THE CURIOUS CASE OF QUEERS IN AFRICA
This needs to be said. Even if being queer were un-African, even if it were a “choice”, it is not a basis on which people should be denied basic, or any, human rights. Let alone be pulled from their homes, assaulted and taken to the police station by an angry mob, as is reported to […]
DEAR AFRICAN LEADERS…
Dear African Leaders… I hope this letter finds you in good health. I want to just say I am deeply disappointed. I am hurt and scared of you. I wake up every morning and I question my thoughts and views of the African renaissance. I question my birth right, my ability to decide to build […]
SA UNIVERSITY A HOTBED OF HOMOPHOBIA?
In a shocking example of alleged homophobia, the University of Venda in Limpopo is accused of allowing ongoing discrimination against LGBTI students on its campus. While one would expect a tertiary educational institution to be a bastion of enlightenment, it’s come to light that the university’s Student Representative Council (SRC) has for at least two […]
365 DAYS OF VALENTINE’S DAY – FOR ALL LOVE!
According to popular myth, Saint Valentine was a Christian priest in third century Rome who wore a Cupid-shaped ring and handed out paper hearts to people as a reminder of god’s love. Emperor Claudius’s II imprisoned Valentine for aiding persecuted Christians and marrying lovers in secret. The Emperor forbade soldiers from marrying, thinking that marriage […]
AFRICAN GAY LOVE – A YEAR LATER
When audit manager Tshepo Cameron Modisane and IT specialist Thoba Calvin Sithole married in a gay “traditional” African wedding ceremony in April last year they unleashed waves of celebration and condemnation across South Africa and the continent. While they had officially tied the knot in March at a Home Affairs office in Johannesburg, the two young […]
MAMBA SPINS – ROBBIE WILLIAMS, BRITNEY SPEARS…
ROBBIE WILLIAMS – SWINGS BOTH WAYS Robbie Williams is no stranger to playing sexually ambivalent and openly flirting with his many gay fans to generate buzz, interest…and sales. And on his latest album, his 10th by the way, he more than embraces that blurred line. Swings Both Ways is Robbie’s second swing album but unlike […]
DEAR WHITE GAY BOYS
Dear white gay boys, As a person of colour, I’d like to introduce you to a couple of ideas which may help inform your conversations about race (and bodies more generally). To ease you into this, potentially uncomfortable discussion, I’d like to introduce you to an idea. So we have the world and all the […]
PJ POWERS: “I DON’T DEFINE MYSELF BY MY SEXUALITY”
PJ Powers, the South African music legend, is coming out the closet (kind of) in her new one-woman show – not just as a gay woman but also as a recovering alcoholic. With a singing career that began in the late 1970s, Powers has recorded 16 albums. She had Nelson Mandela as a fan and […]
OPINION: THREE TIMES UN-AFRICAN?
I am considered to be un-African once because I am white. I am considered to be un-African twice because I subscribe to Western influences. And I am considered to be un-African thrice because I am gay. This is the most incredible dichotomy, as I do not know what else I could possibly be but African. […]
IS JOBURG PRIDE BROKE?
The organisers behind last year’s Johannesburg Pride continue to be embroiled in controversy, with the event’s finances and management now being questioned. Mambaonline has learned that the venue at which the event was held, the Sandton Sports Club, is in debt to one of its suppliers, apparently because Joburg Pride has not paid its bills […]