Rage against the State: Political Funerals and Queer Visual Activism in Post-Apartheid South Africa

What is it about?

The struggle for queer rights in South Africa has emerged as a key issue that makes visible many of the paradoxes and challenges that define the post-apartheid condition. Queer activists are also producing what are some of the most interesting, vibrant, and critical forms of cultural engagement in South Africa today, across a range of media. At the same time, people who defy heteronormative patriarchy are frequently subject to hate speech and violent assault, and queer cultural producers, particularly those who are black and economically disadvantaged, operate under the threat of death (see Bennett et al. 2010). In this chapter I focus on on queer visual activism in contemporary South Africa and engage with the political funerals of queer black South Africans who have been raped and murdered, and with visual works made in response to these deaths. I consider these, on one level, as a manifestation of ‘public art’ but also, on another, as visual expressions that highlight the difficulties associated with publicness for queer people in South Africa. I focus in particular on the work of photographers and visual activists Collen Mfazwe, Zanele Muholi and Jabu Chen Pereira to explore queer strategies for mourning and commemoration and for the expression of rage and grief.

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