Reading Bisexualities From a South African Perspective—Revisited

Abstract

This article begins with a brief overview of my original article published in Journal of Bisexuality (2003, vol. 3, issue 1), and a discussion of its personal implications for the author. The author then proceeds to update her research by examining the climate of opinion toward variant homosexualities in selected African countries, including South Africa. She mentions specific cases of homophobia in Malawi and Uganda, a gap between the progressive provisions of the South African Bill of Rights that guarantee human rights in terms of sexuality, and a reluctance on the part of the South African government to raise this issue with other African Union states. The author also highlights the role of activist organizations in Malawi, Uganda and South Africa. She then turns to an analysis of cultural productions in South Africa, beginning with a discussion of homophobia in Spud: The Movie. After a brief overview of her book, Somewhere in the Double Rainbow: Representations of Bisexuality in Post-Apartheid Novels, published in 2007, the author examines a number of more recent authors’ treatments of bisexuality. She argues that Damon Galgut's In a Strange Room: Three Journeys portrays bisexual characters in terms of stereotypes; however, other novels, by authors across a range of subject positions, are more open and accepting of sexual fluidity. The ones which the author discusses are Fred Khumalo's Seven Steps to Heaven, Zukiswa Wanner's Men of the South, Zinaid Meeran's Saracen at the Gates and Sarah Lotz's Exhibit A and Tooth and Nailed.