One of the great things about being in Joburg and being able to travel to Durban in an hour by plane is that there is so much going on. I can hardly keep up. Last week along with Kameelah I went to see “Bruised Butterfly” - a one woman play on “the struggle for dignity and survival in a violent society”. A story of multiple rape by three men at different times. The sexual violations continue within society through the psychologist [why do I have to continually repeat my story? do you doubt me? does it give you a hard on?] the men in bars [male voices - why was she wearing a short skirt? she sleeps around! those kind of women!], the police [why didnt you fight back? what were you doing in the park at 3pm? some of these women!].

It was in hard hitting visually and in language but needed to be seen and the words said - just a pity that there were not more men in the audience particularly as the play was followed by a discussion. Rape stories in South Africa are everywhere. The woman sitting next to me in the play - her daughter had recently been raped, I wondered how many other women in the audience had been raped or whose mothers, sisters, daughters, friends had been raped.

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On Friday I travelled two hours to Emalahleni, Mpumalanga just outside Witbank for the launch of a 250 hectare farm which will be run as a Women’s Cooperative called the “Thembuhlelo Community Trust”. The farm which will run as a sustainable agri-business was brought together with the support of Sister Love South Africa Inc (a locally based non-profit organization that focuses on capacity building and sustainable development for community-based non profit organizations, especially those involved in HIV/AIDS and women’s health) which is affiliated with it’s parent organisation based in Atlanta Georgia.

This is a huge powerful venture that has required hard work and determination by Sister Love and the women, to gain the support of the National Development Agency, the Dept of Land Affairs, Dept of Labour, local estate agents and to persuade the farm owner to not only sell the farm but stay on for 6 months to support and train the Cooperative members. The farm will include dairy farming (some 250 cows at present), vegetable farming and raising chickens and will be self sustaining and provide income. By the second year they hope to begin processing their own dairy products.

The farm project is also closely linked to HIV/AIDS and will include 3 Local Women-led HIV/AIDS service organizations: Nomakhaya Community Care Givers, Reach for Life Home Based Care and Sifunokuhle Home Based Care. Amongst the members (60 women plus 6 farm workers from the original farm) 75% are affected and 25% are living with HIV/AIDS .

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NEXT UP for me: Out in Africa - Gay & Lesbian film festival (Joburg and Cape Town); Time of the Writer (Durban); and “Women for Childrens Rights” (Part of the Art for Humanity Project) Pietermarizburg

Tags: South Africa; Sexual Violence; Rural Women; HIV/AIDS;

Just changed from Vodocom 3G card to a wireless provider called IBurst - great speed, portable, no contract and cheaper than the monthly 3G. But all the IP addresses from the service are black listed so I am unable to leave comments especially on wordpress blogs. Have spent hours with the tech support people and after 3 days am still waiting for them to get back to me. Maybe at some point they will but until then my return to the blogging world will remain a partial experience. Some bloggers might welcome my continued absence of comments but for those who don’t - I am reading but cant get through!

This is a work in progress, started in South Africa…

The black horde was coming and you were afraid
Afraid you pushed and pushed and grunted as you did so
So you held them back long enough to feel the strength in your own arms
Arms that had tried eight times to drown that accursed black kitten

But then the black horde came anyway
Surging into the streets, across the big roads that divided
Them from
Others
Into the towns of the nation
And they came, some chanting, some singing
But all dancing, because that is what black people do
Long black fingers clawed at your throat
Would not stop choking until you stopped pushing
So you sighed and said, “I surrender”
And showed your hands—although stuffed with money—to prove that you had stopped pushing

And the angry black horde drew back.
[Read more…]

I arrived back in Cape Town from Nairobi Friday afternoon exhausted after the WSF week and having to get up at 4am to catch my flight. Approached the front door of the house and thought that’s strange the security gate is open and the door closed (it’s supposed to be the other way round). It took me about a minute to realise that some person (s) had tried to break in and must have been disturbed as they hadn’t got round to the easy part which was to kick the glass paneled door in. I called a colleague who came round right away and we both went in the house - nothing was missing except my house mate who I later found upstairs - she hadn’t heard me come in but heard me climbing the steps and of course thought the worst. She left Saturday morning and since then I have been on my own with no security gate and having to barricade myself in with the dining table, chairs and a huge wok to hand. Now all this may seem a bit of an over reaction but hey I am living on the edge of boondock land with some interesting neighbours.
[Read more…]

Well thats it then - the last day - I finally have internet access in the hotel which is great - have started to edit my podcasts. One blip is that one of the videos we hired for Fahamu/Pambazuka doesnt want to upload my videos so they may never be seen ah well. The Q Spot was the place to be - seriously I am totally amazed and uplifited at the number of people who came to the Q-Spot to discuss LGBT issues, we talked in groups every day about homosexuality with Kenyans and other participants at the WSF - nothing absolutely nothing like this has ever ever happened before. It was amazing. I bumped into a guy outside the forum with my “Coalition of African Lesbians” T-shirt who said that the Q Spot was the one place to be, the best place to be, and he was so happy that we were all out and about and he thought it was the most interesting and exciting place in the whole forum so big up to Q-Spot!

So final thoughts - the LGBTI / QSpot what did we achieve - see above. We came out, we dialogued, we spoke out, we challenged, we danced and sang and we are here and we will reclaim - because homosexuality HAS ALWAYS EXISTED IN AFRICA - we are proud and we shout out loud.

photos will be posted on Flickr once I am back in SA along with pods, videos and everything else. Tomorrow is the closing ceremony with various bands and speakers etc but I have some great clips from an Indian group which I will post at the weekend once back in Cape Town.

Made lots of new contacts, saw old friends, made new friends, had a learning experience, beautiful to be with so many radical progressive black women!

LINKS: BEHIND THE MASK REPORT ON WSF

WSF; Kenya + Nairobi