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"While race is probably the most recognised and studied societal fault-line in post-Apartheid South Africa, it is clear that contestation around Johannesburg Pride is far more complex," she writes.
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Written in 2010, it anticipates many of the problems around Joburg Pride today. Gay activist Emily Craven's highly readable paper, "Racial identity and racism in the gay and lesbian community in post-Apartheid South Africa", provides a useful context for Saturday's events. But such a spat has been building for some time, and the fracas is simply showing up community divides which have been there all along.
Africa first gay pride parade full#
Joburg Pride organisers have accused the activists of ambushing a well-run event, behaving deliberately provocatively in order to make a stir, and committing the cardinal sin of airing the gay community's dirty laundry in full view of all the heterosexuals. One in Nine activists accused Joburg Pride organisers of running a depoliticised, elitist, commercialised event totally divorced from what the real function of Pride should be. Police eventually moved the activists away.īy all accounts it was a nasty scene, and the aftermath has been nasty too. Video footage shows an aggressive altercation between the activists and those parading, with the activists being pushed, sworn at, threatened with being driven over, and being told to "go back to your lokshins (townships)". But the activists did not find a receptive audience in the Pride participants leading the parade. They passed out leaflets listing 25 names of such individuals, noting that there were "countless more, unnamed and unknown". The One in Nine campaigners hoped to secure a minute of silence to commemorate those members of the South African queer community who have been raped or slain over the past few years because of their sexual orientation or gender expression. The activists lay on the road, together with a number of mannequins, wearing purple t-shirts reading "Stop the war on women's bodies", and displaying banners which stated "Dying for justice" and "No cause for celebration". The parade was halted on Jan Smuts Avenue in Rosebank, when around 20 black lesbians and feminists from the One in Nine campaign staged a protest act – a "die-in" – on the road in front of Pride participants. Not all were there to ride floats, drink beer and dance to acts like Flash Republic, however. More than 20,000 people attended last Saturday's Joburg Pride, the biggest-ever turnout for the longest-running and largest Pride event in Africa.