Zanele Muholi: Focusing on queer lives in South Africa

DW (English)

Known for their work in documenting and bringing visibility to the lives of South Africa's LGBTQ+ community, Zanele Muholi works tirelessly to put the focus on queer lives and issues in South Africa.

Transcript

00:00 (dramatic music)

00:02 (shouting)

00:05 - Visual activist, Sonnele Mhoholi,

00:08 works tirelessly to put focus on queer lives

00:11 and issues in South Africa and the world.

00:13 - As queer people, as queer women,

00:16 or as female beings, we're often overlooked.

00:18 (dramatic music)

00:21 - Faces and Phases is a living archive

00:24 of queer people in various expressions

00:26 of their sexuality and gender identity.

00:29 - The first portrait that I took of them was in 2010,

00:33 when they won Miss Lesbian,

00:37 and then became the first prince.

00:40 I took it upon myself to ensure not only

00:44 that we should be or we present as dead bodies,

00:49 as hate crime survivors, as displaced beings.

00:54 I just wanted to make sure that people feel us,

00:59 they see us, respect us.

01:02 I'm speaking as an African in this space.

01:07 It's not to be famous, but to lay a foundation

01:10 for many who will come after me.

01:12 From the breast to the blankets, to the vagina,

01:18 to the glitterous, to the womb, this is personal.

01:23 (upbeat music)

01:27 - Muholi's move to the Southern Guild Gallery in Cape Town

01:29 begins with their largest presentation of bronze sculptures.

01:33 It's a personal reckoning with themes of sexual pleasure,

01:38 freedom, and inherited taboos around female genitalia

01:41 and biology following their struggle with fibroids.

01:44 - I met the most interesting period of my life,

01:48 where there are no reservations.

01:51 I live with my body, I live with myself.

01:53 I love a woman.

01:56 We have to do like annual checkups

01:57 because the body changes.

02:00 The uterus then becomes a dangerous thing.

02:03 I want us to be able to make choices with our bodies.

02:08 Let's create safe spaces for all, you know?

02:11 Let women, you know, be free to speak about

02:15 how sexually liberated they can become.

02:18 And also, we're identifying females for trans women.

02:21 This is their space too.

02:23 And that space shouldn't be only a pride.

02:26 (gentle music)

02:28 - Femicide and hate crimes have been central themes

02:31 in Muholi's activism for more than two decades.

02:34 - Speaking from South Africa,

02:36 where we buried a lot of young black lesbians

02:40 who weren't even 25 or 30,

02:42 where the statistics is unknown

02:44 because there's just too much brutality.

02:48 - For me, I see art spaces as classrooms

02:54 in which we educate the non-converted.

02:58 There's a place called Wachina in KwaZulu-Natal.

03:02 There have been a number of black women found,

03:05 killed in different spaces.

03:07 I just read an article of these two young beautiful bodies.

03:10 It's the aunt and the niece

03:12 who were found on top of each other.

03:14 And the case really moved me.

03:16 So I guess that the peace goes to many dismembered bodies

03:20 of women in this country.

03:22 And there's never anyone held responsible.

03:25 - Sculpture provides another medium for Muholi

03:31 to amplify their activism.

03:33 - People understand monuments better,

03:37 but then also the sculptures are from photography.

03:40 It is a 3D camera that's been used to shoot this

03:44 in order for it to become this solid.

03:46 So it's more about visibility,

03:48 but photography will always be my first love.

03:51 (upbeat music)

03:54 - Beyond the selection of retrospective images,

03:56 Muholi features new portraits

03:58 from the iconic Somnyama Ngonyama series,

04:00 meaning Hail the Dark Lioness,

04:03 that they began in 2012.

04:05 - It's the way in which I'm singing praises

04:07 to those that birthed me.

04:10 Somnyama is the dark lioness.

04:13 Ngonyama is my mother's clan name.

04:15 Her spirit keeps on shining, you know,

04:19 and helped me to strive in many ways.

04:22 I shoot mainly in black and white

04:24 and increase the contrast post-production

04:26 and speaking on many layers concerning race

04:30 and black bodies being continuously racial profiled.

04:35 And I use my own body as I produce all these images

04:39 to emphasize the beautiful black body

04:42 that compels you to question, how do you look at me?

04:46 What is it that you even understand about,

04:50 you know, the complex self that I bring forth?

04:52 - Muholi uses everyday items as culturally loaded props

04:58 to challenge conventions of fashion photography

05:00 and servitude.

05:01 - They're really beautiful.

05:03 That's the whole point.

05:04 'Cause oftentimes black people have been caricatures

05:09 from the former visual anthropologist.

05:14 They've been degrading the black body.

05:17 How we have been seen,

05:18 how we should be projected as poor bodies.

05:22 You don't need to have mucus and saliva

05:26 hanging on people's faces to make a point.

05:29 All that I'm doing is undo that image

05:32 to claim, you know, our voices

05:34 and do this documentation for ourselves.

05:38 So whoever that looks at us as black queer bodies

05:43 will take note of our existence.

05:46 - South Africa has a constitution that protects all people,

05:51 yet stigma, exclusion and hostility are still common

05:55 for many who are openly gay or transgender.

05:58 And in many other parts of the continent,

06:00 the reality is even worse.

06:02 - There are places where I cannot show my work.

06:05 I mean, in most African countries where, you know,

06:07 being trans is outlawed, where homosexuality is illegal.

06:11 So we still have a lot of work to do,

06:14 but presence is key.

06:18 Hence these ongoing projects matter to me.

06:22 - Providing scholarships, residencies

06:24 and education programs,

06:26 the Muholi Art Institute is a nurturing incubation space

06:29 for young creatives.

06:31 - And I think that with many new conversations,

06:35 connections and collaborations,

06:37 life will be much better than today.

06:40 [MUSIC PLAYING]

06:43 (upbeat music)

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