Early this morning, we lost one of our Mothers, Mama Afrika. I once had the privilege and pleasure of seeing Miriam Makeba at an open air concert here in London and she was everything beautiful and more. Activist and singer, Miriam Makeba brought us all so much with her music and her strong, proud, elegant persona and though she rests now with her ancestors she will aways be alive through her music.

RIP Mama Afrika

Video via Mshairi

Technorati: Miriam Makeba

A group of young lesbians particularly from the disadvantaged communities in Cape Town, SA are telling their own stories through the lenses of a camera. Most of them are coming from the poverty stricken areas like Gugulethu and Nyanga and where the unemployment is very high. And they’ve never set a finger on a camera in their entire life and they were very fascinated by it.

Zanele Muholi is a well known and established black African lesbian photographer and she’s been taking pictures for many years. Her wonderful work has been shown in various galleries like Le Case d’Arte Gallery, Johannesburg, Cape Town and Durban.

She recently initiated a project called “Indawo Yami - Thru Camera Lenses” based in Cape Town. In her project she trains more that 20 young women where she introduced them into camera techniques and the importance of taking pictures and what does it mean to her. It is part of her community work which started in 2004 in Johannesburg to enhance the participant’s self-esteem and their participation in social development.

She said she also saw a dire need to share her camera skills with these forgotten and less fortunate young souls- who will probably never be listed as women who make histories in our democratic South Africa. This month, October is a photography month here in Cape and she’s visiting some galleries and talking about her work. While she was there she was interviewed by Martha Qumba(MQ)

MQ: Why did you initiate this project?

ZM:”In September I attended Out in Africa Gay & Lesbian festival at the Waterfront in Cape Town and I saw these youngsters enjoying their drinks. I asked some of them what were they doing and they said nothing. I told them that I want teach them photographic skills in their townships. They agreed. I visited their homes to explain and talk about other big events (like soccer) that were taking place at a local and international level.”

MQ: Why did you particularly choose these young women?

ZM: “Black lesbian’s herstory has been recorded or written by other people. There’s nothing on young African lesbians. They need to do - with the help of experts wherever necessary - through non exploitative mentorship. I’m very pleased to share my skills with them and if not me who else can do it? We’ve some African lesbians who are working and educated. And where are they? Are they helping these poor kids? I don’t know.”

“These young women are only remembered when there’s picketing and toyi toying. It’s high time for them to tell their own stories by using a camera. This is “herstory” in making. Some of them think that drinking and smoking is good. We are the role models and they must look up to us.”

MQ: What do they actually do in this project?

MZ: “They take pictures of what’s happening and interesting in their communities. They must understand taking pictures is recording the history. I want to have an exhibition of their pictures just to encourage other youngsters as well. We also visit r places like boardroom in certain offices Cape Town. They must have a feeling of it.”

MQ: Why did you choose boardrooms in all places?

MZ: “” I used to be a cleaner at the bank. Every time I cleaned there I used to picture my mom doing the same and not being part of it. That’s when I understood how painful it was to be a cleaner and be excluded from the rest. They don’t know what’s a boardroom and some of them have never set their feet there. These youngsters are from areas where opportunists are scarce.Some of them think their sexual orientation is the most important thing in life. They don’t worry about other things. I don’t blame them. They need people like us to show them the way. I know it’s difficult when one’s not educated and opportunities are slim. One’s sexuality could become a hindrance if one’s uneducated and with no skills to.”

MQ: Did you choose any particular boardrooms?

MZ: “Yes certainly. We went to boardrooms where they were gay people. We first went to the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission (IGLHRC). I wanted them to market themselves and tell their own stories not me. I noticed that some couldn’t express in English and they were comfortable in Xhosa. When they spoke Xhosa people at IGLHRC couldn’t understand them as well. They must understand how do these young women felt when they were speaking the English? Can you see what role does your language play? This is what I’m talking about-exposure.

MQ: What do you say about education to these guys?

MZ: “These black queer youth need to have education and be assisted with finance and morale support in order for them to realize their dreams in life. With education there’re many opportunities in life.”

Hear what some of these young women have to say about the project:

Bellinda Nwabisa Ndandani,

“I’m 23 years old and I grew up in Gugulethu and I live with my mom and my three brothers. I’m a soccer player and I started playing when I was young. I played for Winnie Football Club in Gugulethu, one of the famous soccer women’s club in Gugulethu. My greatest dream is to play for Banyana Banyana.”

“I was very stout and I used to drink alcohol and smoke cigarette but now I’m no longer smoking. This project has changed me and my family is very happy to see me being involved. Now I’m doing positive things and I want to go back to school next year and finish my matric.”

“It was my first time touching a camera and I couldn’t even hold. I didn’t know the importance of it. Now I know and I’m becoming very confident and attached to it. I never knew that taking pictures is to tell a story. Now I can see many interesting stories that I didn’t know before. I used not to give a damn about what’s happening in my area, now I know. I’ve another eye now.”

“I’m happy to be part of my own history and other people have been writing about our history. It’s my first time to set my foot in a boardroom and I felt great and excited about it. I thought a boardroom is only for educated and bourgeoisie people. The mood and the atmosphere were totally different. I was in another space,” she laughs.

Nolwando Matshoba

“I’m 18 and I grew up in Gugulethu. I live with my mom and my younger sister. My parents are divorced. I left school in 2006 in grade 10 because of my parents’ divorce. It traumatized me. I couldn’t concentrate on my books. I’m a camera first timer. At first I was shaking and scared. Zanele taught me and now I’m fine. I walk around and taking pictures in my area. I take pictures of people socializing. There’s hostel here in Gugulethu called “Khikhi” and men who are from the Eastern Cape used to stay there. Also there’s a big braai place and most people like it. I’m happy to record our history.”

“My dream is to go back to school, finish her matric and go to College or Varsity. I want to become a businesswoman and own a business. My first time in a boardroom and I used to see it on TV. I felt like a better person and encouraged.

Millicent Gaika

I’m 29, I grew up in Gugulethu. I live with my aunt and grandma. My mom died while I was young and my granny looked after me.

I started playing a street soccer at the age of 14 with other boys in Tsakane, Johannesburg. I became very hooked with it till today. I played for Batshana FC and for Winnie FC for many years and now I play for Sizwe Football Club also based in Gugulethu.

“I used to take pictures just for fun not involved in a project like this. This project is great and it gives an opportunity to tell my own story. We don’t have any recorded material about young black lesbians and I think it’s a good thing. I wish I can have my own camera and take pictures everyday.”

“It was nice to be in a boardroom and to speak and listen to successful people. When I take pictures I look at things that are important to the people. I took Nyanga Junction it’s the first shopping centre in Gugulethu and most people make use of it.”

Eulander Koester,

I grew up in Gugulethu and I live my grandma. I’m an artist and a soccer player. I started playing soccer in 2003 in Ladies Club in Gugulethu. Taking pictures has taught me a lot of things like recording one history. I never knew these things that are happening in our areas. I took a picture of two people fighting here in my area. I felt confident afterwards. Now I feel good about myself and I want to carry on doing this. It’s exciting. I wish Zanele can stay in Cape Town forever. I want my own camera now.’

In their boardroom field trip they were introduced to various people like Thobeka Phongoma, Viola May and Jacqueline Tamri. They were allowed to express themselves in their own language.

Jacqueline is a field worker and she’s been working with grassroots women for 25 years. She told they must do what inspires them in life.

Thobeka and Viola work for the Economic Development & Tourism Department, local government in Cape Town.

TP welcomed them and she asked them some questions regarding themselves.

She indicated that life’s not easy and they have to have dreams in life. She told her about her challenges and her dreams in life. She encouraged them to keep on dreaming and not waver.

These soccer players participated in the friendly match for the Federation of Gay Games delegates after an annual meeting held at Ritz Hotel, Cape Town a week ago and they are looking forward to participate at the 2010 Cologne Gay Games, if not the 2009 World Outgames, Copenhagen, Denmark.

Report and interview by Martha Qumba

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Technorati: Zanele Muholi
Black Lesbians

3 weeks after being arrested WOZA activists, Jenni Williams and Magodonga have finally been released from Mlondolozi Prison.. They report some horrific conditions such as having to share cells with mental health patients and being subjected to body searches everyday whilst male prison guards are free to wonder around.

The extreme hunger experienced by most prisoners means that even orange peels and the scraps on dirty plates are fought over. There is also no privacy for the female prisoners. Male prison guards are allowed to wander around the female prison and can see into washing facilities. Prisoners in Yard Two are also stripped naked every day for inspection by prison officers as they are locked down. At least three minors (aged 15 and 16) were being kept in the same cell as Williams

Life on the outside of prison is not that great either. Apart from women being invisible in the media and political landscape they are also living to survive a life expectancy of just 34 years. Living to survive physical and sexual violence and 300 million % inflation (don’t even bother to do the maths) forage for food and scrape through the days. Shereen Essof comments on the political infighting and maneuvering over the past 6 months none of which has addressed the needs and priorities of women and therefore the freedoms of everyone.

The polarisation of Zimbabwean politics means that women only have two options (now three in truth, with the split in the MDC producing MDC Tsvangirai (T) and MDC Mutambara (M), along with the ruling ZANU-PF). If you take the time to examine the parties’ constitutions, election manifestos, and programmes, none adequately addresses or expresses a commitment to the priorities and needs as identified by women, thus none provides a really viable alternative for a new dispensation that seeks alternatives that allow for the freedom of all. For this freedom is not something to be decreed and protected by laws or states, it is something that we shape for ourselves and share.

But despite the very real dangers, women are also struggling hard against the daily tyrannies of living. How many have survived these past months and years is incredible as the odds against them are high on every level not just from the tyranny of the state and their truncheon carrying battalions of bullies but also from sexism and local patriarchies and as she writes “being held hostage by three men”!.

The eternal’, according to Spinoza, ‘is now’, and women in Zimbabwe are living history and taking it very personally. The worst cruelties of life are its killing injustices. Zimbabwean women’s acceptance of adversity is neither passive nor resigned. It’s an acceptance that peers behind the adversity and discovers there something nameless. Not a promise, for women know that (almost) all promises are broken; rather something like a hiatus, or parentheses, in the otherwise remorseless flow of history. And the sum total of these parentheses is eternity and in that the knowledge that ‘on this earth there is no happiness without justice’

Technorati: Zimbabwe Women Mugabe

On the 16th October members of WOZA (Women of Zimbabwe Arise) held a demonstration declaring the food situation a “national disaster” and demanding immediate food aid. On that day 9 members of WOZA were arrested, 7 were released on the same day but 2, Jenni Williams and Magodonga Mahlangu, remain in custody.

Members of WOZA and other Zimbabwean women have always been at the center of the struggle against repression and state violence in the country. Yet if you follow the mainstream and alternative media sources you would imagine that the women of Zimbabwe, if at all reported, were solely the victims of violence. Otherwise they are largely silent. How many times do you hear women activists, academics or politicians speak to the crisis in the country? In a recent essay in Pambazuka News, Pumpla Dineo Gqola uses her experience in Zimbabwe to highlight the “conspicuous absence” of women in political events and the use of “gender neutral language” of the media.

Where were the women in all the coverage of Zimbabwe, in the negotiations, in the interviews broadcast, among the experts explaining and helping the continent and the world make sense of the crisis? I know from reading, watching and from interactions with feminists from the continent over the years that Zimbabwe has a very strong women’s movement. How is it that I was hearing so little about what women were doing, when they were not being brutalised, inside Zimbabwe?

Pumla goes on to speak of the women she met on her recent trip to Zimbabwe as part of a feminist solidarity group from Southern Africa who were organising “across class and educational status in ways which directly in ways that directly intervene in the crisis”. Evidence of the power of these women can be found in the violent response of the state and men and is further evidence of the direct connection between the “militarization of society” and increased violence against women as seen in Zimbabwe, Nigeria and remains a legacy of Apartheid in South Africa.

Including women in any decision making process is about improving the lives of everyone - women are not at war, women are not killing and destroying life. On the contrary it is women who are the ones calling for peace, growing food, maintaining the homes we grow in, the majority of displaced, of refugees and victims of violence.

[Read more…]

Congratulations to Ugandan lesbian Prossy Kakooza who has won her asylum case after 15 months. According to the report, the judge was influenced by the medical evidence and the expert’s report which highlighted the extreme difficulties of being LGBTI in Uganda.

The judge was heavily influenced by three factors: the Country Expert Report, the medical evidence, and Prossy’s campaign. The Country Expert Report highlighted the terrible plight that lesbian and gay people endure in Uganda, as well as the “extra-judicial” activities of the police.

Her asylum also shows us that campaigns can be successful even when there seems to be an endless trail of obstacles to surmount.

* 5200 people from countries, and church congregations, from all over the world who have signed her petition to the Home Office.
* The 100s of people who have written or emailed the Immigration Minister.
* The 80 members and friends of MCC Manchester who have supported her.
* The 19 friends who went to court with her and helped her collect signatures on her petition at Pride festivals all over the country.
* The 10 friends who gave evidence in court on her behalf.
* The 3 lawyers who drafted and prepared her cases (Ruth Heatley from the Immigration Aid Unit and barristers Mark Schwenk & Mel Plimmer).

So please keep sending those emails, making phone calls, publicising campaigns, holding vigils and demos because it all helps and can influence the outcomes.

In another asylum case, Yarl’s Wood Immigration Removal Centre staff have been caught “stealing” a Guide on detainees rights. The Black Women’s Rape Action [BWRAP] project issued the following press statement following reports by one of the women they are working with in Yarls Wood…..

On 15 October, Ms Mercy Wanjiku[1], a rape survivor from Kenya, called from Yarl’s Wood IRC to report that Legal Action for Women’s Self-Help Guide against detention and deportation, which she had received by post had been confiscated by Yarl’s Wood staff. The Guide contains essential information that Ms Wanjiku needed for a legal hearing three days later. It took an official complaint, intervention by Black Women’s Rape Action Project (BWRAP), letters to her MP and a theft report lodged with the police to force Yarl’s Wood authorities for the Guide to be returned.

Background

On 8 October, and despite her protests that it was an infringement of her right to privacy, Ms Wanjiku was forced to open her mail in front of Yarl’s Wood staff. The Self-Help Guide was confiscated even though Ms Wanjiku informed officers that she urgently needed access to information in the Guide as she had an appeal hearing for her asylum claim in three days and she had no lawyer (see notes below). She was told by a male member of staff that it was “illegal to have the book in here” and that he was following orders!

In the absence of sufficient lawyers due to cuts in legal aid provision, many women rely on the Self-help guide to provide them with the necessary information to process their cases. This is yet another in many illegal and inhumane acts committed by Yarls Wood including the recent damming report by UK Children’s Commissioner, Sir Aynsley-Green.

BWRAP is “one of the few groups providing information and support services run by and for African, African Caribbean and other women of colour surviving rape, domestic violence, racist assault, other torture and persecution”.

Tags:
Prossy Kakooza
Uganda
Asylum UK
Black Women’s Rape Action Project
LGBTI
Yarls Wood