the ever self-assured but humble Muholi opened up her lecture by acknowledging those that had shaped her academically, spiritually and otherwise. The room was almost to capacity and it included; the curator, Gaëlle Morelof the show whom she acknowledged for the opportunity to exhibit in that space. Whilst also challenging the limited number of black lesbians who would follow suit after the 2014 World Pride Toronto brouhaha had died down or indeed those who had exhibited before her.
Politics of visibility are what birthed her entire work and most importantly the F&P project. While preparing her thesis, she faced a let down upon realizing that even in the Western world, there was still a stark invisibility of African black lesbians in the scholarly world. She acknowledged Kamplex, one of the participants in F&P series, whom she had shot while in Toronto in 2008. “I told myself that I am not going to be angry at someone else for not acknowledging my existence. I told myself that I was going to create my own history and visibility”.
Muholi’s work may sound easy but it is not as black and white. She explained that to date she has shot over 500 portraits but she commiserates with her work first and has to feel he connection spiritually, for the portrait to make the cut. During question time, a concerned audience member queried if she was not outing people by showing them internationally. She explained her work process and ethic stating that she carefully chooses who to work with because she understands the gravity of her subject.
There are three things that she would not do; out someone – because that was not her skeleton, engage with underage lesbians because she did not want to seem to be coercing anyone or for members of the society to assume that she was promoting lesbianism and would not put up anyone’s portrait with no consent form in place. Soon after she showed a short documentary entitled “We Live in Fear” of how she engages the participants, whom she refuses to call subjects, as well as her process of shooting.
Her talk shifted to the daunting topic of ‘curative’ rapes, detailing how, as much as South Africa decriminalized homosexuality on paper, it was still a raw subject culturally because it is very much a patriarchal institution and one that will not change soon. She wondered if the men who were committing heinous crimes of rape, murder and disfiguring lesbians were feeling threatened or we were seeing the after effects of apartheid that had left many uneducated and under or unemployed and thus on the prowl.
Another audience member asked why a woman of colour would verbalise the word ‘curative’ rape to which Muholi explained the context of where she came from saying “in South Africa we do not usually use the term ‘a person of colour’ due to our Apartheid past, there are four classes of race – White, Indian, Coloured and Black. The person of colour expression does not apply there but perhaps the society that we live in shapes how we term these things.” Always inclusive, she asked another South African activist, Phumi Mtetwa, to speak to that, to which she explained that it was a term used to explain a situation in a place that demands a man be with a woman, that the woman is violated under the guise of ‘curing’ them of lesbianism.
It was a night of uncomfortable truths, but ones that had to be spoken on nonetheless. With anything, if you must take people on your journey, there will always be turbulence and then a settling down of the flight.
Muholi showed other works that she had produced over a period of time. While the issue of black lesbians being killed in South African townships was very real and raw. She also wanted to showcase that there was life on the other side of the spectrum. She presented photographs from her Of Love and Loss (2013 -2014)series. It showcases the 2013 first township lesbian wedding in Katlehong as well as a gay wedding that took place in Daveyton township, 2013.
She spoke of the ZaVa series in which, she and her partner, Valerie are co-producing. They explore their being, they juxtapose their contrasting selves as well as tastefully share their intimacy.
Closing comments with a smile… Photo by Zinnia Naqvi
The talk ended because of time, but the audience was still very much captivated and wanted hear and learn more. She thanked all those that had made it possible for her to exhibit at this space and reminded them, once again that it was important that they make black lesbians a part of their roster. I think she was saying that, to move away from tokenism, this space needed to be accessible to all.
She asked “Where do the queer youth from Regent Park go?
Where do the queer youth of Rexdale and Galloway go?” speaking on youths who live in these marginalized communities, who struggling to access such august spaces because they have never been open to them.
Her work is not always welcome and recently an exhibition featuring her work, amongst other artists, called Dak’Art, Dakar Biennale, Senegal – was shut down by authorities. When asked if she got any support from home, she did not mince her words. “It is lonely where I sit and only this year was I asked to exhibit at Wits Arts Museum at theWits University.
Sometimes I just want someone to ask me how I am doing”. Support, according to her, came mostly from the people she worked with in her projects. She never got any awards from home until she became internationally acclaimed. Besides winning numerous prestigious prizes, Muholi is also an Honorary Professor at the Bremen University (Arts & Design Dept.) in Germany.
A project dedicated to her late friend, Busi Sigasa (1982 – 2007), Muholi had vowed to not be silenced by anyone. Even though she lost a lot of her work through a theft of her hard drives in her Cape Town apartment in 2012, she did not slow down and when an elected official called her work porn, she was not daunted either. Earlier in the night, Muholi had spoken of how she had borrowed her professor’s magazine that had a lesbian on the cover and she had vowed to put a black lesbian on a magazine cover one day. I would dare to say this Prince Claus laureate is well on her way.
On the 18th of June, 2014 there was an opening reception of Faces and Phases and What It Means to be Seen: Photography and Queer Visibility exhibition.
After the talk the audience was able to mingle with her and get more of her one on one time. Previously on the 16th of June, 2014 she was interviewed on Canada’s state radio CBC1 as well as on CP24, a popular television news programme, on the 18th of June. Not forgetting GlobalNews.ca
Just as she came, she was gone, for her next exhibition at the Singapore International Festival of Arts O.P.E.N.
(Open. Participate. Enrich. Negotiate), which will be opening on Thursday June 25, 2014.
Previous articles by Fikile
2014 March 5: More than an activist
and
2013 Nov. 4: From Market Photo Workshop to Bremen University
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 21st 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
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
and
2013 February 28: I am not a Victim but a Victor
by Fikile Mazambani
“I feel like I am receiving an award from Singapore”
At the invitation of Ong Keng Sen, the director of the Singapore International Festival of Arts (SIFA), Zanele Muholi arrived in Singapore on Friday, 20 June to be part of the O.P.E.N., an initiative that aims to ‘transform the cultural landscape of Singapore by encouraging audience ownership of ideas, issues and themes’.
At the official opening of the exhibition on June 26, Sen introduced Muholi to the hip crowd that had gathered for the opening night. He spoke of how as much as art was loved for its beauty; art also spoke to social, political and cultural issues, problems that could not be ignored. He explained that the invitation had been extended so as to give context to this year’s theme – Legacies of violence.
Speaking to the audience…
A nervous Muholi took the stage, jokingly requesting gum, which is banned in Singapore, to ease her nerves. After acknowledging Sen, the entire O.P.E.N staff and the audience, for making the exhibition a successful possibility, she then delved into her subject and spoke about the legacy of violence hinged on gender and sexuality in South Africa, despite the existence of a Constitution that claims to protect everyone’s human rights.
During the talk, a black and white slideshow beamed on a white wall, silently and softly showcased the participants in the Faces and Phases project. In the adjoining space were the black and white portraits challenged the viewers gaze, were empty spaces to signify those that had been lost to brutal hate crimes or otherwise. This particular exhibition was dedicated to Duduzile Zozo, a lesbian who was killed in Thokoza township in June 2013.
Before the official opening, there was a showing of a documentary We Live In Fear (2013) as a precursor to the talk.In an adjoining space, black and white portraits from Faces and Phases formed the exhibition. On the stairs to the next level where the other series of photographs were shown was the screening of Team Spirit featuring members of the Thokozani Football Club, a black lesbian soccer team from Umlazi, Durban. Thembela ‘Terra’ Dick, who is a participant in Faces and Phases, directed the documentary. On the upper floor, there was a screening of the documentary, Difficult Love and portraits from the Crime Scene and Beulahs series.
Thereafter, the floor was opened for questions because there was a lot of interest around the photographer, her thought process when she works and the exhibition itself; whether she found the reception in Singapore different from her earlier visit to Seoul Korea – given the Asian context, why she photographed the participants using a stark rough background and why she chose to showcase the ‘suffering’ of black lesbians. Those who still had questions freely mingled and asked questions during her walkabout.
The exhibition was a resounding success with so many people’s curiosities being piqued so much that they came out in numbers. About 200 people were expected to be attending the opening of the exhibition that runs until Sunday, 29 June 2014.
Previous by Fikile
2014 June 17: Muholi’s Ryerson University (RIC) Talk
