QUEERING Queer in Africa III

Curated by Zethu Matebeni QUEERING CAPE TOWN Queer in Africa III

Curated by Zethu Matebeni TABLE OF

CONTENTS

Introduction by Zethu Matebeni...... 01

Alternative Inclusive Pride by Nikki Carter...... 08

Queering Cape Town’s Posture as Africa’s Capital by Stella Nyanzi...... 12

Graaf’s pool Photo Essay by Dean Hutton...... 44

Drag Lives Here by Lindy-Lee Prince...... 65

Abstracts...... 79 01 Queering Cape Town Town. The city, for many, tonegotiate. isnotaneasyone For most This booklet is interested in rethinking the notion of a gay Cape Town topless?Orisitgaybecauseelsewhere toparty in thereisalesbiancity, atransgendercity, abisexual city, Living takes placeinthetownshipsLiving takes andsuburbs, under thebridges It isdifficulttothinkofCape Town otherthangay. Thecityhas in Robben Island? Or does it become gay because every year in labour andleave attheendofday. lives in. Itisnotaplaceone you come to during certain hoursoftheday,you cometoduringcertain ornighttooffer one’s summer, whitegaymenflockthestreetsofGreenpoint, Cape of highways, parks. orinpublic For blackpeoplewhoare many an intersex city? an oddcharacterisation. How canan African citybegay, inthe midst ofsuchhomophobia?DoesCape Town seeitselfasgay notoriously becomeknownof asthegaycapital Africa. This is not justgay, Cape Town of isnotagaycapital Africa. black people, Cape Town functionsasaform ofacloset, aplace related to imprisonement because of its colonialsettler history INTRODUCTION 02 Queering Cape Town To Cape assert Town asagay capitalofAfrica is And to begay, inaCapeTown Union Act Cape Town isagay capitalonly for canenjoyallthe who those lived realities. , trans people; sex workers; queer persons; gender non- are thebodiesdisappear who in theidealised tourist version of Queering Cape TownQueering of thecity in (as seen thework byGennaGardini open toALL persons presumedgay (andhere itisimportant to post/ identification. post/apartheid identification. form ofdrag queens desirable -bodies thatexist onthemargins ofthecity. These are sense, is to have the luxury of not isto havesense, theluxury of not having to negotiate all forms of class, of class, having to negotiate allforms conforming people; disabled bodies; poorgay menofcolour; the city the queer – thatisfor non-normative deemed those andnot the city isnon-normative; thatitcelebrates difference; thatitis students andacademics asawayofinterrogatingstudents thecity for and oppressions associated with gender, sex andracial injustices bodies for gay whom Cape Town suffocates. Essentially, these poor queer persons; black radical queer feminists. These are bodies the white able-bodied that unsettle (homo)normativity hightlight thatlgbtiqpeoplearenotnecessarily Gay). privileges associated withthecategorygay. 2 . visible Bodiestheyarethemost thatevenwhen in the 4 , their there about isstill muchmoretounderstand 3 isacollaboration betweenactivists, artists, or married under thenow ten-year old Civil not 1 ): black to say tosay 03 Queering Cape Town ‘Queer in Africa’ thatIhavebeenconvening since 2014. The This booklet follows a series of interventions in the city, including The intervention second symposiumseries is thethree-part Zethu Matebeni James D. Wright (editor-in chief), International Encyclopedia of the Encyclopedia International Wright D. (editor-inJames chief), South AfricatothisdynamicSouth havetestified Pride itself is a site of contestation. Recent pride events in In Cape Town and , where pride hasa longer 744-749. December 2016 Queer in isaverb, this sense notonly awayofbeing, also but lack ofinterest orinvestment in racial divisions within thelgbt lack ofpolitical engagement withsocial issuessuchasviolence; Social & Behavioral Sciences, 2 Sciences, &Behavioral Social a way of doing. The below abstracts will form of a more part access tospace; pride blamed for focusing oncommercial and queerfelt peoplewho marginalised bytheexclusive nature at raising inclusivity awareness about in eventsin the of Cape Town.of of , in asseen apublished letter totheMayor of this series, ventures benefiting only afew; pride turning into aparty; and i. See Matebeni, Zethu. 2015. Sexual Minorities in South Africa. In: Africa. South in Minorities Sexual 2015. Zethu. Matebeni, See i. city. This intervention byagroup ofblack wasstarted lesbians committed onthebasisofhatredtowards black lesbians. community, andnottaking seriously someoftheissuesaffecting the Alternative Inclusive Pride Network, anintervention aimed series students, artists, were activists andscholars invited to extensive publication of engage itmeanstoqueer withthequestion ofwhat Cape Town. essay below byDrStella Nyanzi focuses onthethird instalment black lesbiansin the townships, particularly violent crimes history, challenges topride posed organisers have included: Queer in Africa? The Cape Town Question.

Queering Cape Town.Queering nd edition, Vol 21. Oxford: Elsevier, pp Elsevier, Vol edition, Oxford: 21. i (Matebeni, 2015). In this 04 Queering Cape Town Alex Muller, Alex McLean Nyx Appeal forSupportoftheAlternative Inclusive PrideNetwork We writethisletter underthebanner, Alternative Inclusive Pride, The CityofCapeTown The Executive Mayor This year, CapeTown Pridehasreturned withitsinsensitive and

orientation. The resurgence oftheorganiser’sorientation. Theresurgence insultscomeafter event hascontinuedtoprovoke ofthemost marginalised theoutrage event, Cape Town Pride. We have witnessed the ways in which this iv. Mamba Online iv. Online Mamba Cicero iii. Thurlo Heever, den Lucinda van Smit, Estian Liesl Theron, Gaum, ii. Laurie the past fewyears, many ofushave beeninvolved withtheannual a Network of organisations and individuals along racial,classandculturallines. now entrenchingseparationalongrace,gender, classandsexual insulting slogansforthe2016 festival “Gay/Proud/Colourblind”, ma se…” in 2009 in thiscity needs andinterests ofmany ,gay, bisexual,trans*,intersex, pansexual, asexual,andqueer+citizensoftheWestern Cape.Over town-pride-turmoil/ tures-of-Cape-Town-20150219 iii . Oneexamplewas throughthecontroversial theme“Jou iv http://www.news24.com/MyNews24/Uniting-cul http://www.mambaonline.com/2009/02/12/cape- , which already divided a fractured community , which already divided a fractured community

ii representing the representing the 8 December2015 - 05 Queering Cape Town As membersoftheLGBTIPAQ+ community, wewritetothe Alternative Inclusive PrideNetwork, throughacommunity-elected As weunderstand, CapeTown Prideisnot currentlyregistered as Among theLGBTIPAQ+ communityarefaithcommunities, diverse Town. ‘Colourblind’ withoutsaying goes asaslap-in-thefacefor Town Pridebeaccountabletotheorganisational principlesand Pride event thatisknown toberacist. Proud/Colourblind” unjustly excludes many ofthesepeoplefrom Mayor’s support and intervention in a festival that attracts many Executive Mayor oftheCityCapeTown requesting theExecutive cape-town-pride-be-more-inclusive_2725 cape-town-pride-march-racist-1820822 v. Lisa Isaacs, v. Lisa Isaacs, Oversight Committee, hasconsistently beendemandingthatCape with disabilities, people living with HIV/AIDS, poor people, to name workers, personslivinginruralareas, residents, people gay. To is misrepresentmultitudesofpeopleunderthiscategory gay, lesbian,bisexual,, intersex,sexuallydiverse and values of good governance andtransparency.values ofgood Thesedemandshave queer groups. Itonlyrepresentsasmallnumberofpeoplewho clear thatCapeTown Prideasitstands doesnot representdiverse of LGBTIPAQ+ communities. Most since 2014, rigorously the they are,how they presentthemselves andwheretheyarelocated. tourists inthe nameofgay andqueerpeople.Itmust bemade subscribe to the global label ‘gay’. Not allLGBTIPAQ+ subscribe tothegloballabel‘gay’. personsare an inclusive andrepresentative 10-day event forallmembers a few. Thecurrentevents undertheCapeTown Pridetheme“Gay/ invisibilising theexperiencesthatmany people have becauseofwho marginalised. many demandsfromthisNetwork forCapeTown Pridetobe participating in an event endorsed and supported by theCityof Cape population groups, communitiesofrefugees, asylum seekers, sex been met withnumerous delays, membersbeingmisled,andfurther http://groundup.org.za/article/gay-and-lesbian-activists-call-racist- http://beta.iol.co.za/news/south-africa/western-cape/ v ; and Barbara Maregele 06 Queering Cape Town Johannesburg in1991.In1993CapeTown activists includingTheresa This is misleading. There is no functioning board and this has been This ismisleading.Therenofunctioningboardandthishasbeen Raizenberg, Midi Achmat, , Jack ZackieAchmat, Raizenberg, MidiAchmat, Lewis, BassieNelson, Pride isanimportantfestival tomany lives. Itrepresentsmoments Furthermore, currentallegationsandlegaldeterminations offraud change-controversial-2016-theme/ viii. Shaun De Wall and Anthony Manion (eds). 2006. PRIDE: Pro Manion Wall (eds). De PRIDE: Anthony viii. Shaun and 2006. vii. vi. organised by anti-apartheid activists SimonNkoli andBevDitsiein test and Celebration. Jacana. Celebration. and test to collectively advanceLGBTIPAQ+ rights andcauses. Thishas trust andhonesty officebearersshouldembody. the caseforatleast thepast threeyears. Goodgovernance principles, the first Pridemarchinthiscity, raising awareness aboutpeople’s and theft made against thefestival director and thatappliesforfunding,collectssponsorshipother an organisation thatclaimsitsrepresentative roleofacommunity of absence offinancialreportsfurtherexacerbatesthelegitimacy haveaccountability andtransparency beencompromised.The an NPO, even thoughonitswebsiteclaimsitasaSection21NPO in whichwecelebrate,mourn,interrogate,learnandunlearnways nationality, sexualorientation andHIVstatus. intersecting struggles alongrace,class, identity, gender disability, put theorganisation inacompromisingpositionandjeopardise under Abigale (Association ofBisexuals, Gays andLesbians) been the legacy ofPrideinSouthAfricasincethefirstbeen thelegacy PrideMarch benefits, including from the City, on behalf of such communities. http://www.mambaonline.com/2015/12/03/cape-town-pride- http://www.capetownpride.org/ http://www.tesolsa.co.za/ ; vii , whoactswithimpunity, viii led led - vi . 07 Queering Cape Town “Kwanele – Nothing AboutUs Without Us!” The Alternative Inclusive PrideNetwork

It isinthiscontext thatweappealtotheExecutive Mayor to Pride isaninclusive, accountableandtransparentfestival forall Until CapeTown Prideisinclusive andrepresentative of allthose community membersinthisCityby: march under the slogan: march undertheslogan: marginalised inthisCity, we willcontinuetoraiseourvoices and intervene andsupportthisNetwork inensuringthatCapeTown • • • Cape Town Prideevents thatdonot representallgroups City ofCapeTown andother relatedfinancialsupport. Being criticalofnon-inclusivity, exclusionary andelitist Free Gender;GenderDynamiX;andTriangleProject. Ensuring thatCapeTown Prideisinclusive ofall Holding CapeTown Prideaccountable,inparticular gender identity,gender expression,andbodydiversity. grant tothefollowing registered NPOstoimplement: order to procure 7 buses for 350 people from the different order toprocure7busesfor350peoplefromthedifferent and openlymarginalisepeopleonthebasisofclass, race, locations inCapeTown. Thiscouldbefacilitatedby a location, gender, sexualorientation,disability, nationality, in makingthisevent inclusive by providing transport in mentioned communities. We request thattheCityassist for its lack of transparency in its sponsorship from the initssponsorshipfromthe for itslackoftransparency

08 Queering Cape Town NETWORK PRIDE INCLUSIVE ALTERNATIVE

Images byNikkiCarter

12 Queering Cape Town AFRICA’S GAY Uganda. Email: Email: Uganda. Makerere Institute of Social Research, P. O. Box 16022, Wandegeya, 16022, P. Box O. Research, of Social Institute Makerere Centre at , Stellenbosch 7600, South Africa. South 7600, Stellenbosch University, Stellenbosch at Centre

Stellenbosch Institute for Advanced Study, Wallenberg Research PhD Stella Nyanzi, CAPITAL CAPE TOWN’S QUEERING POSTURE AS POSTURE [email protected]

13 Queering Cape Town “Okay,” she said and then smoked some more. She blew out “Yes, exactly,” back, Ishouted competing withthebooming “To thetoilets, todosomething withsomeone?” Chantelle “Hey Chantelle,” tothesnow-white smoking Ishouted lady a “I won’t belong,”“I won’t offwithdetermination Isaid asIdarted in a puff of smoke that rose up into the dark atmosphere of the dimly lit gay nightclub ofCape in theheart Town. “Thirty more repeated withmischievous emphasis. cigarette, waitfor“Please mealittle longer. Iamgoing tothe toilets todosomething withsomeone.” my step. minutes,” shesaid, andcontinued dancing withher partner. music playing inside Zer021 Lounge. I 14 Queering Cape Town “Shall wego in there toreally dismantle thegender binaries?” “Let’s go tothetoilets, then,’ hesaid asherose from his seat “Yes,” – as I pumped the air with both fists I responded “Fine!” V replied in his calmmatter-of-fact way. “We canactuallydoitnow,” Isaid. minutes“I havethirty before V asked with asmile thattouchedhis big brown eyes. He waspointing label atthedoorwithapicture ofaman; the Reading which was thehighlight of that evening. Igrabbed his I found myfriend, V. Hewasstill in seated theside-room lobby Cutting ourwaythrough small groups ofpeopleconversing, in symbolic celebration ofthematerialising ofaqueer above theurinals Iimagined tobelined upin arow along oneof facing eachother andleading tothebinarygendered toilets. In gents’ door. Mycolonised brain froze for asecond. Iimmediately couples dancing, others sharing andpast drinks in thebusy the narrow corridor betweenthedoors, V pointed atthelabels Reading.the Nude the wallsbehind thatdoor. showing ofawomanandmanrespectively. pictures mouths ofurinals.mouths dicks. Cut dicks. Uncut Allpeeing in unison my chauffeurheadsbacktoStellenbosch,” Iexplained. next tothebar, whereIhadlefthim attheendofNude nightclub, ourwayto thecorner wemade holding thetwodoors positioned in front ofhis partner. proposal that V and I discussed throughoutthe interlude of hand excitedly tohis andbentmyheadclose face. pictured blackpictured andwhite peeing dicks raised above theopen

15 Queering Cape Town “Do theyhaveurinals in there?” Iasked loudly. “Eeoww, nothanks,” Isilently thoughttomyself. For abrief “Okay. Let’sdothis,” hesaid softly. V, thenatme, andthen backatmyfriend’s body. Althoughhe into laughter amused V burst thatlit uphis eyes. Heraised his He pushedthedoorandledmeinside. The wallsofthetoilets Inside thetiny toilet cubicle, face-to-facewith Istood V. Hewas Binary gendered toilets routinely createanxiety anddanger for in Zer021 arealoudhot-pink colour. washing stood Alady her available toilet cubicles. Just before wepushedthecubicledoor and instead reachedfor myhandasheledmeinto oneofthe over label tothedoorwithapicture ofawoman; theladies’ door. gendered toilet. Nigel Patel’s queer bodies in public. cool andlaid backasusual. Islowly tookin his clean-shaven toilet withhot-pink walls. that transgender persons face in public toilets cameflooding into those bigthose brown innocent eyes. shut, another emerged lady from oneoftheother cubiclesand spaces for gender non-binary peoplecannotbeover-emphasised. mind imagined weweretodoeachother about in thetiny my mind. The needtodecolonise toilets sothattheybecomesafe moment, Iexperienced thedistressofhaving togo into awrongly naughtily winked atme. Itwasnotdifficult towhather guess noticed thebland stare, V completely ignored thehandwasher head, his forehead whichsignalled hewastaller thanmyself, and her handstogether through asshestared themirror at -first hands atthetwin sink. For aslight moment, rubbing shestopped long fingerspalms withbeautiful into theair. Calmly, hewalked 5 scholarship about thechallenges scholarship about 16 Queering Cape Town “True. Also, tothecolourof tobeasclose thecolourissupposed “Wow! Ilike this one doesnothavetowashit colourbecause “No. Itisnottootight. Luckily, comein vests sizes. these My it too tight?”“Isn’t I asked as my fingers ran over that the vest “Sure,” hesaid material ashepulledthevest torevealthe “Can Itouch?” Iasked. “This isit,” V told meashis removed jersey revealedan “Turn around. theback,” Let’ssee Iinstructed. Slowly, helifted his woollenjersey over his head. Asitcameoff, I film onthe inside ofthevest. firmly held myfriend’s chest intact. in. Light brown. Beige. Dark cream. The colourcould havebeen impressive pairofbiceps. still andquiet. Istood Ipaid reverence any of these three.any ofthese The offirm wasmade netting vest akin to one’s skin aspossible,” V explained. the material tomake used bras for big-breasted womensuchas transgenderseen I had in to the first man’s vest life. I took it scented muskdeodorant oranother. saw well-shaved armpits. I imagined they smelt a cool masculine myself. Itwassleeveless. The middle withawhite waspadded every day. Itdoesnotshow dirt,” Isaid. partner boughtmethecorrect sizepartner from theUnited Kingdom padding ontheinside. when shevisited.”when 17 Queering Cape Town “True. theproblem But isthatthe surgery isvery expensive… Africa placein IheardthatSouth isthebest Africa “But to “The things thatpeopleendurein order toright theirgender “Thank you for showing atransman’slookslike. mewhat vest “No. thegym. Itisjust See, Ilove thegym. meout. Itsorts Even “This isveryeffective,” Isaid. “I thoughtthatyou hadundergone He obediently turned his backtome. I replied. I feel verylucky. AllthatIknewbefore now istherolls of Mukasa who hadhisMukasa who topsurgerydonehere in Cape Town,” identities areunbelievable,” V said up. ashedressed long. When he removed the tape he had sores and wounds which sawyou year,last last oreventheyear before” Icontinued. are verywell-toned. Your musclesaremanlier body I thanwhen friend knowingly. responded the first FtM chest thatIsawpost-operative FtMchest belongedthe first to Victor top-surgery toremove thebreasts. Actually, your musclesallover too expensive to be affordable need it,” people who by most my my worries writing about thedoctoralthesisdisappear into nothingness Iamin when thegym,” V said. needed metobuyhimneeded medicine totreathis whichwas body have thedifferent gender reassignment surgeries done. Infact, binding,” ofconstant because became septic Iexplained. bandage ortapethatanother friend in Uganda showed me. He wounded because hehadtapedhisareatootightly because wounded bust andfor

18 Queering Cape Town I learnt that Bnow identified withanon-binarygender identity I complimented Bonthecompletetransformation. Iimmediately I silentlyjourney withandwithout Bwhose thoughtabout Facebook timeline. And in October2016, atthethird symposium, first chapter,first Bwasvery shy, uncertain, lackedself-esteem, and firm handshake, andbeaming smile thattouchedtheeyes behind journey withthe (mis)gendered and (mis)gender body identities is perhapsradically themost queer/ queerly radical experience learnt that even after surgery, the nipples were able to regain their leading sexual minorities to flee from search the country in of as a lesbian or whether their sexual identity was now either asked thepronoun andBadvised the about touse me touse and nolonger thefemalegender used pronoun ‘she’. Idirectly and replaced them with gender-indeterminate ones. During the asylum feminine over Ihadwitnessed breasts thethreeyears ofthe derived from symposium, this particular oneofmystriking points different chapters ofthe ‘Queer in Africa’ symposium. During the constantly bitthefingers ononehand. Conversationa revealed course ofthenextcourse year, Ifollowed newsofthesurgeryonB’s tingly sensation whichcould beencouraged byagentletapping. the spectacles. We briefly talked thehealing about process.I through obtaining surgery that removed typically female breasts somefieldworkto conduct thatwere in Ugandafactors about series, B revealed plans to undergo top surgery. I remember that year,subsequent during chapter thesecond ofthesymposium noticed anenergetic bouncein B’sstep, astraightened confident plural form ‘they’. IalsoaskedwhetherBstill identified about thatwasareversal fromposture the previous slouchedone, a by B’sproposed doctoralresearchofthetentative because idea highly intelligent veryself-conscious but person. Iwasimpressed had notyet workedoftheir sexual thataspect out identity. B’s back toheterosexual orother. Blaughedandexplained thatthey when wewerewhen reportingthetake-home lessonswehadeach was about howwas about Ihadlearnt ofthepossibility ofqueering biology 6 . Atthattime, Bwasusing agendered pronoun. The 19 Queering Cape Town “How many firsts canonepack “Howinto afewdaysofqueerness?” many firsts I freecondoms,” uponthese “Let mestock to Icalledout V who V and I walked of the toilet out cubicle together. In the I dugmygrabby hands ofthecondom- into oneofthemouths I ever had. Ifound itproductive for thinking thatunlike many jam. Ifolded mylootinto twoandcarefully tucked theminto the into neatrings. thattheysmelt Isuspected kinkily ofstrawberry- in atoilet marked label withapicture for ladies, theonly into thedim-lit pub. and other sexually transmitted infections. and yet bothmaleandfemale. gender-queerness thatwaswonderfully neither malenorfemale, gender category into the other, B’s gender reassignment was into double EEcups ofmybra. Ithoughtbriefly ofthe of four pairs dispenser. four Itookout double-packs ofredcondomsrolled rings. “HEALTH 4MEN: toptobottom” thebold wordson condom-dispenser filled withdouble-packs ofred rubber corner ofthebathroom, right next tothesinks wasa condom dispenser beaming withwrappers wasmanufactured the condom-dispenser announced. Isilently wondered why transsexual reassignment persons whose crossed from onefixed silently wondered, asIwalkedofthetoilets out at Zer021 and us tosomedelectableReading! Nude everything –well, things most –focused onsaving men. Even bold and beautiful bare breasts of women who had just treated treated hadjust ofwomenwho bold barebreasts andbeautiful was leaving. with thetargetedpurposeofsaving menfrom catching HIV 20 Queering Cape Town “Yes, let’s!” Chantelle dramatically pushedher dancepartner “When you aredonedancing erotically, let’sheadbackhometo Stellenbosch University to Cape Town to attend the third chapter Stellenbosch,” Icalledout. I laughedaloud. Ifound Chantelle very likeable. Ontheway Chantelle wasgrinding androlling withEarl. to Itwasbeautiful away from her. out oftheZer021out Lounge, wefound Bronwen and Tanya, our of the ‘Queer in Africa’ symposiumseries. dancing. Iloved thecreative energy ofyouth. dance. They were bothsmoking. Their smoking wentwell with two other travel companions wehadtravelled withwhom from watch. there Istood staring attheirpassionate platonic erotic 21 Queering Cape Town ‘Queer in Africa’ symposiumandbackisanimportantlocus Perhaps, unlike many other ofthesymposium, participants we Chantelle, thecarowner, drove withspunkandspirit. Inthefirst Cape Town for things queer. Myfellow travellers into Cape Town Our daily road trip from Stellenbosch toCape Town for the at slow drivers aheadofher ontheN2Highway into Cape Town. accelerator, aswespeddown Van RiebeekRoadin Stellenbosch, few seconds of our first daytravelling ofourfirst few seconds together, shelaughingly for thesymposiumwere always queer anddiverse. from whichmyreflections in this chapter aresituated. We driver ontheorderly roads inAfrica. South Infact, Irather liked that Thursday afternoon. Having grown uponthebumpy she said, asshejerkily just onthe changedandstepped gears made thismade trip for daysofthesymposium. thethreeconsecutive highways and pot-filled roads in Uganda, Iwasnot afraid of any how Chantelleandsworein cursed bothEnglish andAfrikaans warned peoplecomplaining usabout her about bold driving. This were sojourn emblematic ofoutsiders who into ofthemultitudes II 22 Queering Cape Town Afrikaner language. For example, rather thansaying South Africa’sSouth informal settlements. The children tookturns Stellenbosch University Earl, her co-driver, agroovy when song wasblasting from the Earl, Chantelle’s bestie, is a Coloured gay man with a sweet I was amused athowI wasamused she sang loudly, evenrapped, together with in thehome”, theCapeAfrikaans idiom for this isthe “person idioms of Cape Afrikaans transform of faster thanthose lesbians against thedangers ofliving in conservative Stellenbosch. about mis-genderedabout toilets, Earl intimated tousthathe grew analyses how comparedtoBlacklesbians, race buffers White appropriates her whitenesstoshow others how white privilege at the university. From my observations, I gathered that she of her qualitative research among White andBlacklesbiansat one cannot dispose ofmenstruation materials orsemen-filled or urine. Notions of the toilet as a private space are totally very interesting. Earl isalsothemiddle child toasingle mother functions as a routinised of oppression. vector At the symposium, dismantled one considers of households when the multitudes disposition, researching andapostgraduate student the about car’s CDplayer. Ilearnt somelyrics ofBeyonce’s songs from the condoms, damsin oreven dental thecommunalbucket-toilet. challenging auser because failed toproperly aim theirexcreta cleaning thebucket-toilet. Sometimes, cleaning wasparticularly that thehousehold headis thetrousers wears “the person who the toilet for meaning aquickie loses in this context. Moreover, she presented someofhershe presented preliminary analysis ofacomponent using buckets for toilet. The commonplacepracticeofusing up using abucket for atoilet, similar tomanypeopleliving in ofCapeAfrikaansuse in education. Heexplained thateveryday music in thecar. Chantelle isawhitelesbianwithColoured partner, a queer activist, studying and postgraduate student who liveswho in Atlantis. When wewere discussing thepresentation holdswho thetelevision remote-control.” Ifound his research 7 . Inher work, Chantelle ClaireCroeser 23 Queering Cape Town “Fucking whiteprivilege evenamong thequeers,” Earl said “Totally!” Bronwen agreed. “It hassuchadiverse composition. “This queer crowd isthefirst where Iwascompletely She waswhite, after all. Iremained silent. Iwasamere passenger He alsosometimes lit acigarette for Chantelle tosmoke asshe It isnotlike thewhitemajority queer spaceswehaveatStellies,” In fact, thegendering ormis-gendering oftoilets becomesa Bronwen andvery light-skinned is abeautiful Coloured about experiencesabout ofmenstruation among transgender men. I fuzzy discussion thebucket-systemofdefecation when isthe for Africans oftheirsharedhistories South toreadbecause of feelings towards loud disavowals these ofwhiteprivilege bythe got byambitious stolen others. While race registers areeasy drove allofusupanddown thehighway. comfortable,” Earl onourwaybackfrom declared thefirst context ofanalysis. Questions ofgendering thetoilet might move carpooling to andfrom thesymposium. to consider therelative oftaking ease apissorshitting while she continued. evening ofthesymposium. but with plans to further develop withplanstofurther herbut thesisinto doctoralresearch researchingpostgraduate student menstruation about materials, passengers in her car. house. Inthecar, Earl oftensang andrapped alongside Chantelle. balanced over anopen bucket tucked in acorner ofthecrowded her not to postpone the doctoral studies too long lest herher thedoctoralstudiestoolong lest ideas nottopostpone was really impressed byher research ideas andencouraged with disgust, causing metosilently Chantelle’s wonder about 24 Queering Cape Town “Okay,” Iagreed. “It meansthatmysexuality isfluid.a AlthoughIhavebeenwith “What doesthis pansexual term mean?” Iasked foolishly. “Yes. Iampansexual,” Bronwen repeated. “Oh,” Iexclaimed, feigning ignorance. “I amapansexual. That ismypreferred sexual identity, although Afrikaans spoken by Coloured peoples, I asked Bronwen’s about South Africa’sSouth race categorisations, Bronwen alsohighlighted I thought about the ever-increasingI thoughtabout acronym. got When Ifirst White. Iwaswrong, althoughher skin wasindeed veryfine and flashy redandbrilliantly contrastedwithher fairskin. On it is not provided for under the LGB category,” she said on the involved in queer scholarship andactivism, there were only two letters: ‘L’ for lesbianand ‘G’ for gay men. The business ofidentity apartheid, Iparticularly struggled reading therace categories our first sharedtrip,our first Cape aswe about Earl’sstudy discussed wereof peoplewho asfair-skinned asBronwen. For me, shewas you know,” shesaid. fair. Her black deep hairwasverylong andsilky withthemost race category. in Everybody in the car responded unison that the impossibility sexual ofadequate identity classification. second dayofcarpoolingsecond in Chantelle’s car. speedy she wasColoured. Inaddition tohighlighting thecomplexity of man, itwasnotsogreat. Ihavealsobeeninvolved withawoman, bouncy wavesofcurls. Her lipstick deep wasalways impeccable, politics and sexual identity labelling was a lot easier, muchless 25 Queering Cape Town ‘Q’ for thequeer addition, making theacronym LGBTIQ. There And thenthe ‘T’ for thetrans collectivejoined theacronym – And thenthe ‘B’ for thebisexual categoryfractured theoverly complicates any Bisexuality complicates any Europe embraced andappropriated the label ‘queer’ from Nazi LBGT further complicatedLBGT further definitionssexual of that identity Germany’s segregation ofhomosexuals, there isstill amixed are diverse interpretations ofthis letter including Queer, Quitting, and homosexual –whether sequentially orsimultaneously. are sexually attractedtomembers oftheoppositesex, onthe one hand, andhomosexual aresexually peoplewho attracted or Questioning. While the movements America in North and often preferred the plural pronoun ‘they’. The physicality of dismantled simple binarycategorisations ofgender. Atthethird knowledge thelives created about ofintersex persons. Thus, the recognition ofintersexuality expanded theacronym toLGBTI, category represented those people who were peoplewho bothheterosexual those category represented chapter ofthe ‘Queer in Africa’ symposiumseries, Ilearnt of two genders was further complicatedtwo genderswasfurther bythegrowing of body the newcategorywithin the Trans movement ofindividuals who that are signalled by the biological, physiological, anatomical, to members ofthesamesex, ontheother hand. The bisexual self-identified asbelonging toanon-binarygender-identity and simplistic binary polarisation between heterosexual people who messy, and perhaps still as erroneously simplistic as it is today. endocrinal andother bodily sex characteristics ofallhuman discussion aboutsexual orientation. beings. The broad categoryofnon-conforming gender identities with theaddition ofthe ‘I’ for intersex people. Andthencame were onthefalsified based thatthereidea exist only twogenders whether astransgender, transsexual, trans. transvestite orjust 26 Queering Cape Town ‘+’. The letter ‘A’ variously refers toallies, activists, advocates, or This plussymbol intheLGBTIQA+ When itcametomyturn toown myidentity, upabout I Bonwen’s self-identity ofpansexuality might beamong those there are perhaps other forms there are perhaps otherforms ineligible, unspoken and unnamed. unspokenineligible, andunnamed. includes any other non-heteronormative identities that may not is ‘asexual’. Finally for now, in theacronym, theplussymbol in Africa (Epprecht2004). Itwasthusinteresting thatthe ambassadors – who may or maynot be homosexual – who ambassadors or ofnon- additions to the acronym include the letter ‘A’ and the symbol reaction towards this labelling within different LGBTI groups revealed thatalthoughI was firmly heterosexual and cause ofLGBTIQA+rightscause andwellbeing. Another meaning of conforming gender identities althoughtheywork for thebroad comfortably cisgender, Ialsoidentified asqueer. categories ofnon-heteronormative sexual identities covered by the ‘+’ symbolin theLGBTIQA+acronym. the letter ‘A’, that was mentioned in the car from Stellenbosch, series ofsymposiawasnamed ‘Queer in Africa’. Morerecent awareness of thecomplexity acronym highlights animportant gender identity, by flagging that gender identity, byflaggingthat of being sexual and that are still of beingsexual andthatare still of bothsexual orientation and be included within theLGBTIQAcombination. 27 Queering Cape Town There wasanawkwardsilence in thecarafter myrevelation. And lastly, there wasalsoOwen, anandrogynous andbeautiful I did notbother toexplain wasdaring nobody because further Chantelle, Earl, Bronwen andIwere thefour regular co- zones ofqueer categories for myco-passengers. impressed byhis speech for Representative theStudent Council identified asa thetermgay womanbecause ‘lesbian’ hadmany attend anaudition in toact adrama production andlater join occasional joined passengers who thetrip toandfrom Cape Town for one day only. There was Tanya, of microbiology a student who gay ofchemicalWhite engineering student identifieda as who campaigns in which he was running. He shared the speech, the symposiumin theafternoon. twink and a against“slut slut-shaming” attheuniversity. I was third chapter ofthe ‘Queer in Africa’ series ofsymposia. We had travellers from Stellenbosch University toCape Town for the student ofcreative writingstudent travelled who withusin order to phone and asked on his forstored smart ways to improve it. silence, shocked Iwascertain thatIhadjust thecomfort negative connotations in her conservative Christian family. There enough toprobe mefor moredetails. in But thelongish was alsoDaniel, amake-up wearing, hairdyeing, spinning story

29 Queering Cape Town Three forums organised for non-heteronormative at the students The in thecarvariously students thelackof lamentedabout All seven ofusadmittedAll seven thatCape Town was wayqueerer than University’s annual ‘Kiss-in-the-Avenue’ eventcalled ‘Soen in White todancewithshoesbelonging maledancers canreject Mystix ridiculedMystix him for wearing flashymake-up. The bouncer Gay Bisexual wastotally invisibilising of non-conforming gender Bisexual – were alienating all reportedly were of people who non- identities. Chantelle’s discussion of race andgender on based identities, queerness, fluidity ofgenderedsexualities, and allies in Stellenbosch thusilluminated how whitenessandmasculinity located in thesamespace. affirming safespaces for queer peopleatStellenbosch University. theheterosexistabout andracist welcome events called ‘Skakels’ our own locale–Stellenbosch, whichwasdescribed asvery for menflaunting make-up ontheirfaces. This ledtotelling during are which new residents attend a dance where partners die Laan’, published andtheirpicture onthefront pageofthe conversations thenationwide about controversy over twomen conservative, Christian, against andclosed queer spacesin its complicated the experiences ofexclusion for other queers to aperson ofanother race (for details Du see Toit 2015). the dance-floor. Non-Whites andqueers are because excluded the analysis ofqualitative among datacollected White lesbians students’ newspaper university –namely Queer House, SafeSpace, andLesbianGay midst. Daniel recountedhow thenight before, abouncer at even went further to state thatalthoughtheentrance to state fee even wentfurther pinnacle of power at both Queer andSafeSpace. House Lesbian particularly thedominance of White Afrikaner gay men, held the picked onshoesanonymously based thrown into thecentreof who werewho photographed while kissing attheStellenbosch was twentyrands per person, ithadhiked rands uptothirty who identified withthecause who rathersexual thantheir orgender white andhad non-conforming gender identities. White privilege, Die Matie (see Jones (see 2010). Ialsolearnt In the car, I realised that although both cities were located in South Africa with the liberal Constitution whose Bill of Rights protects LGBTIQA+, compared to Stellenbosch, Cape Town was indeed the Gay Capital of Africa. We all variously idealised Cape Town as the happening place where queer folks of all hues, shapes, creeds, races, genders, orientations, ages, nationalities, income brackets, citizenship statuses, religions, political party affiliations, and so forth were safe to be queer. The analytical comparison between these two South African locations was very telling. Even in South Africa, Cape Town is a lot queerer than other spaces within the very same national boundaries. This confirms Andrew Tucker’s (2009:188) observation that: “Cape Town has tried to position itself as one of the most accepting locations on the continent towards individuals with queer desire – in some cases even going so far as to contrast itself favourably with ‘less tolerant’ cities in the country.” 31 Queering Cape Town Ugandan national andupbringing, bybirth aswell asalong-time Unlike theother sojourners in thecarfrom Stellenbosch to Relative tomyown positionality within Africa where Iambotha I know many Ugandan queers living asasylum-seekers, refugees Capital ofAfrica, theQueer Havenfor African homosexual Cape Town, Iwastheonly foreigner visiting Africa South from For me, African, asanon-South there hasnever beenadoubt legal, political, social andcultural regimes. and resettled citizensand resettled in Cape Town. Cape about Town being the Pink Paradise ofAfrica, theGay fervour in Africa also South (see Warner andFinchilescu 2003). discusses thestriking similarity betweenthepronunciations of resident of The GambiawhereImarried anational andborehim expelledrejects from their home countries duetohomophobic the words ‘queer’ and ‘kwerekwere’ – the local derogatory label the African continent – in Uganda specifically. ZethuMatebeni employed for African foreigners particularly during xenophobic III 32 Queering Cape Town “What doesitmeanfor Cape Town tocallitself theGayCapital Town astheGayCapitalofAfrica. Africa’s sexual andgender minorities. Itwasthusdisconcerting AfricaAfrica South admire, outside envy, aspiretowards, long No.Act aggravated 11of2014whichmade homosexuality a Assembly theCriminal whichalsopassed (Amendment) Code Capital. Itwasalsoproductively disturbing towitnessresidents Cape Town asAfrica’s GayCapital, Irealised how easyitisfor October 2009toFebruary 2014)and The Gambia’sNational insiders tototally take for granted thelaudable advances made laws. Africans, AsIlistened toSouth Capetonians critiquing, against ofredressin modes homophobiaandstructural the and protective ofqueers. Althoughitisneither apanacea oasis ofAfrica. Given Uganda’s legislative regime whichenacted of Africa? What doesitmeanfor acity tocallitself acapital of Cape Town systematicallyexpressing theirdisavowal ofCape of African jurisdictions wheresame-sex sexualities areeither violations, recognition theconstitutional andprotection of for metoexperience how living those in theenviable dream for, cherish andcelebrate protections theconstitutional ofSouth freedoms andentitlementsareunavailable in thevast majority onthegrounds ofsexual orientation. Queers in citizens areprotected from discrimination, isbothemancipating crime, Bill Africa’s whose ofRights South 1994Constitution criticising andcondemning theillusions within themetaphorof criminalised or otherwise invisibilised and silenced by the the Anti-Homosexuality legislation over five (i.e.years from three children, Africa’s South Cape Town isinvariably the queer sexual andgender minorities provides legislative insulation nor amagic bulletthatsolvesallhomophobia-associated event ofrelated hate-crimes. These protections, constitutional which namessexual orientation among thegrounds uponwhich were variously disparaging theirveryqueerness in Africa’s Gay within Africa’s lawtoprotect against South constitutional 33 Queering Cape Town Unlike several atthis participants symposium, Iwasamong of theInformation andProgramme bookletdistributedtoall opening session ofthethree-dayprogram of ‘Queer in Africa: of Africa? IsCape Town in Africa? What doesitmeanfor a question of the symposium that was captured on the first page page question ofthesymposiumthatwascapturedonfirst city to position itself as gay?” Zethu Matebeni, the convener of consecration of Cape Town asAfrica’s Gaycapital. the African world citizens for Cape whom Town, indeed, is the Cape Town Question’. These questions clarified thecentral the series ofsymposia, foregrounded questions these during the the ignorance ofbeing avisitor, Iwas unshakeable in myfirm the GayCapitalofAfrica. Whether ofblasé naiveté, out orof participants. Anexcerpt from this pageisreproduced below: “Over three years we have gathered inCapeTown without We inviteyou toaskthesequestions,engagethecityina This symposium is interested in those margins – what The Blackqueerperson inthiscitylives onthemargins. Bay, ortrytofindthe ever-moving RefugeeReceptionOffice. Capital of Africa’? And if it is – should we be satisfied by its Capital ofAfrica’?Andifitis–shouldwe besatisfiedbyits Cape Town really iswhatitpromotes itself tobe–‘theGay gayness? Gay for who?Forgayness? Gayfor what? day aboutsegregation andmarginalisation –whetheryou queering CapeTown” (Matebeni2016:1). fully interrogating this city – a place that reminds us every look at Robben Island, or drive from to Camps way thatunsettlesit–andperhaps you toocouldbepartof the central questionwe are allinterested inis,whether us something new or different abouturbanus somethingnewordifferent Perhaps life. happens there andhow doqueerpeopleonthemargins tell 34 Queering Cape Town Town astheInternational GayDestination ofAfrica, thecity Town. The annualMother CityQueer Project(MCQP)costume Uganda andTheGambiarespectively. After all, didn’t Cape Town havefour already annualPride whole Perhaps, my stubbornrefusal to Uganda’s legislature wasdebating penaltyproposed thedeath South AfricaSouth withfive annualPride events)?Notonly did queer Not only had I lived in President Banjul when Yahya Jammeh Gambia, I also lived but in Kampala for the five when years from thevantage pointof comparative invested resources into making Cape Town Pride anunforgettable as punishment for forms ofhomosexual practice. Interms of for the practice and predicament of marked forms of human queer person wasguaranteed thevitality thatcomesfrom hand, andontheother, bothKampala reading thequeer metrefor life anddeath, location matters constitutional protections,constitutional rights, freedom, liberties andeven the budgetfor Cape Town Pride bythecity wasfunded ofCape sexuality. Simply onelived because in Cape Town, life asa events (coming only second toJohannesburg –another city in entitlements. experience ofthe wide range oftourists, foreign journalists and and Banjul – the two capital cities of and Banjul–thetwo capital citiesof analysis between CapeTown ontheone construct thiscity otherwise came ball hasworld renown. Committed to building theimage ofCape people publicly claim spaceonthecity’s annualcalendar, even but publicly threatenedtobeheadallhomosexuals living in The 35 Queering Cape Town Uganda where the police not only raided Gay Beach the first States ofAmerica complicates anddisrupts anoverly simple Pride eventsin Cape Town andNewOrleans in the United Pride march ofSeptember 2016byimpounding six buses Pride March held in 2012(Nyanzi 2014), alsoraided but the Minister ofStatefor Ethics andIntegrity circulated who Beauty PageantBeauty ofUganda Pride 2016wheretheyarrested Furthermore, ofPride comparedtothenascenthistory in in convoy back to Kampala city. style confirming Further the law andorder among thecolourfuljubilant crowds. Furthermore, and state propagandaand state against Uganda Beach Pride in repetitive and depoliticised analysis oftheinclusivity celebrations ofthese annually from thewide range ofgay sex tourists thatvisited the other visiting celebrants attended. or observers who Localsex one hand, andthe police raids, arrests, cancellation, intimidation of queerness. years, onthe other hand, theadvances casts ofCape Town asa freedom andprotection offered during Cape Town Pride onthe relatively muchqueerer metropolis in Africa. city commuters. Jessica Scott’s celebrants travelling from nearandfar, police officers were on city in honourofPride parades. To ensurethesafetyofPride transporting Pride celebrants were who redirected andescorted that marchers hadampleroom tomarch, display theirbanners, traffic monitors cordoned offthe route for thePride Parade so sixteen participants. Police alsoraidedthe Beach andaborted site tooffer security ofperson andproperty, aswell asobserve erroneous claims Pride about being anactivity atwhichyoung exhibit theirfanfareandfloatswithout interruptions from andto payment ofmoney. The extreme juxtaposition betweenthe people are recruited into homosexuality through theexploitative homophobic handiwork ofthestate, thelatter police operations workers looked forward to the enhanced incomes to be earned were undertaken onthewidely publicised instructions ofthe 8 comparative analysis between

37 Queering Cape Town “We never called ourselves ‘queer’. No. We were lesbians,” Mary This generational discord echoed Tanya’s insistence onself- Spaces of safety are essential forSpaces ofsafetyareessential theestablishment ofaplace Ramaru and Mary Hames discussingRamaru andMary along list of spaces in Cape Town where Blacklesbianssocialised over theyears. Boldly claiming theposition ofaBlack lesbianfrom anolder labelling as neither a lesbian nor a queer person, rather but as associated withthelabel ‘lesbian’ African among South a gay woman. Matebeni (2009)analyses thecomplex meanings as queer-friendly, queer-inclusive, orsimply queer. Itwaseye- opening for metowitness theintergenerational exchange generation, Hamesrebuked Mary hergeneration co-host’s for stated firmly.stated easily mislabelling themselves. between the two hosts ofthesymposium–Kealebogabetween thetwohosts Mase history ofnaminghistory andlabels within thequeer ofdisparate body women who have sexwomen who withwomen. The politics andevolving IV 38 Queering Cape Town Town astheGayCapitalofAfrica. The officially recognised, celebrated and paraded gayness of Moreover, this Capetonianneither who gayness those leftout Cape Town wasvariously highlighted asbeing toominiscule in Queerness is a political tool, a heuristic Queerness isapoliticaltool, aheuristic that demands for transcendence transcendence that demandsfor individuals and collectives that were neither gay men nor White. inclusive enough. Framing thesymposiumthrough the queer lens inclusionits bounded ofonly beautiful White gay mentobe included those who identified aswomen,included who those lesbians, bisexual, limited, exclusionary that excluded mode the plethora of queer largely inclusive embrace far enough to include the stretched agendas. context Intheparticular ofthemain objectiveofthe open invitation tocritically engage withtheposturing ofCape variously nuancedpertinent componentsofnon-heteronormative youthful gay body. The largeexcluded collectiveofqueers generation, education attainment, personal politics, gender, different constituencies itmayencompass, whose segments its beyond narrow exclusionary and religion, ethnicity, citizenship status, geographical location, and collectives isdifferentiated andgiven meaning bydissimilar, conformed nor ascribed to normative of the beautiful constructs third chapter ofthe ‘Queer in Africa’ symposiumthere wasan transgender, transsexual, cross dressers, drag queens, drag kings, non-binary gender-fabulous people, intersex, multi-spirited, non- even healthstatus. Althoughthe ‘queer’ label by isstill resisted even contradictory experiences, experiences on race, based class, constrictive framing of gayness. aconceptualreconfigurationdevice, was abold challenge toCapetonian gayness toshow up in its 39 Queering Cape Town In order tocontrol themixing ofraces –whether physically, Locating Cape Town’s Gay Village in anaffluentareaofthe city, Cape Town merely masquerades in order toreallocatethelandonly White people. The houses in Greenpoint thefinancial, without ensuredthatthose social, are excluded andmarginalised in theveryMother Citywhich and sex workers were erased, further invisibilised anddeleted or rentaflat in Sea Point could only come in assojourners, of theformer inhabitants were demolished. The guided tour raciallyof thesymposiumwasonelast mixed areas from from theimagined gayness obtaining in Africa’s GayCapital. from their homes, seeing family albums that commemorated from ofelderly themouths were menandwomenwho expelled dehumanising forced injustices ofapartheid’s removals. Seeing during brought thevisitSixMuseum alive totheDistrict the drug addicts, dwellers in shacksandinformal settlements, fat, refugees, parents, among alsothepoor, others –but physically clubs, pubsandbars. Inthis regard, alotofqueer Capetonians the packed box-suitcases, themetallic signs street emblazoned the living Africans. ofSouth quarters Six–thelocation District temporary visitors, tourists, orpatrons fraternizing thenight the lives offamily members andneighbours, looking atbirth socially orsexually, regime theapartheid routinely segregated astheGay CapitalofAfrica.self postures Inthis regard, as thecontinent’s gaycapital. home on one of the streets of the District Six, oftheDistrict home ononeofthestreets hearing stories political orother forms ofcapitaltoafford apieceofland handicapped, unhealthy, elderly, mentally ill, abusers, substance white, Black, Coloured, mixed race, foreigners, non-citizens, with blue letters spelling names, street visiting arecreatedformer which non-whiteswere forcibly removed andrelocated elsewhere Queering Cape Town Jeppie’s discussion ofthe ‘Coon Carnival’ Queers in District Six, which highlighted how effeminate men called it – all these experiencesit –allthese evoked theraw pain ofapartheid’s on abenchwithwritings forbidding non-whitesfrom using restricting accesstothecity after working hours, reading the certificates with certificates race classifications, scrutinising the segregation ofraces. The visit museum alsoenriched Shamil enlarged newspaper onthewalls, cuttings pasted andsitting widely acceptedfacetofColouredcommunities inAfrica. South moffies dom passes passes are a are a 41 Queering Cape Town “The only could manwho ever reach mewasthesonofapreacher The conscious surfacing ofthehistoricised issuesofBlackAfrican The drag performance byOdidiva wasexhilarating. ABlack Tour availed andfacilitated bythe ‘Queer in Africa’ symposium. South Africa.South Analysing personal involvement in several early In Khayelitsha andLanga townships, ourtourbusfollowed the Africa, South Independence Funeka Soldaat shared a range of lesbian andgay organisations thatdaredtoaddresstheexclusion lesbian organising wasaptly narrated insingular thefirst-person artists atthesymposium.artists sang anddancedgracefullyartist withenergy in pointed shiny activist. Experiences ofexclusion andmarginality were infused other forms ofviolence ofbeing because asexual andgender organisation byFunekain Khayelitsha, later started andalso visit thetownship environments during legoftheQueer thelast from wax from this perspective ofpersonal narrative. Itwasthusarare gave a spirited performance eclectic on the opening night of the drag queen wearing anexquisitely patterned made costume religious family –atrait of apastor sharedwithother creative created bypredominantly organisationWhite support in pre- to cater for social groups excluded bythemain Cape Town Pride the police andhospitalworkers were identified andanalysed symposium. Rather thanlip synchin pantomime, during thelive man,” Odidiva referenced being achild born andraised in the minority living in thetownships. The slow ofboth responses events. embodied experiences ofthestruggles ofbeing aBlacklesbian high heels. Aspoken word performance theAfro about hairstyle performance of songs from a wide range of genres, this creative path travelled bythecelebrants oftheAlternative Pride formed privilege toengage withmembers ofFree Gender –thesupport by FunekaSoldaat with personal narratives ofsuffering andsurviving sexual and was veryaffirming ofAfrican kinky hair. Introducing thesong Kitengi withsequins thatglittered in thelight, Odidiva 9 –aveteran ofqueer activist struggles in 42 Queering Cape Town Employing theliterary device ofachild persona tonarrate the Wanelisa Xaba’s Uncle Gravel identity isnotheteronormative? How arechildren conditioned get role arequeer? models who These importantquestions are to relate withtheirqueer relatives? Where dochildren in Africa to realise thattheirrelative’s sexual orientation orgender the queer members oftheirfamilies? When dochildren begin the importanceoffamilial relationships withqueer people. memorising ofqueer relatives. How arechildren taughtabout cross-dressing of a close memory effeminate relative called poignantly into cast sharp relief. , featuredthecomplex this story issuesoffamilial 10 creative fiction presentation highlighted 43 Queering Cape Town THE QUEER TOUR

Phtots by Dean Hutton 44 Queering Cape Town ESSAY GRAAF’S POOL

By DeanHutton Queering Cape Town Graaf’s PoolGraaf’s -erasureleaves marks (left) and Jaco Barnard-Naudé perform

Queer Cape Town - Crime Scene at the ruins Graaf’s Pool. The pool was a gay cruising spot which experienced its heyday at the height of the Immorality Act. “Condoms and stolen property were found there regularly and rent boys also used the place as a hangout” , proclaimed DA (Democratic Alliance) Councillor for Greenpoint and Sea Point areas, JP Smith, who campaigned for 3 years to destroy the pool. He succeeded in 2006. “What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us” - Ralph Emerson “The water was said to be very cold, and if one lay on the white concrete and faced the sea, the view was of chasms of ocean bounded only by the horizon.” - Rebecca Hodes Junkyard Promenade: The corporate vandalism of the Seapoint beachfront 50 Queering Cape Town VI The first stop-overThe first oftheQueer Tour Zethu Matebeni’s described how commentary Graaff’s Pool was Sea Point wasverymuchadrive down lane. memory Itwas 2005, Mr. JPSmith theCity Councillor ofCape Town ordered listening to Pierre de Vos andJaco Barnard-Naudé and homosexual orgies happening reportedly atthepool, in June onto our queer bodies listening in cold attentiveness. A group of one ofthefewpublic bathsontheoceanwheregay menwould for thedemolition oftheperimeter wallthatoffered privacy to geographic spaceutilisation byqueer folk living in Cape Town. due torising public concern over theso-calledsin, debauchery cruise, network, make new contacts, bathe and have sex. However, turn sex, chapters about anddeaths, desire astheocean’swaves the utilisation ofGraaf’s Pool asameeting andsocialising the users (Smith 2005). This demolition order, effectively ended symposium participants –probablysymposium participants allin theirearly twenties site for gay menin Cape Town. AtGraaf’s Pool, itwasspecial practically awalkinto theliving queer archive ofthepolitics of beat upon the coast andthewindbeat uponthecoast blew the blessings ofhistory 11 atGraaff’s Pool in 12 reading in

51 Queering Cape Town “I can understand their excitement“I can understand meeting about him. I In fact “Oh yes. Iamelated. Itislit tofinally meet him,” one thefirst suedSliver“He istheonewho BarandNightclub for refusing – loudly exclaimed theirjoyatfinally about meeting Pierre de Africa. Iwondered how manymoreliving archives hadwritten Vos in the flesh. Recalling Earl’s earlier similarsentiments, I Soldaat, Pierre de Vos, were –who namedontheprogram. I In mymind, Hames, IcountedMary Shamil Jeppie, Funeka I looked atEarl, next hadthebus-seat who tome. Irolled my “Oh, heisthePierre de Vos, you know?” Iasked asheplacedall On hindsight, Iremain in aweofthegathering ofliving archives innocently asked why. also countedallthepath-breakers were who theoriginators of innovative interventions, conceptualisations, theories and on the programme, or even as silent members of the audience. got backontothebus. days ofthesymposium. Considering thathumanlife only dance in the bus-corridor, while firmly holding his red hat in place. creative works toqueer thatwere specific thefirst sites inSouth their namesontheregistration papers oneachofthedifferent stretches sofar,stretches how aredifferent queer collectivesdocumenting, share it,” Earl said. said ashesprung upfrom his in seat thebusanddid arapid eyes heavenwards. Earl held myeyes. Hedid notblink. participating in thesymposium–beitaspresenters named his entry,” Coloured partner another one explained to me as we his tenwell-manicured fingers on his heart. youthful 52 Queering Cape Town Town (Kassiem2004). This lawprofessor, constitutional Pierre That night before going tobed, case thecourt Ireadabout South AfricadidSouth who alotoflobbying oflegislators andcourts Clause oftheConstitution. Clause fit thenewprotections granted toLGBTpeople in theEquality living archives, even moreurgent. seem Ifthemultiplestories against racist doorpolicies operating in gay night clubsin Cape whileand preserved Leigh still lives, how will generations future of transgender sex workers in Cape Town tapinto andfrom this of founding, leading andgrowing arenotrecorded SistaazHood de de Vos, wasoneamong manyothers from thelegal fraternity in download andtransmit theexperiences ofliving archives before rich oforganising? history repositories ofarchival materials embodied andinscribed in their recording, preserving, storing, andthengiving accesstothedeep coma because ofAIDS-relatedcoma because illness, myquestions made about to make reversals in previously homophobic laws that did not forever,they rest taking withthemalltheirlived memories and experiences? For example, overhearing Leigh Davids narrating existing archives? Without being overly morbid, how doesone her recentpainful experience ofhospitalisation andgoing into Every queer generation faces its own erasure from the spaces built on spent love and the ruins of ruins 54 Queering Cape Town Another focus onarchival research explored pre-Independence Alongside thespatialcommemorations ofqueer experiences Entitled “No Easter for Queers,” thespoken wordpoemisa Death ofqueer peopleinAfrica South wascommemorated internet norsocial media? Liesl Theron’s in era theapartheid ofstrong surveillance, whichhadneither in Action (GALA). Inaddition toselling afewofGALA’s book independence, thethird ‘Queer in Africa’ symposiumwas an underground network called and living archives activism ofhistoricals predated whose accompanied bylive pianomusicwasamong thepresentations of theexperiences offour transgender belonged peoplewho to over theyears since the1940sin Cape Town. These archived from queer people, organisations, events, andprocesses dominating thecity. questions andcontradictions lived byaqueer Christiandaughter communication. What wascommunication andnetworking like the representations ofQueer Cape Town, theysplintered the titles ondiscount tosymposiumparticipants, Kendall Petersen to a preaching gives pastor the narrative immediacy and urgency. person narrativethe first torecountthe dilemmas, unanswered the intersections betweenreligious belief andqueerness. Using to Christianscriptures androutine Christianrituals explore that leftsomein theaudience either in orsniffing tears quietly. through another medium. Koleka Putuma’s this importantquestion. Itisinteresting thetension toobserve materials were bynuancing importantbecause anddiversifying exalted monotonousfigurewhite ofthe middle-class gay man enriched bytheparticipation of the Gay and Lesbian Memory eulogy for victims ofcorrective rape andmurder. References presented adiversepresented range ofarchival materials originating between creatively maintaining personae secret via of use The Phoenix Society 14 13 descriptive analysis spoken wordpoetry, explores 13

55 Queering Cape Town indeed able toactualise themetaphorical symbolism ofrising like ‘Agony Aunt’ letters, andnewspaper editorials. Bycarefully above theisolation engineered government. bytheapartheid advertisements, obscuremagazine advice columns also publicly mobilising using communication in classified communication, members these of the that possibly camewith disclosure andexposure from public their realidentities andpersonal addresses, andthedanger negotiating adelicate balance betweenthesafetyofconcealing pseudonyms, telephone books, boxes, post andsecret andyet Phoenix Society were 56 Queering Cape Town VII The medium ofphotography twicein wasused thesymposium. Alongside exhibited these photographs film wasadocumentary exhibitionA second entitled “InterseXions” Set in the Memorial SixMuseum, HalloftheDistrict Lindy-Lee Prince’s exhibition entitled “Drag Lives Here Too” displayed District Six HomecomingDistrict Centre. OpenedbySandile Ndelu, this in andLeigh, whichRobert eachnarrates of theirlives aspects attitudes andfeelingsattitudes towards each other. Itwasunsettling to as transgender people living Africa, in South aswell astheir a transgender woman. There ofdemonstration wasalsoaset a collection ofphotographs drag about cultureatZer021 – different ofgendered dressandundressoftwotransgender states this visual anthropologist wasalsothedesignated symposium the gay nightclub where I saw that It is noteworthy V’s vest? support groupsupport for transgender alsosell sex. womenwho multi-media exhibition displayed ofphotographs a set showing photographs oftheeveryday operations oftheSistaazHood people: Hamblin, Robert awhitetransgender manand Leigh Davids, proceedings through oftheircamera. the lenses photographer continuously who capturedkey momentsofthe hear Leigh’s repeated envious admiration being ofRobert aman. 16 was set upin wasset the

57 Queering Cape Town This d The film documentary the questionsraised about role,important Torture” referring de-gendering to the constant andmis- Their reinterpretations of theprestigious university’s acronym A second documentary film documentary A second premiered atthethird ‘Queer in Africa’ It wasinteresting tolearn thepolitics about andpraxis of Must Fall.”Must The painfulyet but humorously narratives presented Kyla Phil, thecisgender queer film maker who co-authored Fallacy”, which theypaint theUniversity ofCape Town tobe. film, there followed an interactive discussion withtheaudience, is nohoney! There isnofreedom!” Again, topics therejected into apanel discussion theexperiences about oftransgender sex and co-produced thisfilm documentary withthemembers of attending thecelebrated University ofCape Town during thepeak themainabout themes, andthemaking ofthefilm. This thenled of mentalillness andself-care for activists came tothefore. the systematicallytearapart of thestudents “Promised Land of the Fallist interventions called Fall” Must “Rhodes and “Fees from UCT to “University ofColonised Thinking” in relation focusses onthelived experiences ofBlacktransgender students gendering suffer must routinely, thattrans students aretelling. choose tobeatransgenderchoose woman, rather but ISatransgender to theproject of decolonisation, and “University ofConstant the TransCollective symposium. Entitled “Giving ContenttoDecolonisation,” thefilm simply hewas aman. because After watching thedocumentary members of SistazHood who were in who present members theaudience. ofSistazHood people, thefilm sadly asserts that: “There isno milk! There project oftheuniversities inAfrica. South For transgender place andsafetyoftransgender persons within thedecolonising workers in Cape Town – drawing from thelived experiences of was fully awareoftheadvantages hadin thatRobert society, woman. However, even as a transgender woman, Leigh Davids isturbing refrain for emphasised methatLeigh doesnotjust 17 .

58 Queering Cape Town “Yes. Evelyn. Sheisoneofourmembers in theSistaazHood “Is there someoneelse here from Uganda?” Iasked. “Oh, African my East sister, I should introduce you toyour fellow VIII Ugandan,”Flavie interjected into ourgroup conversation during Later, Flavie theintroductions made aspromised andthenleft flamboyant wig, a fingers tightly pressed together to illustrate how very close a commonform of greeting among some Ugandans. Evelyn – a only tworefugees in thegroup,” Flavie said assheraised two tongue. Evelyn withasmile. responded We hugged eachother - they are. tea-break. showed agap betweenher front twoteethwaswearing abig stocky, overly transgender made-up womanwithabig smile that group.support We like areveryclose this, wearethe because us tocatchupwitheachother. Ispoke Luganda, mymother mushanana traditional dressfrom Western

59 Queering Cape Town “I am, thentheprocess but here isvery, very, very, difficult. Don’t areyou“But aregistered refugeehere?” Iasked. “Beyonce –another transgender activist from Uganda told me “Who told you this?” Ireplied, taken abackather urgency “I hearthatUgandan The ope Uganda, andveryhigh heeled shoes. Nairobi andgoing toSweden, Canada, America, Holland. Have Listening briefly tothelamentations ofmyUgandan sister is why Flavie friend.is why is a very close She has been there by my and bluntness. you heardofthis newprocess?” sheasked meassoonwe faced bytransgender refugeesandasylum seekers flee from who go toAmerica oreventoSweden. Lifehere inAfrica South is their home-countries ongrounds ofgender persecution, and side through thedifficulties ofbeing arefugee, atransgender mesellingsee sex here andyou think thatIamhaving aparty, my sister. Lifeistooexpensive anddifficult to. toget used That not easy, mysister,” shesaid. earlier this year. Ifitistrue, for me, and thatdeal Iwanttotry echoed BCamminga’s discussion ofthemultiplechallenges hardship,” shesaid. portion ofher bleached back. We tookselfies onourphones. were alone. woman, andalsoselling sex. surely But Ineedabreakfrom the she came herewhen for AIDS Conference the last in n-back fashion ofher attireshowed offaconsiderable kuchus areeasily getting visas from 60 Queering Cape Town – sometimes evenviolence. Failing in topartake therefreshing Africa; processing reportedly queer asylum faster to other dream into informal sex work, andjoined organisations, support asthey life-giving waters oftheGayOasisthatCape Town isprojected also planned to depart from Africa South to anotheralso planned to depart location in a woman, yet simultaneously carrying thatclassified apassport one asaman, andhow this variously ledtodifferent challenges queer havensoftheworld. Cape Town challenges presented of difficulties ofpresenting oneself tothe immigration officersas come to South Africa.come toSouth From Evelyn, the about Iheardfirst-hand to be, some gender-refugees such as my Ugandan sister entered skills tocompetefavourably in thejobmarket. economic survival for manyqueer asylumseekers andrefugees without sufficientwithout formal education qualification,or expertise 61 Queering Cape Town Thiyane Duda’s Zer021 isa nightclub andbarthatcaters for non-white queer Given theextensively discussed marginalisation of Black people visits tothis nightclub. The vibrancy ofZero21 the represented from an insider proudly reported enjoying who his many regular from Cape Town’s gay set-ups, itwasredeeming tolisten to gayness only caters for wealthy White gay men. queer spacesofsafetywithin anexclusionary Cape Town whose recreated atZer021 for otherwise excluded peoples. Unlike cruise, socialise, network, getpartners, relax andhavefun. It many of the advertised queermany oftheadvertised spacesin Cape Town’s gay village, performances andthelatter mainly coming in later tomeet, population groups, theformer often coming early tocatchdrag people. Itattractspeoplefrom both ColouredandBlack possibilities for Blackqueers tofashion andcreate theirown was priceless to listen to a critique and celebration of Zer021 IX 18 presentationthe about “Queer Possibilities” 62 Queering Cape Town Town’s gay metropolis toviable attests forms ofresisting and Town, it was important that this in research was conducted Likewise, SusanHolland-Mutter’s Capetonian gayness asonly focused on White gay men. For me, there istherefore nowonder thatoneofthemany in threelocations. Considering thegeneral widespread exclusion of non-whites and non-males from spaces marked as Gay Cape of theNaked Girls Reading three safe-spacescatering for Blacklesbiansfrom thelower social within classes thetownships ofCape Town. The successful spaces createdasinclusive ofBlacklesbiansisdrawn from ultimately fracturing the monotonous dominant projection of existence of such alternative spacesofqueerness within Cape ethnographic observations participant andinterviews conducted physically visiting theLounge ofZer021 forexperience mydebut highlights ofthethird ‘Queer in Africa’ symposiumwasactually which notions ofsafetyanddanger infuse eachother within 20 Cape Town. 19 paperthewaysin about 63 Queering Cape Town X The lights in thepacked lounge were dimmed then further lower. The Naked Girls Reading anawesome –ohmyGodwhat A curly-haired openedthedoor. lady Shecameontothe stage. A few seconds passed. A fewseconds She gave brief instructionsprotocol. about Nocameras. No guests speaking in hushedtones. Afewpeoplewere still buying reading lights. The Zer021 Lounge was packed with expectant the lounge once the reading started. The expectation and tension stage bearingstage four withfour stools reading-stands carrying tiny shoes andtrinkets ofjewellery onalithe neckhere oratender mounted as she left the stage and exitedmounted as she left the stage through the door. photography. Nophonesringing. Nomovements inof andout beers attheside-bar counter. The only exit/ entrance wasblocked with ablack curtain. wrist there, were delightfully queer. aslightly Picture raised wondrous concept! Those naked beautiful ladies wearing only

64 Queering Cape Town The audience got chargedasifshotwithelectricity bolts. People The open again. door burst Four ladies in beautiful dressed black And Iremember thepoempraying forofunlikely all sorts people When theexcited audience quietly down, settled naked thefirst No wonder wewere nottophotograph, instructed Whatsapp or lady proceededlady toreadever socalmly from somebookwritten adoration, asIworshipped atthealtaroffemalehuman form, an excerpt readfrom my friend, stories. Unoma Azuah’sshort audience were deafening. Andthenthefour removed beauties of affirmation andlegitimation of uses ofmypersonal contested on whichsatfour gorgeous ofthemost naked womenofallsizes, glorious power ofwomen’snudity; at oncefinding connections reading from books. For twosessions, those Ibasked in the to becomepresidents. ofall, most But Iremember myawe and naturalthe most thing todo. their black gowns, placed themontheirstools, andproceeded to shades, races, heights, bust-sizes, andlengths, pubic haircolours theirfeet.stomped Afewpeoplegroped themiddle oftheir asingle without anything.sit onthestools fussabout Itseemed satin gowns boldly marched onto thestage. The catcallsfrom the my own nudity (for details see Tamale 2016). ululated andwhistled. People screamed. People clapped. People neighbour ran her tongue across her lips. Ifocused onthemons not. The me. contentmostly flewpast Iremember thefunny euphemism insteadofvagina. ofcocoa-breadused Iremember excerpts from important books. Sometexts Iknew. Most, Idid by someauthor. Onebyone, thenaked ladies tookturns toread thepresentation.phone-post pubis, looking for the lengths of any pubic hairs. and colours pants. A few others raised their twoarms in surrender. My 65 Queering Cape Town HERE’ ‘DRAG LIVES By Lindy-Lee Prince

70 Queering Cape Town XI The session bySistaazHood presented Sistaazhood is a support group isasupport forSistaazhood transgender are womenwho Hamblin and Leigh Davids, thedifferent by presented stunts InterseXions Exhibition anddiscussed presented byRobert it disrupted andresolvedin manyideassettled thatseemed my looked. Isawabloody scaratthe back oftheneckamember thus interacted withthembefore theyallchanged clothes. Iwas werethe members of SistaazHood alltoughquizzes shooting a the symposium. Itwasalso, perhaps, disturbing themost because tired andhungry. struck byhowstruck tired, frail, sickly andpoor, someofthe members sex workers in Cape Town. We hadlunchwith themembers and scholarly mind. Coming immediately after the discussion of the minds would buysex from thatobviously abody looked unwell, nails carelessly glued onto fingers.who I wondered in their right barrage ofcomplicated questions tothesymposiumparticipants. who satrightwho in front ofme. I smelt cheap perfume. Isawfalse 21 was the shortest event of eventof wastheshortest 71 Queering Cape Town “Anything andeverything… Ithink but thatitis “Ah, Isee. that. Ihadnotthought about Itisoneofthemissing “It could bedrugs,” Earl chipped in. “They lookasifthevery life hasbeenwrung ofthem. out They “Heh! Ihaveaproblem withyour conceptualisation ofbeauty,” bodies these donotlookhealthy.“But They arenotbeautiful And then, in the safe-space created by the ‘Queer in Africa’ I amseeing?” Iasked. jewellery andmake-up. The transformation in theirappearances less people, wentandsatatthevery front ofthehall, onseats look over-burdened, andtired. weary Imean, you don’t what see about formingabout SistazHood. Afewofthemsupplementedthe occasionally responding toimpromptu questions Leigh asked opening remarks. They attentively listened andLeigh, toRobert for clarificationsdetails about tothenarrativeimportant facing thestage. They satandlistened toSandile Ndelu’s these ladiesthese changed into comfortable clothes, wigs, shoes, symposium at the District Six Museum’s Homecoming Six Museum’s symposium at the District Centre, truthfully.she responded many youths in accessed Cape Town. mentioning a local label for a widely available narcotic drug that pieces in theconversations wehavehadsofar. So, drugs what bodies,” Itold Chantelle. by sharing theirexperience. presentation thegenesisandoperations about ofSistaazHood, was electric. Intrue diva-style, thegroup twentyor ofabout would theybetaking?” Iasked. Tic ,” heexplained 72 Queering Cape Town The talldark Burundian diva calledFlavie, for out stood The wasmoreharrowing. stunt second The limping elderly And thenheinvited ontothestage. themembers ofSistazHood After abrief Q&Asession, advised Robert theaudience that Dressed inDressed flashydrag, themembersstage. rushed tothe There, against her walking canefor support. The audience fell silent and and green wrap over shorts, her short thatbrazenly exposed her and yet determined not to fail in Cape Town, the Mother City – of thegroup andsatonachair. Posing astrue divas, thegroup years ofage. Myvoyeur instinctssharpened. Healsoexpressly forbade of cameras the use to photograph the coming session. glowing including dark-chocolate colouredbody-parts arch-like refugee withinadequate andsporadic from home, support joining the bland pounding floorboard. ofacaneonthewooden An they formed twolines. dramatically Andthentheystood and the next section wasnotappropriate for children below eighteen the GayCapitalofAfrica. Iloved her Francophone accentthat transgender wasledtotheveryfront lady totheline. Sheleaned stage washauntingstage towatch. Shewaspositioned in themiddle her.supported Their thatledto the slow ascentupthefewstairs shoulders, leantummy, athleticback, andlong supplethighs. spoke simple English dark deep pains. words about I admired sex work, experiencing violence while atwork asasex worker, nipple for thestunt. noticed thatafewmembers lowered asleeveandexposed one elderly transgender womanslowly limped into view. Shewas presented their first stunt – asifposing theirfirst presented for a group photo.I being helped byanother muchyounger transgender woman who her skimpy a purplish attire of just wrap around her breasts passionately sharing her horrifying experiences of being a young waited. Slowly andpainfully, towardsapproached thestage 73 Queering Cape Town The session wasover. Noquestions asked. Nofeedback. Iloved A teary-faced ZethuMatebeni fromA teary-faced cameontothestage And then the stillness was lost. The into audience claps, burst A chill ran upmyspine. Robert whose single whose Robert camera clicked, clicked, clicked away, and We were invited totea, andsnacksbefore theclosing session –a District Six Museum’s Homecoming SixMuseum’s District Centre. Iwasenvious of into andNettahadtied upher theirseats brown gown. creased audience’s faces, zooming in ontheireyes –thewindows tothe onNetta’s eyesand settled whichtwinkled in abold, proud and focussed alleyes onher. The silence grew assheslowly opened defiant defiant gaze. Aloudshocked silence fell over theaudience inside rest. Iforget ifthere waspubichairornot. myeyes But were rose totheirfeetandgavestanding amuchdeserved ovation. the gift from theSistaazHood. the elderly Netta. Iwould havedied tosilently photograph the transfixed onthe nakedexposed old ballsencased in withered the belts of her gown noted in the front, flung the flaps open, and souls thatwere processing before thestunt us. snapped, snapped, snapped away at the divas standing behind musical performance byDopeSaint Jude. exposed theold ofabiological body man. Aflaccid penis wasat head afewtimes, evenafter theaudience down hadsettled back wrinkly scrotum. They briefly upthevery brown darted torso wings. For another instant, whole she was silent. her She nodded

74 Queering Cape Town XII Town isnot queer enoughfor them, excluded collectivesin the Africa. Onecancritique Cape Town ofgayness sort what about Lesbian CapitalofAfrica, or asthe Trans CapitalofAfrica. This Cape Town stridently itself astheGayCapitalof advertises Cape Town is modest. This city hasnever itself as advertised Beyond whinging, mourning andcomplaining how about Cape it represents, totheexclusion ofallothers. Onecanevenfault area can choose toactivelyarea canchoose fracture, nuance, layer andexpand on theclaims ofthis city.step towards this, Aneasyfirst would foolhardy for scholars, activists andexcluded collectives to city doesnotevenmake claims tobetheQueer CapitalofAfrica. this city for making claims Africanness. about However, itis strategically inclusive ofcurrently excluded categories. with.start have never been inclusive of them in their varied queernesses, to blame Cape Town for excluding itsadvertisements themwhen be to start inflecting the thatare be tostart city withnewadvertisements what it’snot.what Cape Town there itself out asthe doesnotput 75 Queering Cape Town Transgender Theatre of Africa, the Intersex Oasis, or even as the Those feel who excluded should generate alternative claims Furthermore, it is important to have discussions that debunk Queer Metropolis ofthecontinent. Inorder for theadvertisements in beignorant fact orunawareofthecomplexities ofnon- imaginaries ofGayness. These discussions alsoreachthe must in the city, community involvement in developing, programming about thevarietiesabout ofexcluded queers from thecurrent narrow safelyalready thriving within andrepresented Cape Town and educate the dominant white gay communities that are and implementation oftheirinclusivity interventions isessential. actualised in thenewCape Town. Inorder tocater towards current planners anddevelopers ofCape Town city, may who the ranges ofclasses, generations, races, genders, citizenship specificthese queer sub-constituencies being visibilised and to actualise, there isneedtoconsciously createprograms, spaces, Cape that recast Town astheLesbianLairof World, orthe statuses, andsoforththatarecurrently excluded from thriving events andactivities thatspeaktoandcater for theneedsof heteronormative waysofbeing ahumanbeing.

77 Queering Cape Town Jones M.(2010) Tongues wagging afterStellenboschkiss. News (Available Kassiem A.(2004)Gay nightclubadmitstoracial Epprecht M.(2004) Du Toit N. (2015) OpenStellenbosch:Auniversity exclusion/#.WDSrY8ksDKE in SouthernAfrica. discrimination. education inexclusion. 08-25-open-stellenbosch-a-university-education-in- racial-discrimination-122764 www.iol.co.za/news/south-africa/gay-nightclub-admits-to- tongues-wagging-after-stellenbosch-kiss-673196 REFERENCES 17/08/2010. (Available at http://www.dailymaverick.co.za/opinionista/2015- IOL News Buffalo: McGill-Queens University Press. Buffalo: McGill-Queens Hungochani: Thehistoryofadissident sexuality Daily Maverick accessed22/11/2016). 11/02/2004. (Available at accessed22/11/2016). http://www.iol.co.za/news/south-africa/ 25/08/2015. accessed22/11/2016). http:// IOL IOL 78 Queering Cape Town Warner C., FinchilescuG.(2003)Livingwithprejudice:Xenophobia Tucker A.(2009) Framing exclusion inCapeTown’s Tamale, S. (2016). Nudity, Protest andtheLaw inUganda. The CapeTown Question. CapeTown: HUMA;pp1. 2015/06/09 (Available at Inaugural ProfessorialLecture.Makerere University, Uganda. Nyanzi S. (2011) Rhetorical AnalysisofPresidentYahya Jammeh’s Bodies atUganda’s First Gay BeachPride. Nyanzi S. (2014) QueerPrideandProtest: AReadingofthe Matebeni Z.(2009) Sexing women:Young blacklesbians’ Matebeni Z.(2016) InfoandProgramme:QueerinAfrica? citizenship. silence tosocialscience. gay village: thediscursivegay andmaterialperpetration village: of Graaffs-Pool-cut-down-to-size-20050609 threats tobeheadhomosexualsinTheGambia, Smith C. (2005)Graaff’s Pool cutdown tosize. and SNNyeck( and race. inequitable queersubjects. reflections onsexandresponsesto safe(r) sex. protests-are-not-a-crime-lecture/ (accessed29/10/2016) https://www.kuchutimes.com/2016/10/dr-sylvia-tamales-nude- Agenda: Empowering Women GenderEquity for Buffalo: 67-87.McGill-Queen’s University Press;pages Eds. ) Sexual diversity inAfrica:Politics, theoryand Cape Town: 100-116. pages HSRC; http://www.news24.com/SouthAfrica/News/ Area 41(2):186-197. accessed22/11/2016). Signs From social News24 Archives In 40(1):36-40. Marc Epprecht Marc Epprecht 55:36-44. 79 Queering Cape Town ABSTRACTS This essay willfunctionasadiaryentryofsorts, trackingmy I’m alsointerested inexploringtheinvisibility ofdisabled people 1. without my consent? disregarding or becoming aggressive at my refusal. If my wheelchair connections between theseidentities. Thisinvolves navigating queer, disabled, whiteciswomxn, my dailyexperienceslie in the through spaces where men feel entitled to touch my wheelchair the dailymisogyny ofbeing astraight-presenting ciswomxn and this inclusivitytrulyextend todisabled queerpeople?When isa in queerspaces. Queerevents, buildings, conferences, marchesand me, men unsolicitedlyassumingthattheycanandmust “help” personal experienceasanewwheelchairuserinCapeTown. Asa person understood tobetoodifficultaccommodate, toodifferent performances inCapeTown areoftenframedasinclusive, butdoes functions asanextension ofmy body, whatdoesitmeantomove As IfIWasn’t EnoughTrouble Already –GennaGardini 80 Queering Cape Town I discuss how these tours package “multiculturalism” and “heritage” I discuss how “multiculturalism” and “heritage” these tours package Cape Town’s multiculturalismand“heritage.” However, thisnod Moreover, thesenarratives sitcomfortably alongsidetheprivileging During thetwentieth century, CapeTown was developed and Ultimately, thisessay willfunctiontoexploreayearinmy lifeasa 2. Oceans” and“TheMother City,” thecitypromisedwhiteelites a discussing the implications of these tours and the possibilities for discussing theimplicationsof these toursandthepossibilitiesfor dispossession andthefailure ofredistribution. Iconcludeby beauty,of geographical glossingover thespatialpoliticsofland chapter examinestheproductionofCapeTown representations continues tobespotlighted foritsresplendentsceneryandopulent century, CapeTown hasrisenasatopworldtravel destination and queer wheelchairuserinCapeTown, acknowledging thedifficulties through twoofthecity’s most populartours:TheRedBusCity to plurality and history presents a partial narrative tailored for a the NelsonMandela story, travelers now also expect toexperience travelers. Garneringromanticmonikers suchasthe“Tavern ofthe to include even in spaces that are meant tocelebrateandprovide social problems, effectively naturalising visibleinequalities. safe havens fortheso-calledother? Sightseeing Tour andthefree walking toursthroughthecentralcity. and privileges thatIhaveand privileges experienced. accommodations. But in thewake ofthedemocratictransitionand luxury getaway in the heart of whiteSouthAfrica.Inthe twenty-first re-imagining CapeTown inthetourist imagination. in ways thatdecouplethecity’s history fromitscontemporary marketed asadestinationsplendorforEuropean ofgeographic particular tourist, namely, whitemiddle-class Westerners. This Town theTourist for Gaze- Of Mountains andMulticulturalism: Packaging Cape AnnieHikido 81 Queering Cape Town 4. Town’s thenarratives dragsub-culture(s).Theinterviewengages Cape Town’s dragculturehasaparticularhistory whichreveals the flourishing. Thefollowing interviewfocusesontheperceptions, who started participating indragmany yearsafterthedawn of views, opinionsandunderstandings ofblackdragqueensinrelation couples, andWhitecouplesreveal complexracialpolitics. The paper of marriedsame-sex interracialcouples, Blackcouples, Coloured of dragintheirlives, how theyperceive dragasaperformanceon democracy. Theinterviewthematicallyexplorestheirnarratives of twodragqueenswhostarted draggingunderapartheidandtwo experiences offourblackdragqueenswhoparticipateinCape 3. to selfandtheworld(s)theylive(d) in. stage vis-a-vis manifesting inemployment, education, recreational stood withabsolute immunitythroughthetest oftimeandthisis South Africansintheirdailynavigation have tonegotiaterace.This argues thatmarriedsame-sex couplesarenot exempt fromnegotiating and the surrounding areas. The different racialized experiences and other public spacesaswelltohow thisaffectstheirintimate racialized experiencesofmarriedsame-sex couplesinCapeTown is nodifferentformarried same-sex couples. Thischapter looksat revealed inhow dragculture,today, in democratic South Africa, is non-conforming people who participated in the resilience of gender partnerships. Inessence,thisinterviewarticulatesthein-depth performance ofdragduringapartheid.Thisresiliencehasseemingly by focussingon theirunderstanding ofwhatdragis, themeaning

“She isaduckfrom anotherpond”: - The Talk: Afrank inter-generational conversation Town – How marriedsame-sex couplesnavigate race inCape focusing on the experiences of four blackdrag ontheexperiences of four focusing queens GlentonMatthyse Lwando Scott

82 Queering Cape Town ‘Pink Capital’-thathasarguablycometostand forakindofqueer This qualitative study investigates how creates this colonial legacy Town, despitebeinglabelled‘thegays capital’ofAfrica,contains Transgender peopleinSouthAfricamust navigate spacesthat Through mappingtheirlived experiences, thischapter troubles 6. For many from ofthosewhocometoSouthAfrica seekingrefuge Utopia. Thischapter unpacksthenarratives ofseveral transgender- gender refugees navigate thecity-asboth refugees transgendergender identified violence and frequently requires furtiveness as a tactic of survival. violence andfrequentlyrequires furtiveness asatacticofsurvival. other countrieswithinAfricaitistheCityofCapeTown -asthe of colournecessitatesanintersectingqueerdecolonisation ofthe of violence. Thus, emphasisinghow safety fortransgender people of colour. Theirdifferentnarratives demonstrate symbiotic modes chapter looksathow theracializedhistory isfurther complicatedby that theenactingofeveryday experiences-an almost ‘unconscious’ the assumption thatCapeTown iswalkable forallkindsofbodies, toilet space. This the oftenemotionally taxingracialisedhistory ofSouthAfrica. space. Thestudy participantscomprisedoftentransgender people and asylum seekers -isinherentlyprecarious, oftenmet with move toandthroughCape Town. Thechapter suggeststhattheway and asylum as they identified refugees refugees’ seekers or ‘gender problems for transgender people of colour within the bathroom problems fortransgender peopleofcolourwithinthebathroom have been violently shaped by colonization and apartheid. Cape bathroom spacesthatcarrythisoftenunscrutinisedcoloniallegacy. being asame-sex coupleandbeingmarried. 5.

– BCamminga Decolonising Toilet Cistems: GenderandBathroom Shifting intheCity: BeingandLonging inCapeTown Spaces – Nigel T. –Nigel Patel 83 Queering Cape Town ‘being queer’ alongside Black bodies in this space, and what are the alongsideBlackbodiesinthisspace,andwhatarethe queer’ ‘being This chapter investigates theaspectsofwhitenessinStellenbosch In thischapter, Ipresenttwoexamplesofqueer refusals of Pridein Rather theirnavigation ofthecity, theirshiftssuggesthitherto 7. violence against aqueerbodynecessarily by informedandchanged order to demonstrate the narrowing of Pride’s politic, as it moves Oursharedwomxness andqueerness our race,classandgender? our experiencesofthespacearenot entirelyseparate.Itisnecessary experience, andprotects uswhenwedoexperienceviolence.Yet, dream andtherealityofCapeTown. claiming through navigation - will evince a sense of belonging. 8. to do? Whatarethesilencesweneedtobeunearthingaroundand the least) power inourcommunityexperience,butwhy isthishard that issimilarandparticularonlytoourqueerness, orisany to probewhy WhitelesbiansinStellenboschoftendonot (know that protect white lesbiansfromtheviolencethatBlack sisters; towhat extent haswhitenessblindedWhitelesbiansto around whatitmeansforPride to continueinthisform.Iseeactivist away fromitsoriginsofdisruption, and toraiseseriousquestions queernessinStellenbosch? about racialisedandgendered implies that we (should) share in the struggles that ones with less (or relation tospace,placeandmarginalityastheyanimateboth the points whereourqueernessdoesmeet? Doweexperienceviolence how to)sharein andvoice the(shared)struggle ofourBlacklesbian unexplored complexitiestogender, sexuality andbelongingin

Unearthing silencesaround andaboutraced and Disruption andWithdrawal: Responsesto 21 Croeser gendered queerness inStellenbosch prides from theSouth –Jessica Scott

– Chantelle Claire – ChantelleClaire st century 84 Queering Cape Town A fictionalisedshort story aboutachildwhodiscovers queerness This bustourtakes youonaqueerjourney throughCapeTown 9. Langa township Funeka delivers apersonalaccount ofthreedecadesactivismas Pride isdisrupted, Black,queer, non-conformingbodiesare gender 11. 10. within the family in the midst of socio-political challenges in within thefamilyinmidst in ofsocio-politicalchallenges different formsofexclusion withinWhite-dominatedspacesand embody theoriginalpoliticalethic ofPrideby assertingthat explicative ofaprocesschallengingthecontemporaryformthat withCapeTownengagements PrideandNewOrleansas to Khayelitsha. Thebusdepartsfrom District SixMuseum,makes tracing the different histories of thecity by connectingSea Point those thatareagainst lesbianandgay people. the importantways inwhichBlacklesbiansandgay menhave carved socio-economicinequalities,the violenceofgentrification, andthe at thecentreofactionsdesignedtocallattention toracialexclusions, a BlacklesbianlivinginKhayelitsha. Inthisnarrative sheportrays liberation isnot onlyforWhite,able-bodied,cisgender men.When new andalternative spacesinCapeTown sincethe1980s, driven by many Pridecelebrationshave taken. Disruptions and withdrawals problem ofincreasedpolicing.

The QueerTour Black LesbianPolitics andOrganising Spaces Remembering Ndabeni landevictions:ashortstory Wanelisa Xaba Funeka Soldaat – Zethu Matebeni – –

85 Queering Cape Town ‘No Easter Sunday For Queers’chroniclesthemurdersandrapes, Yet ‘deathdrive’ isthenameofanundeadenergybeyonddeath as This performanceassumestheformofanexchange fortwovoices, Company’s Garden, Observatory, Rondebosch,Gugelethu,Langa Project. Which forms of precarious life and grievable death emerge Project. Whichformsofprecariouslifeandgrievabledeathemerge 13. 12. does CapeTown survive Queer?Isiteven aquestion ofsurvival? orgiastic crimescenewherethevery queerbodythatwas supposed of queermurderinthecityandsurroundsreproduceoneanother, crime against the queerbodyinCapeTown, askinghow thescenes come asandforQueer. Inthisexchange, wereturn tothescenesof to be lived radically ends up suffocated out of time, out of mind, to belived radicallyendsupsuffocatedoutoftime,mind, the possibility of a futural energy through which one can perhaps names the eternal recurrence oftheSame.Assuch‘deathdrive’ the pleasureprinciple’inFreudthe deathdrive ‘beyond andLacan. the riseofanti-socialthesisinqueertheory, linked asitisto struck from the rollofPride,foreclosedby theMother CityQueer stand inforone another anddosoaspartsforthewhole;askingalso sometimes dialogic, at other timesnot. Thepoint ofdepartureis Six Museum. and makes a final stop in Khayelitsha before returning to District reported andunreported,that have occurred in variousspacesand responsibility foraplace?How doesQueersurvive CapeTown? How momentarily apprehendthatwhichremainsradicallyandopenlyto its first poolthenpassesGreenpoint,Bo-Kaap,stop atGraaf’s how QueerCapeTown isitselfthenameofanadvanced neoliberal from thesereadings?How arewecomplicit?How doyoutake The sceneof thecrime:QueerCapeTown No Easter Sunday for QueersNo Easter Sundayfor Barnard-Naudé &PierredeVos

– Koleka Putuma – Jaco 86 Queering Cape Town Africa, this is a designation which is problematic, because it is Africa, thisisadesignationwhichproblematic,becauseit While CapeTown may beseenby someasthequeercapitalofSouth In thischapter Iexploretheexperiencesof transgender people in GALA’s positionastherepositoryandcustodian ofqueerhistory 15. 14. will showcase some of the highlights from the GALA archives that generally or homogenously that of the White, rich, cis-gendered male. male. that of theWhite,rich,cis-gendered orhomogenously generally visitor vs. migrant.Theapparentperpetuation anddissemination vs. White,urbanvs. rural,andperhapsmore problematically tourist/ dissemination of the current image oftheCapeTowndissemination ofthecurrentimage Queeras of thisbinarymodelhasledtothedevelopment andalmost active on thequeerbodythroughdoctrineandreligioninboth private crucifixion, throughthemediumofspoken wordpoetrya and the queerbody. the events of ‘’ in parallel with the stages of Christ’s sermon. The piece looks at how violence and danger are inflicted sermon. Thepiecelooksathowareinflicted violenceanddanger South AfricaandparticularlyCape Town, duringapartheidthrough and canChristianity andqueernesscoexist iftheprinciplesof Italsolooksatthe and publicspaces, currentlyandhistorically. are specific to Cape Town, and which provide a nuanced insight and memory, locatesitinthe idealsituationtoprovide alternative into not only the contemporary Cape Town Queer, but also to other tothatofthecontemporaryCapeTownimages Queer. Thischapter perhaps ‘queerer’ sides or images oftheQueerMother sidesorimages City.perhaps ‘queerer’ predicated somehow, onthebinaryoppositionofrichvs. poor, Black possibility of reconciliation between queer identity and Christianity, places inCapeTown historically andrecently).Iteulogises (both bible andChristianity areinherentlyhomophobicorviolenttoward The GALA Archives:The GALA Preserving the‘Queerer’ sideof Queer CapeTown Phoenix risingabove isolation –Kendall Petersen

– LieslTheron 87 Queering Cape Town A multi-media exhibitionthatfollows two people.Both basedin Town PhoenixSociety members-Marlene,Joy, CharlandPrier-I In theintersectionalstruggle towards decolonisation, marginalised Cape Town, Robert HamblinandLeighDavids whoseindividual 17. 16. well as obvious violence that Black queer trans bodies are faced with who occupy positionsofpower exert ontopoor, Black,queer, trans will present a glimpse into the closeted lives of transgender people in general. This documentary film explores the micro-aggressions as Thisdocumentary filmexploresthemicro-aggressionsas general. very traumatic lived experiences. Thelackofhumanitythatthose configurations ofCape Town have impactedeachoftheir lives and communities beforeinternet andsocialmedia. correspondence. Throughcloselyfollowing thestories ofafewCape that isdeeplyembeddedinthe formerCapeColony andsociety in their relationshipwitheachother. that reliedonpseudonyms, peoplecallingfromtelephonebooths stories interrogate how thespatial,economic,politicalandsocial silencing. Withitsutilisation ofclassifiedadverts, letters toobscure a very important role in a time of apartheid oppression, isolation and a very importantroleinatimeofapartheidoppression,isolationand a timebeforeinternet andsocialmedia.ThePhoenixSociety played and openingsecret post boxes purelytoreceive theirtrans-related and oppressedbodiesareconstantly expectedtovalidaterealand magazines ‘Agony Aunt’ editors, andnewspapers livingfrompost paying attention toThePhoenixSociety -anundergroundnetwork us how communication systems wereusedtomobilisetransgender bodies, shedslightonthelackofempathy, insight andunderstanding boxes -thiscollectionofstories aboutthePhoenixSociety shows ‘ InterseXions’ Giving content to decolonisation Sandile Ndelu – Robert Hamblin, Leigh Davids & – RobertHamblin,LeighDavids & –Trans Collective

88 Queering Cape Town In this chapter I explore and reflect on my observationsand Cape Town, whichbringstofocustherelationship between Zer021 Cape Town’s institutional andsocialspaces. Theaudiencewillsee 18. with close friends who also frequent Zer021 about their experiences with closefriendswhoalsofrequentZer021abouttheirexperiences going to the bathroom, choosing longer public transport routes publictransportroutes tothebathroom,choosinglonger going queer andblackpeopleinCapeTown andin SouthAfrica. of thenarrative of“Cape Town isthepinkcapitalofAfrica”despite of beingqueerandblackinCapeTown. Focusing onZer021allows experiences atZer021inrelationtoother spacesinCapeTown. Inan of peoplewhonot onlydisregardourexistence, butalsoactively or coloured by systemic oppression.Itinfluencesclothing choices, everyday. Thisfilmwillshow how theWhitesupremacist capitalist the factthatspacefeaturesgreatlyinexperiencesof many to begin to develop an understanding of Black queer trans bodies, and other spacesinCapeTown. Furthermore Zer021isoftenleftout attempt tobalancemy Ialsoreflecton conversations views Ihave had is the only space where one can experience being queer and black in is the only space where one can experience being queer and black in me toaddressthequestion ofCapeTown by exploringwhy Zer021 passively worktowards killingusormakingsurewekillourselves. psyches, desiresandpain,showing how oursafety isinthehands how eachand every momentoftheBlackqueertransexistence is patriarchy is reinforced and nourished in our daily experiences in for unguaranteedsafety. Thisfilmwillaffordviewersthechance Zer021 QueerPossibilities –Thiyane Duda 89 Queering Cape Town Why the Nudity? NakedWhy GirlsReading isfarmorethanstorytime for theNudity? The abilitytoexercise one’s sexualcitizenshipisexperienced Naked Girls Readingisaperformanceartandliteraryevent that 19. 20. we reallynaked? Yes, weare.Istheaudiencenaked? No, theyarenot. world makingwillbediscussedviathelensoftheirperceptions world makingexperiencesandstrategies. Their practicesofqueer women, thechapter willexplorewhattheireveryday navigations witness tothelegaciesofApartheid.Thesesocialandeconomic often funny, sometimes heart-wrenching andreallyvery sexy. Are diversity, andexclusion, divisionandoppression. competing experiences ofthecity, surfacinghow CapeTown isa of CapeTown, theirsubjective cityscapes, reveal abouttheirqueer divisions are experienced within LGBTIQ communities. Based on turns reading to an adoring audience. It is entertaining, magical, turns readingtoanadoringaudience. Itisentertaining,magical, troubling thenarrative ofagay friendlyandwelcomingcityfor small cast ofwomenremove theirclothing allofit)andtake (yes, semi-structured with23self-identifiedlesbiansorqueer interviews social andeconomicinequalitiesculturaldivides, bearing all. At thesame time,CapeTown’s spatialgeography reveals stark and experiencesoffeelingsafe and/or ineveryday indanger spaces in CapeTown. Lesbianwomen’s narratives reveal contrasting and happens across four continents and in 25 cities across the world. A happens acrossfourcontinentsandin25citiestheworld. A positioned asasiteofpersonalrealisation, sexualliberationand hybrid space,aplaceofmultiplecontradictions, simultaneously unevenly acrossCapeTown andwithindifferentcommunities, Naked Girls ReadingCapeTown presents ‘Queerly Queer World MakinginCapeTown: Lesbian Lady MagnoliaandVelvet Nix Beloved’- performed byCharlie French, Lyricnotic, experiences anddanger of safety Mutter - Susan Holland- 90 Queering Cape Town Reading is the first in Africa and also the only chapter to regularly 21. dedicate entireshows toqueerstories andqueerwriters. dissect andscandaliseit.TheCapeTown chapter ofNaked Girls adults - it is performance art. It is entertaining and provocative. It adults -itisperformanceart.Itentertainingandprovocative. It is a celebration and a challenge. It is a living, breathing nude Itisaliving, breathingnude celebrationandachallenge. is a painting that asks people to celebrate female sensuality rather than than sensuality rather askspeopletocelebrate female painting that SistaazHood women sex workers inCapeTown. (SWEAT) discusstheexperiences oftrans Writer: Stella Nyanzi, PhD Photography: Curated and Edited by: Zethu Matebeni Lindy Lee Prince Design by: Tamzyn La Gorce Dean Hutton Printed by: Asset Print, Cape Town Nikki Carter

The printing of this publication was made possible with funding from the Heinrich Boell Foundation. The contents of the publication are the sole responsibility of the authors and can in no way be taken to reflect the views of the Heinrich Boell Foundation.