OPINION | Nkoli's activism for gay rights during apartheid should be recognised

This year marks 30 years since we were declared a democratic state and the same year we held our seventh general elections, which produced a government of national unity (GNU).

October 2024 also marked 34 years since Africa’s first Gay Pride march, which took place on October 13 1990 in Johannesburg. The march was organised by Simon Nkoli, together with Beverly Ditsie, Edwin Cameron, and other activists who were part of the Gay and Lesbian Organisation of the Witswatersrand (GLOW).

This year’s historical events remind us how nuanced, multiplicitious and intertwined our experiences and struggles are as a country. Yet there is a dominant narrative biased and rooted in a heterosexist mandate that essentialises a one-sided experience that distorts the complete story. The danger of amplifying one part of history while suppressing the other parts results in the erasure of significant parts that make up the entire narrative. If we do not speak or write about South African Pride Month with the same enthusiasm as we are about other historical events, we are not telling the whole truth. 

This perpetual epistemic erasure of minority groups from historical narratives is why I want to accentuate Simon Tseko Nkoli’s intersectional activism during the apartheid regime and how his work has significantly influenced this country’s socio-political trajectory. The current narrative around apartheid and the progressive political figures who were involved in the struggle is one that is biased, only celebrating mainstream figures who are often cis-heterosexual men, instead of black women and queer people. 

Nkoli’s activism embodies the tenets of intersectional feminism, which teaches us to acknowledge the multidimensional experiences of black women in the context of how areas of class, gender, race and sexuality interact with one another and the distinct levels of discriminations these produce. Intersectional feminism argues that, due to layered identities, cis-heterosexual black men experience racism far differently to how black queer women experience it. It becomes imperative for anti-discrimination interventions to centre this approach into attempts to eradicate discrimination. 

At the time when black people were oppressed under the apartheid regime and the struggle was deemed to only be between blacks and whites, Nkoli, as a black gay man with a layered existence, did not compartmentalise his identities, nor did he prioritise one over the other. Nkoli recognised that it is not possible to be black first and gay second, that both issues are intertwined and can be linked to other social issues, including sexual health.  

Nkoli joined politics from a very early age. He formed part of the Congress of the South African Students (Cosas)  where he served as a secretary and was almost forced to relinquish his position due to his sexuality but was eventually retained when his fellow comrades conceded to accept him for who he was. In 1984, Nkoli was arrested alongside 22 other political figures for protesting against the unfair increase of municipal rates in Sebokeng.

He, alongside his comrades, was detained and charged with treason. Their trial was known as the Delmas Treason Trial, the most prolonged political trial in the history of this country. Even while in prison for this matter, Nkoli’s sexuality was still a matter of contention. 

When he publicly declared his sexuality at the age of 20, he was met with resistance that was exacerbated by his anti-apartheid activism. The resistance was escalated by his romantic relationship with a white man, Roy Shepherd, because of the pervasive racial divisions.

He was not deterred by this, which led to the establishment of GLOW through which he would highlight the intersections between race and sexual identity and helped highlight the existence and experiences of the LGBTQIA+ community during the apartheid regime.

He experienced homophobia in prison and was diagnosed with HIV but could not access medication for some time. He spoke openly about his diagnosis to raise awareness about the pandemic and eventually helped form part of the Townships Aids Project and publicly identified as a “Positive African Man”. His advocacy on HIV and Aids was instrumental in raising awareness about the virus, primarily because it was at a time when society was not heeding warning calls about practising safe sex. There was a massive stigma around the disease and homosexuality. Meanwhile, more people were getting infected and ARVs were not freely available. Nkoli contextualised his blackness and sexuality in speaking about his status, access to medication and making sense of the HIV pandemic. 

SA’s historical narratives often erase Nkoli’s activism because he does not fit the conventional struggle-icon parameters which are rooted in hetero-patriarchal standards. His work was influential and important to the struggle, but always decentred, for similar reasons Nelson Mandela was more idolised than Winnie. Patriarchy thrives on placing black cis-gendered men on the pedestal, which is often at the expense and erasure of the minoritised groups. 

• Fako is a research assistant at the Free State Centre for Human Rights in UFS's faculty of law