Gender Performativity in Zandile Nkunzi Nkabinde's Black Bull, Ancestors and Me: My Life as a Lesbian Sangoma: A Way to Rewrite and Re-member Black Lesbian Lives in South Africa

Abstract

The LGBTQI+ category, with its Western roots, has become a contentious descriptor for sexual minorities in Africa. In South Africa, the rising number of violent and homophobic attacks against sexual minorities and lesbian women, often in the form of “corrective rape”, highlights the tension between marginalised communities becoming more visible and vocal about their rights and a conservative backlash. Of particular significance in post-apartheid South Africa is the growing visibility of black lesbians. Prior to the adoption of South Africa's democratic constitution, visibility of these women was very low, strengthening the erroneous assumption that homosexuality is unAfrican. African identity is often aligned with heteronormative ideals and homosexuality is often referred to as unAfrican, unChristian, and unnatural. Furthermore, the idea that lesbian sexuality is unAfrican and unChristian is used as an excuse for the violence perpetrated against lesbians. However, queer African writers are starting to challenge negative stereotypes. Zandile Nkunzi Nkabinde's 2008 autobiography, Black Bull, Ancestors and Me: My Life as a Lesbian Sangoma (Johannesburg: Fanele) is one of the few South African autobiographies that provides a first-person account of being a traditional healer and a black lesbian, which is useful for anchoring discussions around lesbian subjectivity and corrective rape from an African perspective. This article engages with this text, which offers a positive representation of the relationship between African culture and lesbian sexuality and constitutes a unique counter-discourse—a narrative of resistance—in the face of ubiquitous homophobia.