The Human Sciences Research Council (HSRC)

2282  Large

The country we want to live in: Hate crimes and homophobia in the lives of black lesbian South Africans offers a refreshing perspective on violence perpetrated against black lesbians. Based on a Roundtable seminar, held during the 2006 16 Days of Activism for no Violence against Women and Children, the text engages the heteronormative focus of the campaign, profiles aspects of the dynamic conversations, and builds strong arguments about violence against lesbians. It also profiles the voices of women who are central to the activism around hate crimes and homophobia. In capturing key aspects of the lively discussion of 2006, an update of subsequent events that have bearing on the original seminar is provided, concluding with recommendations that have relevance for research, policy and practice. The country we want to live in makes an impassioned plea about citizenship, belonging and social justice, confirming that silence about these issues is not an option.

Open Access

Product information

Format : 210mm x 148mm (Soft Cover)
Pages : 72
ISBN 10 : 0-7969-2341-8
ISBN 13 : 978-07969-2341-7
Publish Year : 2010
Rights : World Rights

Foreword by Writer, Filmmaker and Activist, Beverley Palesa Ditsie
Preface
Acknowledgements

PART I: Context and History

  • Context and socio-political background
  • Language and vocabulary
  • The delimitations of this report

PART II: Perspective and Profile

  • Roundtable Seminar on Gender-Based Violence, Black Lesbians, Hate Speech and Homophobia

PART III: Current and Future Prospects

  • Legally-focused campaigning
  • Conclusions and Recommendations: a way forward?

References
Additional Resources
Organisations

Nonhlanhla Mkhize is Director of the Durban Lesbian and Gay Community and Health Centre in KwaZulu-Natal. Situated in the Durban CBD, it aims to empower lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender communities by providing services, support and training to enable them to claim their rights to equality, dignity and freedom within the context of transformation. Nonhlanhla is a counsellor, researcher and human rights defender. She specialises in LGBTI, youth, women and childrens rights. She is passionate about research aimed at advancing womens health and rights, and is involved in research on women-controlled barrier methods as well as safety methods significant in women who have sex with women contexts. She is a co-chair of Amnesty International South Africas Durban group, a member of its interim Board, a trustee of Behind the Mask, on the Board of the Lesbian and Gay Equality Project, and an advisor to various youth groups.

Jane Bennett is Professor and Head at the African Gender Institute at the University of Cape Town. As a writer, researcher and teacher, she works beyond the university with a number of national and continental NGOs that focus on gender-based violence, LGBTI justice issues, and trafficking. She publishes mainly in journals that are easy for co-activists and writers on the continent to access (Feminist Africa, East African Journal of Peace and Human Rights, Agenda and International Journal of Sexual Health). She writes fiction (Porcupine was published in 2008), and her main interests are transformational survival (and beyond) in worlds of war (she finds Pema Chodron very helpful), languages, political pedagogies, and the meaning of overcoming violence, from both inward- and outward-looking perspectives.

Vasu Reddy was a Chief Research Specialist in the Gender and Development Unit, Acting Director Culture, Identity & Social Cohesion thematic area) in the Policy Analysis and Capacity Enhancement Research Programme at the Human Sciences Research Council (South Africa) during the writing of this publication. He is currently working as a Chief Research Specialist in the Human & Social Development Research Programme at the HSRC and is also an Honorary Associate Professor in Gender Studies at the University of KwaZulu-Natal. He also worked as an activist and executive committee member in the early days of the National Coalition for Gay and Lesbian Equality, and served two terms as a Board member of the Lesbian and Gay Equality Project. Together with the late Ronald Louw and Nonhlanhla Mkhize, he co-founded the Durban Lesbian and Gay Community and Health Centre, where he serves on the Board. He is also Board chairperson of OUT LGBT Well-being. He is interested in the intersection between research, policy and programming, and advocacy. He recently co-edited (with Theo Sandfort and Laetitia Rispel) From Social Silence to Social Science: Same-sex Sexuality, HIV & AIDS and Gender in South Africa (HSRC Press, Cape Town, 2009).

Relebohile Moletsane was a Research Director of the Gender and Development Unit in the Policy Analysis and Capacity Enhancement Research Programme at the Human Sciences Research Council (South Africa) during the writing of this publication. She is currently a Professor in the Faculty of Education at the University of KwaZulu-Natal. She has extensive teaching and research experience in the areas of curriculum studies and gender and education, including gender-based violence and its links to HIV and AIDS and AIDS-related stigma, body politics, as well as girlhood studies. She is the co-author (with Claudia Mitchell, Ann Smith and Linda Chisholm) of the book Methodologies for Mapping a Southern African Girlhood in the Age of AIDS (Sense Publishers, Amsterdam, 2008) and (with Kathleen Pithouse and Claudia Mitchell) of Making Connections: Self-study & Social Action (Peter Lang, New York, 2009).

Share this

You might also consider these related books

2294  Large

Was it something I wore?
Dress Identity Materiality

People often wear their causes on their t-shirts, in their choice of traditional attire or other garments, or by way of specific costumes, pieces of jewellery or particular accessories. In Was it something I wore? Dress; identity; materiality, the contributors explore the construction and performance of personal and social identities. The essays point to the significance of dress as material culture in social science research not only in their content but also in their focus on a variety of methodologies including memory work, visual studies, autoethnography, object biographies and other forms of textual analysis.

Open Access

Product information

Format : 235mm x 168mm (Soft Cover)
Pages : 384
ISBN 10 : 978-07969-2362-2
ISBN 13 : 978-07969-2362-2
Publish Year : 2012
Rights : World Rights
Price R 380.00
2098  Large

Gender Mainstreaming in HIV/AIDS
Seminar proceedings

Current trends of HIV transmission and prevalence clearly show that the epidemic is fuelled by gender-based vulnerabilities. Close to 60 per cent of adults living with HIV in sub-Saharan Africa are women, and almost 75 per cent of young people living with HIV in southern Africa are female. It is also clear that issues of gender need to be mainstreamed into attempts to curb the further spread of the epidemic. Research on the gender dimensions of HIV/AIDS needs to be augmented. New and existing research must be integrated into policy. Policy must translate into action, and good practice must inform further policy.

Open Access

Product information

Format : 148mm x 210mm
Pages : 72
ISBN 10 : 0-7969-2121-0
ISBN 13 : 978-07969-2121-5
Publish Year : 2005
Price R 105.00
2079  Large

Gender Equity in South African Education 1994 - 2004
Conference proceedings

Gender Equity in South African Education 1994 - 2004 will provide readers with an overview of the progress of achieving gender equity in post-apartheid South African education. The book brings together the leading South African and international experts on gender equity in education. The papers presented at the conference, included here as chapters of the book, are all substantial contributions. They cast light, from many angles, on the different dimensions and needs in research and social action related to gender in education.

Open Access

Product information

Format : 148mm x 210mm
Pages : 168
ISBN 10 : 0-7969-2094-X
ISBN 13 : 978-07969-2094-2
Publish Year : 2005
Price R 159.00
Pentecostal Charismatic Women

Pentecostal Charismatic Women: Constructions of Femininity in Alexandra Township

This is a Black feminist autoethnographic study, written from the perspective of an insider in both the Pentecostal community and Alexandra township. The book uncovers the daily lives of women in an African Pentecostal community while relating them to Black/African feminist and womanist theory.

Product information

Format : 135mm x 216mm (Soft Cover)
Pages : 160
ISBN 13 : 978-0-7969-2639-5
Publish Year : February 2023
Rights : World Rights
Price R R245 | $14 | 11,49