Art, media and gender based activism: A critical reflection on the University of South Africa (UNISA) colloquium on Zanele Muholi

abstract

The art work of visual activist Zanele Muholi was the subject of a colloquium held by the University of South Africa (UNISA) on the 24 March 2014. The colloquium invited critical discussion of Muholi's use of film and photography as a medium for black queer gender activism. The event also sought to raise awareness in the public domain of the recurring incidents of homophobic violence and attacks against gender non-conforming people in South Africa and on the rest of the African continent. Presenters offered different ways of seeing and evaluating Muholi's work and its power to deliver a social message by means of a visual discourse that engages and subverts narrow constructions of gender through her representations of the human body and black queer sexual identity. This Focus considers the presentations and the critical value of Muholi's visual activism as a counter discourse on gender and art in post-apartheid South Africa. The writer draws on Paulo Freire's (1970) notion of the liberatory potential of social dialogue and its mediation in the public sphere (Habermas, 1989).

keywords:

• Zanele Muholi
• colloquium
• sexuality
• gender activism
• media and art

Acknowledgements

Thanks to Ms Luthando Ngema for making critical comments on an earlier draft version of this article.

Notes

1. As part of her on-going work as a visual activist, Muholi conceptualised the idea of a platform that champions the role of the media in the process of queer activism. Inkanyiso, a non-profit organisation works with the LGBTI community and provides skills training in the area of visual art and media. Inkanyiso's website is also a platform for speaking out about the brutal violence against black lesbians and its support to the families and communities who have lost their loved ones. See http://inkanyiso.org on homophobic violence.

2. The UNISA colloquium (24 March 2014) was held on the back foot of the two-day colloquium held by the Wits Centre for Diversity Studies (6–7 March 2014). The themes of both colloquiums are similar in that they looked at the role of art for social change and progressive dialogue. The Wits colloquium specifically examined the issue of collaborative art activism as a tool for decolonising genders and sexualities in the global South. It was linked to the exhibition of Zanele Muholi (Mo(u)rning) and Gabrielle Le Roux (Proudly African & Transgender and Proudly Trans in Turkey) at the Wits Art Museum. I attended this colloquium in my capacity as an academic, researcher and analyst of issues pertaining to progressive social dialogue. The UNISA colloquium was conceptualised by myself out of a conversation I held with Zanele Muholi in 2013. She was meant to visit UNISA as a guest speaker in a multi-disciplinary event involving a number of academic departments. Due to last minute changes in her travelling schedule, she could not attend the event. It was however decided that the occasion should go ahead in her absence as arrangement had already been made. The event was also planned to coincide with South African Human Rights Day (21 March) and was also linked to the launch of the Institute of Gender Studies peer reviewed journal: Gender Questions.

3. In recent years, Muholi's star in the art industry has seen a rapid ascent. Among her notable achievements is the 2005 Tollman Award for the Visual Arts. She also won the first BHP Billiton/Wits University Visual Arts Fellowship in 2006, and was the 2009 Ida Ely Rubin Artist-in-Residence at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). In 2009 she received a Fanny Ann Eddy accolade from IRN-Africa for her outstanding contributions to the study of sexuality in Africa. She also won the Casa Africa award for best female photographer and a Fondation Blachère award at Les Rencontres de Bamako biennial of African photography in 2009. In 2010 her Faces and Phases series was included on the 29th São Paulo Biennale; the series was published by Prestel and nominated as best photobook of 2010 at the International Photobook Festival in Kassel. In 2012 the series was shown on Documenta 13. Muholi also exhibited at the Rencontres d'Arles festival in France in 2012, as a nominee for the Discovery Award, and was granted a fellowship at Civitella Ranieri in Italy (G Smith, ‘Through the lens of an activist’, City Press, 2 May 2010; Makhubu, 2012; Vlies, 2012).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Siyasanga M Tyali

SIYASANGA M TYALI is a lecturer in the Department of Communication Science at the University of South Africa (UNISA). He teaches media policy and political communication (he also has a research interest in African studies, media, health and gender studies). Tyali holds a Masters in Cultural and Media Studies (UKZN) and is a DPhil candidate in Media Studies at Witwatersrand University. In 2011 and 2012, he was a Ford Foundation International Fellow at the University of KwaZulu-Natal (Durban, South Africa) and Johns Hopkins University (Baltimore, United States). Email: [email protected] / [email protected]