Decolonising trans culture one photo at a time

When Cape Town-based photographer Lee-Ann Olwage decided tell the stories of black queer, gender nonconforming and trans people in the townships of Cape Town, she had no idea one of her photos would win a prestigious award.

Titled Black Drag Magic, the image of 2019’s Miss Drag South Africa Belinda Qaqamba Ka-Fassie was awarded second prize in the category of Portraits at the recent 63rd annual World Press Photo Contest.

Olwage told The Citizen there were times that she still could not believe her image was chosen out of 73,996 entries.

“What a huge honour to be celebrated for my work as a female photographer from South Africa on such a global platform. I’m proud to be telling affirming stories about my country and hope to give insight into different perspectives about who we are as a nation and how we are viewed globally,” she said.

There are still very stereotypical views of African queer and trans people, and Olwage says she hopes her work can challenge these views and celebrate the LGBTQI+ community and brave individuals like Belinda Qaqamba Ka-Fassie who continue to fight for change in townships such as Khayelitsha.

Khayelitsha (Xhosa for ‘Our New Home’) is a partially informal township about 30km west of the central business district of Cape Town, and it is known for its atrocities committed against gay men and women, many going as far back as the early 1990s.

In 1995, Funeka Soldaat, a lesbian community activist and author from the township, survived so-called corrective rape while walking home one day.

“I was gang-raped by four men who told me they would make me a real woman,” Soldaat told this reporter all those years ago when I interviewed her for the United Nations’ Integrated Regional Information Network.

At the time she said she believed many similar cases were not being reported out of fear of secondary discrimination by officers of the law.

Roché Kester, from the hate crimes unit of OUT, a local gay rights and services NGO, says research shows there is under-reporting of LGBTQI+ hate crimes.

“This is largely due to secondary victimisation from both the South African Police Service and medical practitioners who discriminate against sexual and gender-diverse minorities.”

Soldaat is a classic example of this discrimination. When she attempted to report her gang rape at the local police station, she was told there was no police van to attend to her complaint and for her to be sent to the medical examiner, and she was told to walk home alone in the middle of the night.

“Because of biases and intrusive, inappropriate questions that are asked by the above-mentioned institutions, the real number of hate crimes are not known,” says Kester.

She points out that survivors also have little faith in the justice system to ensure that adequate recourse is allotted to crimes perpetrated against the LGBTQI+ community.

Olwage says storytelling can be a powerful way to gain knowledge and challenge these injustices.

“It’s important to not only challenge injustices but also to bring about a means to gain a deeper understanding and provide an opportunity for un-learning and re-learning.

“It is, therefore, important that this image is made accessible in the very spaces where it was created and used as a form of activism to speak about the violence members of the LGBTQI+ community face in the township.”

Kester says OUT commends Olwage and the participants for their achievement.

“Olwage sends that message that these individuals belong there and they are claiming space within their own community and especially within the African context.

“The exhibition allows people to engage in discourse around the lived realities of African sexual and gender minorities, and sheds light on the space that sexual and gender minorities occupy in communities.”

Olwage, meanwhile, hopes this award will enable her to continue doing the work she’s so passionate about and to align her vision and mission with organisations and groups who are equally passionate about LGBTQI+ rights.

“Our vision as a group was always that #blackdragmagic would be a storytelling platform where we could invite people from other communities to tell their stories. Hopefully with more interest in the project this will be the next step to grow a movement.

More about Olwage’s photo series

Belinda Qaqamba Ka-Fassie, the photographer and other LGBTQI+ people collaborated on the project to decolonise drag culture and find a particularly African expression of drag.

The aim was also to highlight the need for the African LGBTQi+ community to find their identities irrespective of their backgrounds, and to reclaim the public space in a community where they are subject to discrimination, harassment and violence.

Discrimination is part of everyday life for LGBTQI+ people in townships such as Khayelitsha, especially in public areas.

A survey of 2,000 LGBTQI+ people by South African rights organisation OUT found that within a two-year period, 39% had been verbally insulted, 20% threatened, 17% chased or followed, and nearly 10% physically attacked.

For more information about Olwage and her vision, visit leeannolwage.com.

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