HERE ARE THE REMARKS BY AMBASSADOR QUEEN ANNE ZONDO AT AN EXHIBITION OF ZANELE MUHOLI’S WORKS AT THE AKERSHUS ART CENTER, LILLESTROM, NORWAY, 21 FEBRUARY 2015

Programme Director

Management and staff of the Akershus Art Center and Zanele Muholi

Members of the Diplomatic Corps;

Distinguished Guests;

Thank you for inviting me to give brief opening remarks at this even to showcase the case of the esteemed fellow South Africans that is Zanele Muholi. As is subscription to Ben Okri’s assertion in Redreaming the World Zanele’s work and very presene here reminds us that:

“Those who have much to strive for, much to resolve and much to overcome and redream, may well be luckier than they think. Struggle is life. And there is something awesomely beautiful and history-making about those who have set out to climb the seven mountains of their predicaments, towards the new destinies that lie beyond, with the star of hope above their heads.

For in their patience and in their egalitarian triumph they can teach us all how to live again and how to love again and could well make it possible for us all to create the beginnings of the first truly universal civilization in the history of recorded time and unrecorded”

H.E Ambassador Queen Anne Zondo, the South African Ambassador to the Kingdom of Norway opening Muholi’s exhibition at Akershus Art Center. Photos by Shaz ‘Sicka’ Mthunzi.

Zanele’s work is a pointer to the perturbing reality that throughout the world Lesbians, Gays, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) people are still subjected to discrimination and ill treatment on the grounds of their sexual orientation which culminate in the deprivation of their basic human rights. The South African and the Norwegian government believe this should stop.

The South African government believes that human rights are for all regardless of race or nationality, age or gender, sexual orientation or gender identity. In most societies societal stereotypes forces Lesbians, Gays, Bisexual and Transgender people to either conceal or lead a life of being apprehensive to be caught who they really are.
This is not in line with the Universal Declaration of Human Rights which stipulates that all human beings are born free and endowed with similar dignity and rights. This therefore enjoins all members of the human race not to close their eyes to the plight of the Lesbians, Gays, Bisexual and Transgender people.

Programme Director

Zanele’s work therefor assists in showing who the Lesbians, Gays Bisexual and Transgender people are really are. Whilst it depicts the plight of the LGBT community it also celebrates the essence of their being. It graphically portrays both diachronic and the contemporary of the Lesbians, Gays Bisexual and Transgender community. It teaches us “how to live and love again”.

I thank you for your attention.
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diachronic
adjective
concerned with the way in which something, esp. language, has developed and evolved through time. Often contrasted with synchronic .