Special to the Jacana Media blog, Robert Hamblin and Caroline Bowley speak on this topic with passion and conviction:

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Gender DynamiX is deeply concerned about the policing of bodies by the State. A very large part of our work is centred on examining the practices of the Department of Health (DoH) and the Department of Home Affairs (DHA) and their unethical activities towards Transgender people. We are now faced with the question whether this is becoming a government trend.

Has the Department of Arts and Culture now joined hands with the DoH and the DHA in their discriminatory practices towards gender variant bodies? Minister Xingwana’s recent behaviour regarding the work of gender activist artist Zanele Muholi adds to the gravity of what seems to be a growing conservative trend in state departments.

“Immoral, offensive and going against nation-building,” said Lulu Xingwana, the Minister of Arts and Culture about Muholi’s work. “Immoral and offensive” speaks to the old “art vs. porn” debate, as well as to peoples’ personal opinions. The point of advocacy art is not aesthetics. It is to educate, to stimulate debate, to object to it if you wish, and to give people a platform from which to voice opinions. When Xingwana publically gives an opinion, she’s doing it on behalf of us all. She is a government minister and so in condemning it outright in essence, she claims that of the entire nation echoes her opinion. It most certainly doesn’t, as recent reactions in the City Press, the Times etc. clearly show.

“Nation building,” according to our very fine constitution, includes lesbians, transgender, gender non-conforming people, and so on – and it certainly includes artists. The constitution even has room for reactionary and conservative opinions like Xingwana’s – but not as our national representative of arts and culture in this country and worldwide.

Zanele Muholi is the kind of artist you would never have experienced in the bad old days of apartheid. She’s black, she’s a lesbian, and she has very clear messages for her community – for us. Her photography tells truths many people don’t enjoy – that there are black lesbians and gender variant people in South Africa. Her work also tells us that we are allowing the ongoing rape of black lesbians in order to “cure” them and all too often, their murders. Zanele Muholi is a symbol of the inclusiveness of the constitution.

Xingwana has publicly and officially expressed her personal negative feelings about gender variant peoples’ bodies and how they should interact. The figures in Muholi’s work are clearly not engaged in sexual activity. We interpret it as the minister’s policing of bodies and the behaviour of those bodies.

There are disturbing parallels between this and the way the Department of Health discriminates against gender variant bodies, noting that discrimination is taking place in the form of exclusion / gate keeping for treatment at most government hospitals. At the Department of Home Affairs there is a clear trend where the Department is not implementing the Amendment of Act 49 of 2003. Act 49 explicitly allows trans and intersex people to amend their documentation without requiring genital surgery. This law was amended partly because of the lack of access to, and gate keeping at State Hospitals.

Gender DynamiX would like to see government officials and especially Xingwana embrace our diversity, and make a concerted effort to sensitise themselves to gender variance, to educate themselves about art activism, and to acknowledge that gender variant people too are part of the rainbow nation that we are building!

In addition, Gender DynamiX demands public acknowledgement by the Government Ministers concerned, of the vulnerability of our constituency, and of the ongoing prejudices lesbians, gays, transgender and intersex people, artists and many other marginalised groups are facing on a daily basis.

Book details

• TRANS: Transgender Life Stories from South Africa edited by Ruth Morgan, Charl Marais, Joy Rosemary Wellbeloved
  EAN: 9781920196226
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Here is an excerpt from the book:

In April 1990 a group of eight former members of Umkhonto weSizwe (MK) returned to South Africa a few weeks after Jacob Zuma, but under very different conditions.

While Zuma was smuggled into South Africa in secret by the government (with Penuell Maduna, head of the ANC’s legal department) to prepare for negotiations with President FW de Klerk, the eight had fled from the ANC in Tanzania following six traumatic years after mutinies of ANC troops in Angola in February and May 1984.

Less than two months after their arrival back in South Africa, one of the eight, Sipho Phungulwa — a former bodyguard of the South African Communist Party leader and MK chief of staff, Chris Hani — was shot dead by ANC members in Mthatha in a daylight public assassination early in June 1990, after he had left the ANC offices with a colleague, Nicholas Luthando Dyasophu.

• Read the complete article in the Mail & Guardian

Book details

• Inside Quatro: Uncovering the Exile History of the ANC and SWAPO by Paul Trewhela
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  EAN: 9781770097766
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As with many others who once had high hopes for a better government after Mbeki, Dlamini believes that Zuma has been a negative influence, keeping democracy floating in the murky shallows of corruption and greed. Dlamini is the author of Native Nostalgia.

In November 2005 an American friend and I wrote an opinion piece for the Sunday Times looking at Jacob Zuma ’s populism. Zuma, fired by then president Thabo Mbeki in June 2005 following the conviction of Schabir Shaik for corruption, was at the time conducting what we called a “low-intensity campaign” for the presidency of the African National Congress (ANC) and SA. He had yet to be charged with rape but my friend and I were convinced Zuma would not rise from his weakened position.

We were interested in what we believed was the long-term value of Zuma’s populism for SA’s democracy. Our interest stemmed from two sources. The first was our discomfort with what we saw as knee-jerk and classist opposition to the very possibility of a Zuma presidency. We wrote: “Those allergic to the thought of Zuma inheriting president Thabo Mbeki’s towels (in the presidential residence) share a simple fear: our fragile democracy will go to hell in a hand basket if this cattle herder is let loose.”

• Read the complete article

Book details

• Native Nostalgia by Jacob Dlamini
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  EAN: 9781770097551
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Pampered, spoilt Rachel struggles to establish her independence and learns to love across the cultural divide. Conservative, beautiful Seema struggles to end a relationship that has become increasingly abusive. And street-savvy Nomsa finally learns to accept a past she has spent a lifetime denying.

This is the story of three women finding courage, love and compassion in the most unlikely places. Like its bestselling predecessor, The Karma Suture, The Angina Monologues brings readers face to face with what it takes to be woman doctor in the New South Africa without losing your soul.

About the author

After studying medicine for six years and then working as a doctor for another five, Rosamund Kendal decided that the creative side of her brain needed some stimulation and enrolled for the Masters degree in creative writing at UCT. She hasn’t been able to decide whether she prefers being a freelance writer or a general practitioner, so she’s come to a compromise and does both part-time.

Book details

• The Angina Monologues by Rosamund Kendal
  EAN: 9781770098121
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Zapiro is a busy political cartoonist these days, with our nation’s, erm, leaders providing more than ample fodder for his sharp wit. DStv subscribers will be able to enjoy his ZA News – a satirical puppet TV show based on his drawings, created by Thierry Cassuto – on Summit TV as of today, March 2nd 2010.

The Summit clips will be the same as those aired on the internet – see below for a sample!

Zapiro’s latest collection of cartoons is Don’t Mess with the President’s Head.

A satirical puppet show, the brainchild of cartoonist Zapiro and producer Thierry Cassuto, will hit the screens tomorrow evening, after it was yanked from the SABC line-up two years ago just before it was to debut on the state broadcaster.

The project had been partially funded by the SABC, which spent R1-million to create a pilot video in 2008, initially called ZNews. It was never screened, with the SABC citing finances and the sensitivity of viewers before pulling out of project.

At the time the show was canned, Jonathan Shapiro, better known as cartoonist Zapiro, said he was not surprised.

• Read the complete article at IOL Tonight

Watch the latest ZA News broadcast here:

• Not loading? Watch on ZANEWSTV

Book details

• Don’t Mess with the President’s Head: Zapiro Annual 2009 by Zapiro
  EAN: 9781770097575
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Albie Sachs hit the nail on the head with his comment that the only truly non-racial institution in South Africa is patriarchy. In response to Jacob Zuma’s recent call for a fresh look at the nation’s morals, Pregs Govender, author of Love and Courage: A Story of Insubordination, examines a few “traditional values” and explains how they’ve served as a beating stick for our nation’s women for generations:

When he opened the House of Traditional Leaders this week, President Jacob Zuma reiterated his call for a national debate on a moral code and on the values of South Africans. He argued that traditional leaders could play an important role in service delivery and rural development. The president quoted Albert Luthuli’s famous model of leadership: “A chief is primarily a servant of his people.”

As a freedom fighter, President Zuma served in the liberation movement under one of South Africa's most respected leaders, Oliver Tambo. In a critical speech in the ’80s, Tambo helped many of us think about how our values as a movement needed to guide our actions. The apartheid state manipulated culture, tradition and ethnicity to divide and rule. It reduced women classified as “African” to “perpetual minors”.

• Read the complete article in the Sunday Times

Book details

• Love and Courage: A Story of Insubordination by Pregs Govender
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  EAN: 9781770093423
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Image courtesy Womenundefined

This collection of papers intends not to be the last word on the subject. Rather, it takes cognisance of the fact that this is an ever-changing and multifaceted area of enquiry, whose margins and colours shift and change along with the African people and their continent. These authors imagine a more accepting, understanding world, that embraces the many filaments of human sexuality.

The voices are fresh and individual, and speak about often understudied aspects of human sexuality. Examinations of such microcosms as the coverage of gender-based violence in Kenyan print media, the experience of sexual violence by Nigerian students, and the way the Internet can be a valuable tool for communicating important messages about sexuality to Muslim people, provide lessons that can be translated into a greater understanding of sexuality on the continent at large.

About the editor

Dr. Oka Obono is Senior Lecturer at the University of Ibadan, Nigeria, and is a habitué of the international lecture circuit. An activitist, scholar and methodologist, he has been Principal Research of a multi-year year project aimed at increasing male responsibility for safeguarding reproductive health at individual, household and community levels. He chaired the multilingual Dakar-based network of African researchers monitoring governance trends in West Africa, coordinates the National Working Group on Accountability, investigating popular forms of accountability in Nigeria. His writings and advocacy stress the need for a plurality of voices in the discourse of everyday sexual and reproductive life.

In this project, Dr. Obono provided training and mentorship for the Sexuality Leadership Fellows from conceptualization of individual projects to the reporting stages. He is at present conducting research into the long term factors responsible for HIV transmission in African societies.

Book details

• A Tapestry of Human Sexuality in Africa edited by Dr. Oka Obono
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  EAN: 9781920196264
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Image courtesy John Abromowski / PSTC African Alumni Conference

I MET Sello Rasethaba a couple of years ago at Madiba’s, a South African restaurant in Brooklyn, New York. The restaurant is popular with expatriates and South Africans passing through the Big Apple. Rasethaba was part of a South African government delegation involving politicians, public servants and businesspeople. Their visit took in a number of city stops, including Washington .

Madiba’s is about the only place in the US where you can order pap and boerewors or a plate of bobotie . It is also one of the few places in New York where you can order Castle and Windhoek lagers, one reason South African expatriates and those passing through New York love the place.

• Read the complete article

Book details

• Native Nostalgia by Jacob Dlamini
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  EAN: 9781770097551
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Speaking of wasted time, Author and political activist Paul Trewhela in his book Inside Quatro speaks candidly about the balance sheet of 15 wasted years under the guidance of the ANC as the unchallenged party of government. Regarding this he says: “No party ever came to government with such an overwhelming mandate from the people and with such immense goodwill internationally. Few dissipated that trust so convincingly.”

He recognises that the ANC faced a daunting task to redress the stratospheric polarisation and disparities that are due to the centuries old divisions in our society, along the lines of race. No easy walk to freedom and human betterment indeed!

Trewhela singles out education as the greatest failure. He believes, and I concur, that the ANC should have seized on this from the outset and said to the whole nation: “We have limited resources, there are great compelling needs, but this above all – with dedication, good sense and common effort – can rise up and prepare for the future a new generation that will be better fitted to solve the country’s problems than ourselves”.

• Read the complete article

Book details

• Inside Quatro: Uncovering the Exile History of the ANC and SWAPO by Paul Trewhela
  Book homepage
  EAN: 9781770097766
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Jacana Media and The Book Lounge invite you to the launch of Nathan Geffen’s Debunking Delusions: The Inside Story of the Treatment Action Campaign.

Join the author and Andile Madondile, presenter of Khayelitsha radio show on HIV, Radio Zibonele, as they are interviewed by editor of the Cape Times, Alide Dasnois.

Event Details

• Date: Tuesday, 09 March 2010
• Time: 5:30 PM for 6:00 PM
• Venue: The Book Lounge, 71 Roeland
  cnr Buitenkant
  Cape Town | Map
• Guest Speakers: Andile Madondile, Alide Dasnois
• RSVP: booklounge@gmail.com, 021 462 2425

Book Details

• Debunking Delusions: The TAC campaign against AIDS denialists by Nathan Geffen
  EAN: 9781770097810
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