Butch & Menstruation is Art
From inkanyiso photo documentary on a radical response to violence against Black lesbians by Zanele Muholi As we continue to live and survive in troubled times as black lesbians in South Africa and within the continent, where rampant hate crimes…
“Tales of Tenderness and Power”
No, I don’t mean to ignore Bessie’s struggles, her anguish or her pain. But it gets to a point where one needs to know: was she happy somewhere, sometime? Did she laugh out loud, often? There is a picture of Bessie Head with her arms outstretched and she appears to be laughing with abandon. Where these moments of openness frequent?
I think I found the answers in Tales of Tenderness and Power. Quite presumptuous of me, but what is an adoring reader to do?
Mandela’s Queer Legacy
From the Mail & Guardian, Phumi Mtetwa discusses Nelson Mandela’s role in facilitating LGBTI rights in South Africa through encouraging dialogue. However his contribution fell short as failed upset the social and economic structures at the core of inequality. “Oliver…
Continuous war on black lesbian bodies
“This is the place where the first lesbian was killed here in Thokoza, we are gathered here to express our animosity towards this placeâ€, said Sister A, who is member of Ihawu, a Lesbian organisation working in Kathorus (Katlehong, Thokoza and Vosloorus) when she addressed the hyped up group.
“We are marching in honour of our fallen lesbian sisters, for the spirit of Duduzile Zozo and Nokuthula Radebe.
Another brutal murder of a lesbian
From inkanyiso – Another young black lesbian murdered. Duduzile Zozo, a 26 year old from Thokoza, East of Johannesburg was murdered on 30th June, 2013. Daily Sun, a local tabloid newspaper reported that, “The 26-year-old’s half-naked body was found in…
Profile: Soweto born soccer star, Phumla Rose
From Inkanyiso – Greeted with an everlasting smile by a body that doesn’t seem to age, Phumla Rose Masuku welcomes us to her home. Present is Phumla’s life partner Nombulelo ‘Bulie’ Vimbelela. For a person in her mid 30s Masuku expresses…
What has underwear got to do with her job performance-a woman ‘raped’.
What began as a protest to remove the minister of education due to lack of performance and delivery has turned vile and completely out of order. Basic Education Minister Angie Motshekga has been under fire for several months with issues…
South Africa: Two years have past yet still no justice for Noxolo Nogwaza
The 24 year old lesbian’s body was found in a ditch in Tsakane, East of Johannesburg, Ekurhuleni. Her face crushed with bricks, it was also alleged that her pants were pulled down and she was raped in what is described as a hate crime.
“The truth is, I’m shit scared” – Rape and Traumatic Recall
This form of violation is perpetrated with the explicit intention of ‘curing’ the lesbian of her
love for other women. Although many heterosexual survivors of rape attest to the stated intentions of their assailants as punitive (they have done something wrong, and thus ‘deserve’ rape), survivors of ‘curative rape’ make it clear that their attackers were interested in humiliating and punishing them for their choice of sexual identity and lifestyle and in ‘transforming’ them – by coercion – into heterosexual women.
Personal herstories Lihles story
First part – Inkanyiso My name is Lihle, (not real name). I chose not to use my real name for this story because I was scared of being victimized. Even though I’m not ashamed of the fact that I’m living…
Another Soul Lost
I received your news, but I did not cry! Am coming But not today When we see you, I won’t cry I’ll remember you like your mothers footsteps Home is far Heaven is closer Rejoice for my sake, peaceful…
Gloom Glamour Graves
When we lay for the last time to rest the whole event is filled and felt with many emotions and for the one being sent away only silence prevails. Yet so much more happens in these spaces that are sometimes…
Remembering Busi
Busi died on the 12th March 2007. One of the few poems she published on her blog “My Realities” was “Remember Me When I Am Gone” – This year I forgot the day but not Busi. I think of her…
Inkanyiso – “Let Your Voices be Heard”
Given an opportunity to tell my story I will talk about where I’ve been and what I have done and the remarkable people I met along my journeys. This remains in my archived memories. It was an ardent path that any other youth might have gone through without much guidance and support from parents and relatives. One had to rely on strangers and friends who then became my extended family. People who loved and embraced me as their daughter, younger sister, who loved my daughter as theirs and fed me when there was no food on the table.
Gendercide
From Bernedette Muthien gendercide it took a full week of straitjacketing generations of genocidal femicidal trauma for the clay dam wall to explode and flood me in torrents of collective grief a poet with no words a lifelong activist struck dumb…
Outrage! & One Billion Rising, Whats the Point? Lessons from GBV movement building in Haiti
From Thought Leader – Talia Meer asks what is the point of “1 billion Rising” and from Women and Beyond the Global – Wondering about Outrage! beyond personal gratification? Particularly when it is selective, ie where was the outrage when…
Zero tolerance, zero rape
As the year turns yet again, reflections are the order of the days as the compliments flow and plans for the future move ahead, still remnant of the past follow like bee to honey. Never mind that the remnants are…
#16Days – Living with HIV
their series on 16 Days of Activism Against Violence Against Women. The last day of the series focuses on the work of South African photographer Leonie Marinovich who has been photographing and speaking with people in rural communities who are living with HIV.
Pretty Blose
![Andiswa Dlamini [Interview]](http://blacklooks.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/254400_3674804754724_2071489779_n-150x150.jpg)
Andiswa Dlamini [Interview]
Queer Stories from South Africa: Andiswa Dlamini is a spoken word poet and performance activist from Durban, presently living in Cape Town. After spending some seven years writing and performing her own poetry, Andiswa felt she needed to expand her work by becoming more creative. Recently she began experimenting with drama as a way of explori
QAR Weekly News
Another South African Lesbian MurderThis morning (10/11/2012) I received a call from Ndumie Funda the founder and Director of Lulekisizwe a project that nurses, supports and feeds the lesbian bisexual and trans woman (LBT) in townships who are victims and…
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