Queer Books: Activist Angelo Louw’s fictional debut in POWER

Award-winning queer filmmaker, activist and author Angelo C. Louw just added another exciting venture to his already loaded resumè, having been included in a short story anthology launching later this month called POWER.

Curated by Joanne Hichens, the anthology showcases a diverse collection of stories that explore the theme of power in all its forms — from the literal to the metaphorical.

Louw’s utopian, post-climate crisis prose Above and Beyond the Water’s Edge explores the power struggles a female Coloured biologist faces when trying to prevent a massive climate disaster: the flooding of Atlantis (Cape Town). It also imagines a world hundreds of years in the future where his community restores balance in the world through a rediscovery of who they really are, long before the colonial shackles.

“It is certainly social and personal — I’m writing about my community and our history (and future). It also addresses an issue I deal with daily as a Greenpeace activist: the climate crisis. I like to think of Above and Beyond the Water’s Edge as challenging literary standards too. It incorporates folklore and ways of thinking that wouldn’t matter or make sense through a western lens, using Khoekhoegowab and other languages aside from English without italicising or explaining,” Louw said.

Louw confronts the gender binary in this story not only by describing the main character’s struggle to be heard, but also in giving her descendants nontraditional gender roles.

“I think when I imagined her, I thought about how it could be in a world where my lesbian cousins weren’t forced to behave according to gender norms and allowed to work on her strengths and interests. We have to admit that even though gay men face such a hard time socially, it’s even tougher for queer women. I tried to imagine a future where, as per our history, women are celebrated as the backbone of our community instead of being punished for it.”

Last year, Louw released a collection of his writing, spanning his 20-year career as a journalist. The Problem with Black People unpacks the issue of systemic racism in South Africa and elsewhere in the world, and is still available at several bookstores.

“When I started compiling the book, it was during Ramaphosa and Trump’s first presidency but it took much longer to get a publisher than expected, and I thought I had missed the moment. But with everything going on in the world right now, it’s still frighteningly relevant.”

How does creative writing compare to journalistic work? Empowering, according to Louw, who appreciated the freedom to escape reality.

“I’ve been writing about power struggles for close to twenty years as a columnist and journalist, but this is my first work of fiction. It was wonderful imagining a world beyond the colonial legacy we’re dealing with now.”

POWER launches at the end of the month at The Book Lounge (Cape Town) on 24 June and Love Books (Johannesburg) 26 June. Follow Louw on Instagram for more information about the book.