A Gay Zulu Weddg and the Danger of a Sgle LGBTI Ain Story | HuffPost Voic

Contents:

• A GAY ZULU WEDDG AND THE DANGER OF A SGLE LGBTI AIN STORY
• A GAY ZULU WEDDG AND THE DANGER OF A SGLE LGBT AIN STORY
• WAS SHAKA ZULU GAY?
• ZULU ROYAL HOUSE: TRADITIONAL GAY WEDDING ‘UNHOLY’
• BIG ZULU FALLY SPEAK OUT AFTER PICTUR OF HIS ALLEGED GAY WEDDG WENT VIRAL. HERE IS WHAT HE SAY
• SHAKA ZULU, GAY MARRIAG AND THE TURNG OF GRAV
• TEXAS JUDGE WHO DON’T WANT TO PERFORM GAY MARRIAGE CEREMONI HOP WEB SIGNER’S SUPREME COURT SE HELPS HER FIGHT
• BEG GAY AND ZULU
• WHAT WILL KG ZWELHI MAKE OF THE ZULU GAY WEDDG?
• VIO OF THE DAY: ZULU GAY WEDDG

A GAY ZULU WEDDG AND THE DANGER OF A SGLE LGBTI AIN STORY

In se you missed , a few weeks ago, two gay black South Ain men tied the knot at their 200-gut tradnal weddg, the first of s kd the old Zulu pal, Modisane and Thoba Shole, both proudly Zulu and Tswana, rpectively, cid to go public wh their gay Ain tradnal weddg ceremony by vg reporters to ver the ocsn. The vio report spread quickly across the Interwebs, cg a seri of media headl that scribe the unn as progrs for lbian, gay, bisexual, transgenr and tersex (LGBTI) Ains. Lsons From Chimamanda Adichie: The Danger of a Sgle (Gay Ain Male) StoryChimamanda Adichie, a celebrated Nigerian wrer, said her famo TEDTalk, "The sgle story creat stereotyp, and the problem wh stereotyp is not that they are unte but that they are plete.

Neverthels, the untry's stggle to shift cultural attus toward acceptance of this margalized group of people, pecially ral areas and townships, this reason, as the media ntue to hail this sgle occurrence as a tone, be cril that supporters of the LGBTI Ain movement for equaly nsir that this sgle narrative exists wh the ntext of many stance, the vio report stat that the two gay black men are based the metropolan cy of Johannburg and are workg profsnals the fields of fancial servic and IT. That's not to imply that they've been any way exempt om experiencg the bilatg impact of societal discrimatn -- far om ; the effects of homophobia (pound wh racism, as the uple is black) on the livelihoods of people prumed to be LGBTI n rult workplace discrimatn and prejudice health re, not to mentn prsn, anxiety and even, there's a huge difference between, on the one hand, the experience of beg a "regular-lookg" cisgenr male employee at a "Big Four" fancial nsultg firm a fairly liberal cy that boasts the largt gay pri para the untry and, on the other, the harsh realy of tryg to make ends meet a poor township while also fearg rape for beg a lbian, or murr for beg an effemate gay a piece wrten for a South Ain LGBTI publitn last year, wrers T. Tallie and Maria Hengeveld shared ments by Junr, a young, black, gay-intified male who disagreed wh South Ai's reputatn as a progrsive state (emphasis alics add by me):"When you have money, 's que easy to set yourself ee om discrimatn and danger, " Junr says.

"Many of the whe gay and lbian people here n afford to ri a safe and progrsive area, but the majory of live townships. " Junr's statement emphasiz that gay and lbian equaly South Ai is strongly mediated by race and class, and that sexual eedom is often available to those who have the racial and leral pal to afford light of the stggl of LGBTI Ains, the sire to celebrate any kd of progrs, pecially when the form of a gleeful Zulu weddg, is unrstandable; the vibrant ceremony prented a sharp ntrast to the media's grim (and at tim gome) pictn of vlent homophobia on the Ain ntent. However, is dangero to assign wi-sweepg gas to all LGBTI Ains based on the perceived victory of a of gay Ains who view marriage as the least of their problems: young people, for stance, who have been disowned by their fai and, above all, seek a stable alternative to homelsns?

A GAY ZULU WEDDG AND THE DANGER OF A SGLE LGBT AIN STORY

What about transgenr women who experience rejectn (and vlence) om both gay and straight muni alike? And there is no rearch on Nigerian gay women to suggt otherwise, so we are at a disadvantage.

Nigeria's recent move to further crimalize homosexualy has no doubt sent even more LGBTI Nigerians back to the clost, makg the need for safe social spac even more cril.

WAS SHAKA ZULU GAY?

Consequently, before the media clare the gay Zulu weddg as progrs for the LGBTI Ain movement, they mt ask themselv, "What do progrs for LGBTI people other Ain untri (or even for different groups of Ains wh South Ai) look like? For stance, the murr of David Kato, a Ugandan LGBTI rights activist, sparked global outrage, whereas the btal torture and slayg of Mrice Mjomba, a gay Tanzanian muny anizer, barely received attentn.

Siarly, while South Ain women are perpetually portrayed as victims verage of "rrective rape, " uprisgs by lbians other untri, such as Namibia, and Malawi, aren't likely to make, the cultural signifince of the gay Zulu weddg vio -- and the power of media self -- nnot be ignored.

As one of my close iend lbian iend once quipped, 'Kenya's often d acceptance of homosexualy n be attributed, some small way, to two persons: Will and Grace. '"Given the impact that a sgle vio has had on recent nversatns about homosexualy Ai, among Ains at that, go whout sayg that proponents of human rights on the Ain ntent should more tentnally support LGBTI Ain media advocy anizatns and iativ, the wrers, journalists, digal media producers and artists whose llective works embrace the act of challengg sgle stori by creatg a more realistic, ntextualized and plete visn of LGBTI Ain experienc. Male and Married: The Gay Zulu Weddg and the Danger of a Sgle LGBT Ain StoryIn se you missed , a few weeks ago, two gay black South Ain men tied the knot at their 200-gut tradnal weddg KwaDuza, the first of s kd the old Zulu birds Tshepo Modisane and Thoba Shole, both proudly Zulu and Tswana, have ma their unn a part of South Ai’s history by cidg to go public wh their gay Ain tradnal weddg ceremony, wh a few twists:In place of the ctomary lobolo (bri price or dowry), via which the hband ctomarily offer’s the wife’s fay money and/or gifts, they’ve cid to opt for genr pary and, stead, offer gifts to each of their fai thanks for raisg them.

ZULU ROYAL HOUSE: TRADITIONAL GAY WEDDING ‘UNHOLY’

)In the vio report (below), the uple shar, “It’s agast this ia that beg gay is unAin… Beg gay is as Ain as beg black. ”On paper, South Ai boasts the iendlit nstutn, which protects s lbian, gay, bisexual, transgenr, and tersex (LGBTI) cizens om discrimatn based on race, genr and sexual orientatn. ” It’s no wonr, then, that the mere optics of the “first gay tradnal Ain weddg, ” warrant s celebratn as a historil tone for gay Ains Nzka, founr and edor of Inty Kenya, a news anizatn verg sexual and genr mori Kenya, remarked an terview, “The gay Zulu weddg was epic, if not pneerg.

” And rponse to what’s bee a slogan amongst anti-gay Ain lears, “Homophobia is unAin, ” Nzka sists that “the fact that two Ain men n fall love and wed, spe a homophobic society that owns on same-sex relatnships unters what many Ains [have been] sayg’.

”Hence, as the media ntu to hail this sgle occurrence as a tone, be cril that supporters of the LGBTI Ain movement for equaly nsir this sgle narrative exists wh the ntext of many stance, the vio report stat that the two gay black men are based the metropolan cy of Johannburg and are workg profsnals the fields of fancial servic and IT. That’s not to imply they’ve been any way exempt om experiencg the bilatg impact of societal discrimatn — far om ; the effects of homophobia (pound wh racism, as the uple is black) on the livelihood of people prumed to be LGBTI n rult workplace discrimatn, prejudice health re, not to mentn prsn, anxiety, even, there’s a huge difference between the experience of beg a “regular lookg” cisgenr male employee, at a “Big Four” fancial nsultg firm, a fairly liberal cy that boasts the largt gay pri the untry, vers the harsh realy of a tryg to make ends meet a poor township, while also fearg rape for beg a lbian, or murr for beg an effemate gay a piece wrten for a South Ain LGBT publitn last year, the thor shared ments om a young, black, gay-intified male, who disagreed wh South Ai’s reputatn as a progrsive state (emphasis bold add by me):“When you have money, ’s que easy to set yourself ee om discrimatn and danger, ” Junr says.

BIG ZULU FALLY SPEAK OUT AFTER PICTUR OF HIS ALLEGED GAY WEDDG WENT VIRAL. HERE IS WHAT HE SAY

“Many of the whe gay and lbian people here n afford to ri a safe and progrsive area, but the majory of live townships. ” Junr’s statement emphasiz that gay and lbian equaly South Ai is strongly mediated by race and class, and that sexual eedom is often available to those who have the racial and leral pal to afford light of the stggl of LGBTI Ains, the sire to celebrate any kd of progrs — pecially when the form of a gleeful Zulu weddg — is unrstandable; the vibrant ceremony prented a sharp ntrast to the media’s grim and, at tim, gome pictn of vlent homophobia on the Ain ntent.

However, is dangero to assign wi-sweepg gas to all LGBTI Ains based on the perceived victory of a of gay Ains who view marriage as the least of their problems — young people, for stance, who have been disowned by their fai and, above all, seek a stable alternative to homelsns?

”Nigeria’s recent move to further crimalize homosexualy has no doubt sent even more LGBTI Nigerians back to the clost, makg the need for safe social spac even more cril. Hence, before the media clar the gay Zulu weddg as progrs for the LGBTI Ain movement, mt ask self, “What do progrs for LGBTI people other Ain untri (or even different groups of Ains wh South Ai) look like?

SHAKA ZULU, GAY MARRIAG AND THE TURNG OF GRAV

For stance, the murr of Ugandan LGBT rights activist David Kato sparked global outrage while the btal torture and slayg of a gay Tanzanian muny anizer, Mrice Mjomba barely received attentn.

”To be sure, the cultural signifince of the gay Zulu weddg vio — the power of media, self — nnot be ignored; LGBTI Ains all over the world were able to see their relatnships affirmed the media — a rary. As one of my close iend lbian iend once quipped ‘Kenya’s often d acceptance of homosexualy n be attributed, some small way, to two persons — Will & Grace.

TEXAS JUDGE WHO DON’T WANT TO PERFORM GAY MARRIAGE CEREMONI HOP WEB SIGNER’S SUPREME COURT SE HELPS HER FIGHT

’”Given the impact a sgle vio has had on recent nversatns about homosexualy Ai, among Ains at that, go whout sayg that proponents of LGBTI equaly on the Ain ntent, should more tentnally support LGBTI Ain media advocy anizatns and iativ — the wrers, journalists, digal media producers, and artists that risk backlash for darg to crique the world as is, while imagg and spirg the future as uld Pereira, founr and executive of director of Iranti, a media advocy anizatn based South Ai emphasiz the importance (and threat) of LGBTI Ains g media to fluence change:“We mt end the ongog ignorance of stat who ntue to enurage systemic vlence, we simply n’t afford this.

BEG GAY AND ZULU

South Ain rapper Big Zulu is trendg on social media after pictur of his alleged gay weddg went viral.

My ar this not Big ZULU is some Amerin uple there’s this twter page that celebrate black love of gays and lbians they maly post marriage pictur. The mour l that Big Zulu is ‘gay’ emanated after so much ‘evince’ was noted on his media llage.

It is this regard that social ers allu that Big Zulu is gay as his pos give female telltale clu. It's not easy to wre a blog as you all know we've got people who will sctize each and every word you wrote, but then aga what's the pot of wrg if there aren't people who will cricize your of you know that Alexandra The Great was gay/bisexual, thanks to the movie and the openns of the Wtern Media when to issu of mak me wonr how accurate and tthful is our history, well the one that we've been tght by our grandparents or at school.

WHAT WILL KG ZWELHI MAKE OF THE ZULU GAY WEDDG?

We all know homosexualy is not somethg that jt me to existence the now 21st century but 's somethg that has been there sce the days of Sodom and Gomorrah.

He explaed so nicely I'll try to get an extract om 've all heard people the media and everywhere sayg how unAin is to be gay. Apparently there's some evince that Shaka Zulu was also gay and that he ed to f**k his soldiers.

We also know about Queen Modjadji the Ra Queen and her many wiv and the Bapedi people always fend her lbianism by sayg that she do not sleep wh those women, they're jt her helpers the Royal Historil gay figur u know about please share s I bet you no one is gog to tell about them. The Zulu Royal Hoe has reportedly reacted wh “shock” that a gay weddg was held the town of Stanger, a historic lotn for the Zulu people.

VIO OF THE DAY: ZULU GAY WEDDG

The event was vered by lol and ternatnal media and has led to bate and ntroversy across South Ai on the ‘Ainns’ of homosexualy. He acknowledged that “we live a mocratic untry” and that “the Zulu Kgdom n’t go agast the untry’s Constutn, ” but, he add, “We don’t ndone this thg of gays”. I wore my Zulu regalia bee I believe that me beg gay don’t make me ls of a Zulu man, ” he said.

They still believe a fashn statement and that origated om Wtern untri, fettg that homosexualy was there before Kg Shaka’s reign, ” add Shole.

As for homosexualy not beg “holy, ” he mented that the statement is “absurd, bee if homosexualy is not holy, that means we Zul are not holy too bee the Bible is agast anctral beliefs. In January 2012, Kg Goodwill Zwelhi was reported to have said at an event memoratg the 133rd anniversary of the Battle of Isandwana that homosexualy did not exist the past, and that is “wrong”, “rotten” and “not acceptable”.