‘He uses my body’: female traditional healers, male ancestors and transgender in South Africa

Abstract

This work focuses on the autobiography Black Bull, ancestors and me: my life as a lesbian sangoma by Nkunzi Zandile Nkabinde. I delineate the empowerment obtained and tensions experienced in the case of Nkabinde, a sangoma, or traditional healer in South Africa. The name ‘Nkunzi’, meaning ‘Black Bull’, previously belonged to her late male ancestor, who is her main possessing spirit in her healing work. This possession, I argue, serves a validating transgender function in the case of Nkabinde, who identifies as a lesbian; however, it is also problematic, as it entails a conflict between Nkabinde's reverence for tradition and her feminist, modernist beliefs. I examine Black Bull, ancestors and me through the lens of autobiographical writing, including transgender life-writing. I use the phrase ‘He uses my body’ to show the tensions and boundary-crossing which ensue as a result of Nkabinde's composite identity, highlighting problematic aspects of the representation of gender, sexuality and spirituality. Finally, following Gayle Rubin, Homi Bhabha and Ernest Renan, I situate Nkabinde's transgender boundary-crossings as a significant test of a nation in flux.