by Pam Dlungwana
How do you describe Inkanyiso to a foreign audience?
What is it?
Is it an artist’s itch to get back into the activist pool because that is how they have framed their practice in the global sphere?
Is it an philanthropological knee jerk from someone who has some cash flowing their way and wants to channel international guilt funds via the afro-queer expressway?
Is it an effort of one individual to Sankofate* back into that which they are most familiar, a space of radical and grassroots (to borrow a once abused ANC expression) community activism with links to an umbilical narrative digital reality and reportage on afro-queerity and all that encompasses in one easily accessible space?
I think it is the latter, that at least is what I told a room full of Belgians attending the screening of ‘Difficult Love’ on Monday the 16th of June 2014 at Bozar Palais Des Beaux Arts.
Zanele Muholi was invited to be a part of Christine Eyene’s ‘Where We’re At!’ exhibition in Bozar this past week and because she had obligations with her alma mater at Ryerson Image Center, Ryerson University in Toronto, Canada, she asked me to go along as her avatar, charming! I look nothing like Zee and have none of her charismatic church leader qualities but we booked the flight and after a 13 hour flight I was on a train full of drunk Belgian football fans headed for the festival. I read up on the festival, Christine and some of the panelists featured in the festival programme.
I left South Africa on my birthday counts for why it is I was able to fly with ease, I am a nervous traveller and find that copious amounts of booze ease the grease, I snoozed all the way to and from, bless the prohibition mavericks.
On landing I met a friend at the Sheraton Hotel for a light lunch and ‘Howzit?
I took a shower and later a tram to Bozar for the artists’ talks and found the event informative, the audience curious and engaging.
I arrived at Bozar in time to hear Alberta Whittle speak on her works, which unlike other works (here I am talking on medium versus content) are throw-aways. There were posters which were very anti-thesis of commercial art but manage to pose pertinent questions on female representation in dance hall culture in the Caribbean.
I was struck by the nature of the work, where it performs itself (a hyper-public sphere) and how immediately accessible it was in terms of its visual content and was forced just minutes of that awe to reflect on it’s accessibility in terms of discoursive content within that space. (the taxi rank, the club, random public wall). I nodded and cheered as she spoke, she was one of a handful of artists that spoke in English and I was unashamed of my inability to express myself in French, fuck ‘em, they can’t even say my name right.
Post the talks we were entertained by the Palais Des Beaux Arts for a dinner at a restaurant close by. We mingled, mindless chatter (chatter of the networking kind – painful) and from this I was saved by Veronique, long time friend and collaborator of the centres CEO and Christine the exhibition curator. Thank you lawd for major miracles, I cannot lie where it counts.
At the end of the dinner we walked back to the hotel, we chatted, we were tired from the travel from our various homes (South Africa, Australia, DRC, France, etc…) everybody just wanted a slow lie in.
On reaching the hotel, I left my newfound crew and went out in search for queer central instead where I met Manuel and Mateo and enjoyed Chimay Blonde (a beer I have an APB on in our local fridges it’s not even a slight joke) and some tasty ass Brussels drag fun. Gawd bless the Queens!! I slept at four am, happy as a lark.
Happy birthday Ms Pam, you sure deserve the fun!!
I dreamt of little, not my talk at 8pm the next day, not of shopping, not of my girlfriend or that tasty piece of ass I couldn’t get two breaths in to even mac at the club. Sleep of the dead.
Muholi on Agenda cover… for “Where We’re At! Other Voices on Gender”
Previous by Pam
2013 April 30: this summer
inkanyiso.org 
2014 June 13: Lesbian invisibility in grumbling Sao Paulo
by Valerie Thomas
Location: Goethe Institut, Rua Lisboa, Sao Paulo, Brazil
Zanele Muholi participated in the Varzeanas cultura de futebol [i] festival organized by the Goethe Institut ongoing in Sao Paolo from the 7th of June until the 13rd of July 2014.
Zanele Muholi introduced three documentaries: “Thokozani Football Club’s: Team spirit (2014)” by Thembela Dick. “We live in fear“ (2013), a Human Rights Watch collaborated project co-directed by Zanele Muholi, Katherine Fairfax Wright and Malika Zouhali-Worrall, and a short “film4peace” titled Isililo (2013) by Zanele Muholi.
Muholi seated next to the interpreter Tatiana Baliv responding to the audience Q&A. Session conducted in Portuguese than translated to English.
Photo by Valerie Thomas
Muholi presenting some Faces and Phases at Goethe Institut, Sao Paulo, Brazil on the 13th June 2014.
Photos by Valerie Thomas
The two screening were followed by Q&A sessions. It was there then we had an opportunity to meet the Brazilian Female Black Bloggers, Blogueiras Negras, http://blogueirasnegras.org. They were very much aware of Zanele Muholi’s work[ii].
Jessica, one of the bloggers, incredibly energetic and full of hope was longing for black lesbian documentation in Brazil. Indeed, despite the opening of a gay museum in Sao Paulo, real lesbians archives are nowhere to be seen. The Museum itself seems to be struggling still to find a “main concept”.
During the conversation, many lesbian participants raised collectively their voices to denounce the invisibility of lesbianism, black lesbians and trans men in Brazil. They were contesting the unique proposition of the Brazilian women systematically half naked invading most of the public media. They were tired of the unrealistic women bodies dictated by the male society. They wanted to see alternative images. They wanted to see themselves. Hate crimes against lesbians were described as common, but never reported by the mainstream media, unless they were fully supported by horrific details, especially if happening in comfortable middle-class homes. We could feel the need for inspiration, queer histories from abroad to share, and many perspectives for future collaborative work.
Members of the audience listening attentively…
And what happened to the World Cup opening in Sao Paulo in the meantime?
First of all, the high density of the Sao Paulo is quickly overwhelming. The grumpy quietness regarding the 2014 World Cup was a bit unexpected there. We obtained very few comments concerning the World Cup beside the “it is complicated. We have so many issues to fight for still, regarding education, hospitals where we are lying on the floor and expensive public transportation”. We missed the demonstrations, always pushed back too fast and quick by the military police with tear gas, water and rubber bullets. We have been told about preventive arrests of potential protestors. The delusional was palpable. Experiencing street art and enjoying the legendary Brazilian warm welcome in the grumbling atmosphere of a city besieged by the military police was, let’s say, something else.
Meanwhile, on the 13rd of June, a sex workers organization named Daspu [iii] was launching a fashion show and denouncing state actions against sex workers during the preparation of the Wold Cup in Brazil. Time to struggle against narrow-minds: “selling sex is a job with a certain degree of freedom” they said, “We are not all victims”. Nobody doubts that some women and young girls were hold against their will. But what they were talking about Pride, Freedom, Sex and Human Rights and equality before the laws.
They are currently fighting in favour of the draft law Gabriela Leite that seeks to regulate sex work in Brazil, to be voted [iv] soon.
[i] http://www.goethe.de/ins/br/sap/ver/var/pt12864295.htm
[ii] http://blogueirasnegras.org/?s=zanele+muholi
[iii]https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=1526606604233757&set=a.1377217112506041.1073741828.100006532951351&type=1&relevant_count=1
[iv] http://www.nswp.org/es/event/puta-dei-organised-the-brazillian-network-prostitutes-international-sex-workers-day
Related links
2014 June 11: The invitation letter and the photo from GI