Remembering Simon Nkoli

Simon Tseko Nkoli (also spelled Nkodi; 26 November 1957α – 30 November 1998) was an anti-apartheid, gay rights, and AIDS activist in South Africa. Active in the Congress of South African Students (COSAS), the United Democratic Front (UDF), and the Vaal Civic Association, he was imprisoned as one of the Delmas 22 in 1984. After his acquittal in 1988, he founded the Gay and Lesbian Organisation of the Witwatersrand (GLOW) and organized South Africa's first pride march. His activism influenced the African National Congress (ANC) to enshrine gay rights in the South African constitution. One of the first South Africans to disclose that he was living with HIV/AIDS, Nkoli founded the Township AIDS Project to provide HIV prevention services to Black South Africans. After his death from AIDS-related complications, his colleagues established the Treatment Action Campaign which successfully lobbied the government to expand access to HIV treatment.

Early life and family

Nkoli was born on 26 November 1957α in Phiri, Soweto,[1][2] to a Sotho-speaking family.[3][4] He had three siblings.[1][5] As a child, Nkoli had to hide his parents from a police raid in a cabinet because they lived in an area forbidden to them by the apartheid-era pass laws.[5][6] He recounted this experience in "Wardrobes" in the anthology Defiant Desire: Gay and Lesbian Lives in South Africa.[7][8] After Nkoli's parents separated, he lived with his grandparents on a farm and attended primary school in Orange Free State for several years before moving in with his mother in Sebokeng.[1][9][10] Nkoli's family was working class.[11][5] His mother, Elizabeth, was employed as a domestic worker and later a sales clerk, while his step-father, Elias, was a hotel chef.[9][12]

Nkoli met his first boyfriend, a white bus driver, by responding to a pen pal ad in a magazine.[9][6] Nkoli's mother was upset when he told her about their relationship.[13][12] In an attempt to change Nkoli's sexual orientation, she took him to multiple sangomas (traditional healers) and a Christian clergyman. Lastly, she consulted a therapist who affirmed Nkoli's gay identity and encouraged him to accept himself.[14][15][10] Nkoli later called himself "lucky" that, instead of disowning him, his mother "tried to help me, in the ways that she knew how".[16][17] With time, Elizabeth accepted Nkoli's sexual orientation. She supported him throughout his life, including his many arrests and the police harassment she experienced due to his anti-apartheid activism.[4][16]

Early activism

a group of 6 Black South Africans near an overturned car and smoke
Anti-apartheid protest in South Africa in the 1980s

Nkoli first became involved in activism in high school, organizing students[18] and spearheading a campaign opposing Afrikaans as his school's language of instruction during the 1976 Soweto Uprising.[19][20][5] He was active in several groups including Young Christian Students, Young Christian Workers, and Vaal Youth Crusade.[19][21]

While attending secretarial college in Johannesburg, Nkoli joined the Congress of South African Students (COSAS), an anti-apartheid student group, and became secretary for its Transvaal branch.[22][23][24] His high school friend Gcina Malindi[4] served as chair.[23] COSAS worked closely with the United Democratic Front (UDF), a coalition of anti-apartheid organizations.[25] Nkoli spoke at meetings and participated in marches, boycotts, and sit-ins.[24] Additionally, Nkoli worked at the South African Institute of Race Relations[13] and organized food and legal aid for political prisoners with the Detainees Support Committee.[26][24][20] He was a member of both the UDF and the then-banned African National Congress (ANC).[27][5] Frequently detained by the police for his activism,[4][5] Nkoli was held for three months in 1976 and seven months in 1981.[24][25][10]

After his colleagues in COSAS encouraged him to bring a girlfriend to their events, Nkoli came out to them as gay.[28][29][30] The group held lengthy discussions about whether he should give up his position as secretary. Ultimately, 80% of the group voted to support him.[1][31][32] However, Nkoli continued to deal with homophobia from some COSAS colleagues and lost some of his confidence as a leader.[30][1] In 1983, Nkoli joined the Gay Association of South Africa (GASA),[33][34] a mostly white organization which considered itself to be "apolitical".[35] GASA did not condemn apartheid and occasionally supported apartheid politicians.[36] Others have stated that GASA excluded Black people[37] and was "apartheid-friendly".[35] Nkoli opposed GASA's apolitical stance and was unable to attend many of their events because they were held in white-only locations.[38][20][39] In an effort to create a Black-inclusive space within GASA,[40] Nkoli recruited Black members via the City Press and the GASA newsletter,[41] including members from the townships.[42][43] They met regularly on Saturdays for awhile, but many Black members quit after white members complained that they were noisy and proposed limiting the number of Black people allowed inside the offices.[44][45] In May 1984, Nkoli and the remaining Black members started the Saturday Group, which was loosely affiliated with GASA.[46]

Vaal uprising

Casspir police vehicle

In 1983, the Vaal Civic Association (VCA) was formed to organize around socio-economic issues in the Vaal Triangle area of Johannesburg, including housing, education, transportation, and labor rights.[47] It was affiliated with the UDF.[48][49] Nkoli, a leader in the VCA,[31][20] engaged in tenant organizing by planning protests and giving speeches in support of rent strikes.[50][51] On 3 September 1984, the VCA organized a general strike and march.[52] The protest had multiple motivations, including rent increases, sub-par living conditions, the establishment of the Tricameral Parliament, and opposition to Black officials seen as collaborators with the apartheid government.[53] Although the organizers had intended for the protest to be nonviolent, it escalated into widespread rioting after the police shot and killed multiple people. Protesters battled the police, set fires, blocked roads, and killed several Black officials.[54][49] According to Nkoli: "The police as usual intervened. They wanted the march to disperse. People became angry. Police started shooting at our people, setting dogs on them. There were police casspirs all over the place... We tried to keep control of the marchers but we couldn't. By 11 a.m. lots of people had been shot dead."[55] The unrest, known as the Vaal uprising, spread to other areas and continued into 1986.[53]

Delmas Treason Trial

Arrest and trial

On 23 September 1984, Nkoli attended the funeral of a student activist who had been killed in the Vaal uprising.[56][57] The local authorities attempted to restrict the events and number of mourners and proceeded to shoot, beat, and fire teargas at the funeral.[56] Nkoli was one of nearly 600 people arrested for attending an "illegal gathering".[56][58][19] For at least 9 months, Nkoli was held without charge,[19][57] mostly in solitary confinement.[59][60] The police interrogated Nkoli about his political views and sexuality, particularly about his relationships with white men.[61][60] They told him that the ANC would never accept him because he was a moffie (a slur for a gay man).[13][62] He later recounted that the police would "bring in things like a baton and tell me to go fuck myself with it. They also said they'd put me in prison with others and get me raped."[61][63]

In June 1985, Nkoli was charged with treason, murder, terrorism, and furthering the aims of the ANC, a banned organisation.[64][65] The charges were largely based on his involvement in the Vaal uprising[49][66][65] and carried a potential sentence of death.[57][67] He was denied bail.[59][68] Twenty one other political leaders were also charged, including Nkoli's friend Gcina Malindi, Terror Lekota, and Popo Molefe.[69][5] Initially held in the small town of Delmas, the years-long trial was called the Delmas Treason Trial,[57][60] and the defendants were collectively known as the Delmas 22[25] or the Vaal 22.[5] Like Nkoli, most of the defendants were affiliated with the UDF,[57][44] and their legal team included George Bizos, Zak Yacoob, and Caroline Heaton-Nicholls.[70]

The Palace of Justice in Pretoria (1988), where the latter part of the Delmas Treason Trial was held

In November 1985, Nkoli was transferred to Modderbee Prison where he was held with the rest of the Delmas 22.[67][71][72] While discussing a love letter between two male prisoners, some of his co-defendants made homophobic comments. Nkoli responded by coming out as gay, sparking several weeks of debate.[73][13] Fearing that Nkoli's sexual orientation would decrease their public support, some of the Delmas 22 initially argued that he should be tried separately, while others supported him.[20][25][74] After much discussion, Nkoli's co-defendants were convinced to be tried together and their views of his sexual orientation became more accepting.[73] As news of the trial spread, Nkoli gained supporters in Europe and North America, inspiring anti-apartheid activism, especially in the gay community.[25] A group of Canadians, including Tim McCaskell, founded the Simon Nkoli Anti-Apartheid Committee (SNAAC) in Toronto.[25][75][76] Nkoli received correspondence from his international supporters,[77][31] including more than 150 Christmas cards in 1986.[78][79] His global support campaign[80][38] and his coming out ultimately contributed to the ANC's commitment to gay rights.[81][82]

The trial was eventually moved to the Palace of Justice in Pretoria.[60][83] Nkoli came out during the trial by testifying that his alibi was a GASA event.[84][85][5] In June 1987, he was released on bail.[86][38][87] Restricted from working, he was supported financially by SNAAC.[75] The following year, Nkoli and ten of his co-defendants were acquitted, while the other eleven were found guilty and sentenced.[88][89]

GASA's response

Despite Nkoli's growing fame as the "gay Mandela", GASA declined to support Nkoli or advocate for his acquittal.[90][67][91] GASA did not make an official statement about his trial until 1986. In their brief statement, they appeared to justify his imprisonment and said that their lack of support for Nkoli was because he had not been arrested for "gay activities".[92][93] Because of GASA's behavior towards Nkoli, some members of the international gay community criticized them as racist and advocated for their expulsion from the International Lesbian and Gay Association (ILGA).[94] At ILGA's annual meeting in 1986, GASA representative Kevan Botha made a speech defending their lack of support by pointing to Nkoli's murder charge.[95] He exaggerated the extent of GASA's "multiracial work"[42] and stated that GASA was apolitical.[94] Initially, Nkoli advocated against ousting GASA from ILGA,[42]but he decried their lack of support, especially after Botha's speech.[96] At their 1987 meeting, ILGA voted against expelling GASA but decided to suspend their membership, and GASA disbanded soon after.[97][40][60]

Founding GLOW and TAP

While in prison, Nkoli wrote that he planned to create "a new gay [and] progressive organisation".[98] After his release, Nkoli co-founded the Gay and Lesbian Organisation of the Witwatersrand (GLOW) with Beverley Palesa Ditsie and Linda Ngcobo in April 1988.[99][100][101] GLOW provided a space for Black people who did not feel welcome at white-majority gay organizations.[102][100] It also included white members[103][104] and aimed to be a place for "All South Africans who are Committed to a Non-Racist, Non-Sexist, Non-Discriminatory Democratic Future".[105] In contrast to GASA, GLOW was politically minded and involved in both the gay rights and anti-apartheid movement.[105][49][106] Nkoli helped open a Black gay bar in Soweto called the Glowbar which GLOW used as a meeting place for a couple years.[107][108][109] By the early 1990s, GLOW had multiple branches throughout Gauteng[110][111][112] and 1,000 members.[113]

Nkoli noticed a need for HIV education for Black communities; according to Nkoli, white community groups did not provide HIV education materials in Black South African languages[114] and the apartheid government denied that AIDS existed among the population.[115][85][102] Typically, community-based HIV prevention efforts targeted white men.[116] Nkoli, Peter Busse, and GLOW helped to establish the Township AIDS Project (TAP) in Soweto in 1989.[117][118][116][119] TAP was the first organization to focus on HIV prevention programs for gay Black men,[37][88] especially those who lived in the townships.[120][118] Their efforts were hindered by a lack of funding and legal barriers which, for example, meant they could not show videos about safer sex or use dildos to demonstrate how to use a condom.[102]

After his release from prison, Nkoli was contacted by supporters around the world who asked him to visit. At first, the apartheid government denied him a passport but eventually responded to external pressure.[100][121] Between July and September 1989, Nkoli travelled to 26 cities throughout Europe and North America raising money for TAP and speaking about apartheid, gay rights, and AIDS in South Africa. He began his trip at the ILGA conference in Vienna and ended it at the Lesbian and Gay Community Services Center in New York City.[117][122] In Chicago, he spoke at a conference called "From Stonewall to Sharpeville", where he told the audience: "Freedom is what we want in that country; and that is what we are going to get!"[123] The tour was coordinated by SNAAC[75] and James Credle from the National Association of Black and White Men Together.[85][124][125][126] By the following year, TAP had received enough donations to open offices in Soweto.[127][128]

South Africa's first pride march

Poster for South Africa's first pride march in October 1990

In 1990, Nelson Mandela was released from prison. The ANC and protest marches were unbanned. Negotiations for the end of apartheid began.[129][130][131] GLOW organised the first pride march in South Africa on 13 October 1990.[132][133] The event began at the South African Institute of Race Relations.[130][134] In a speech, Nkoli stated: "I am black and I am gay. I cannot separate the two parts into secondary and primary struggles. [...] So, when I fight for my freedom, I must fight against both oppressors."[135][136] The march of about 800 people[137][138] walked from Braamfontein to Hillbrow in Johannesburg.[139][130] They chanted: "Out of Closets— Into the Streets", "Not the Church, Not the State— We Ourselves Decide Our Fate", and "We’re here! We’re queer! We’re everywhere."[116][140][99] Some participants wore paper bags over their heads to protect their identities[130][137] but many took them off once it started raining.[141][99] The speeches continued after the march, with Nkoli telling attendees to kiss the person next to them.[140][142]

The pride march became an annual event with thousands of participants.[143][101] Initially, many white people did not participate due to the march's association with the anti-apartheid movement. But after GLOW stopped organizing the march, it was run by a mostly white Pride Committee. GLOW and Nkoli criticized the new organizers as disregarding the concerns of Black members of the community. For example, Nkoli disapproved of afterparty entrance fees which most Black people could not afford. He thought that the parade was not "truly African".[144][145] In 2019, Ditsie wrote that the pride march had changed from a protest to a celebration that ignores the ongoing discrimination faced by Black LGBTQ people.[101][146]

South African Constitution and NCGLE

Nkoli was instrumental in ensuring that gay rights were enshrined in the South African constitution.[147][148][149] As early as 1989, he was in communication with ANC leaders like Thabo Mbeki, Ruth Mompati, and Nelson Mandela to pressure the ANC to take an official position in support of gay rights.[150][151] His "Open Letter to Nelson Mandela" was published in the Village Voice in 1990.[151] When Albie Sachs asked GLOW to contribute to the process of creating South Africa's interim constitution, they gathered input from the LGBT community and eventually proposed adding an "equality clause" prohibiting discrimination based on sexual orientation. The ANC agreed and included it in the interim constitution that went into effect in 1994.[150][152][49]

In 1994, South Africa held its first democratic elections.[153][131] The equality clause faced pushback from conservative South Africans, with 65% of ANC supporters saying they opposed homosexuality.[131] The LGBT community mobilized to ensure the equality clause would be included in the final version of the constitution.[150][35] Nkoli, Zackie Achmat, and others founded the National Coalition for Gay and Lesbian Equality (NCGLE), a multi-racial coalition of more than 50 organizations, that prioritized organizing around the equality clause.[154][3][155] Edwin Cameron, Nkoli, and others leveraged their relationships with the drafters of the Constitution, including Zak Yacoob, Nkoli's Delmas Treason Trial lawyer.[156] In 1995, an NCGLE delegation, including Nkoli and Ian McKellan, met with the newly elected President Nelson Mandela who reaffirmed the ANC's commitment to gay rights.[135][155][150] The NCGLE's lobbying campaign was ultimately successful, making South Africa, in 1996, the first country in the world to explicitly prohibit discrimination against gay people in its constitution.[157][147] Nkoli and the NCGLE also campaigned against South Africa's anti-sodomy laws, which were repealed in the last year of his life.[158][159][157][160]

HIV/AIDS

Nkoli first learned about HIV/AIDS when he tested positive in prison in 1985.[161][162] After his release, he co-founded the Township AIDS Project (TAP) and worked as an HIV educator. Nkoli viewed the "abstinence, be faithful, use a condom" approach as ineffective, instead promoting sex-positive, harm reduction strategies.[163] At the time, many South Africans considered HIV to be a "white disease". Despite his anxiety about disclosing his status,[32] Nkoli thought that his visibility as someone with HIV would assist in his efforts to educate people about the virus.[164] In 1990, Nkoli publicly announced his diagnosis, becoming one of the first openly HIV-positive African men.[165][162] A few years later, fellow activist Peter Busse, estimated that fewer than 10 AIDS activists were open about their positive status.[166] In addition to his work with TAP, Nkoli founded Positive African Men, a support group for Black men living with HIV in Johannesburg.[3][167][162]

According to Nkoli, 25 members of GLOW died of AIDS-related causes between 1988 and 1998.[168][169] In 1993, GLOW's co-founder Linda Ngcobo died of AIDS-related causes at age 28. Ngcobo's funeral was attended by both GLOW activists and congregants of his family's conservative church.[170] Nkoli gave a eulogy in front of a giant GLOW banner and led a call and response for gay rights.[171][32][172]

Nkoli vocally criticized the South African government for its response to the HIV/AIDS epidemic.[143][32] In a 1998 interview, he advocated writing letters to the Department of Health, saying "people are dying anyway without action. Why not die with action?" and planned to go on hunger strike in protest.[143][173][174][175]

Death

After his diagnosis, Nkoli lived with HIV for 12 years and was often sick during the last 4 years of his life.[143][32] Although effective HIV treatment became available in 1996, Nkoli was unable to afford it.[176][177][178] He went into a coma and died on 30 November 1998 at Johannesburg General Hospital,[173][179] shortly after a group of AIDS activists had arrived to visit him. They returned to their office determined to take action.[180]

Nkoli's memorial service was held on 4 December at St. Mary's Cathedral in Johannesburg.[181][182][162] Zackie Achmat gave a speech urging the audience to: "cry, rage, mobilise. Don’t only mourn.”[143][173] In an obituary, Achmat called Nkoli a "gay martyr".[183][5] Nkoli's funeral was held on 10 December at the Mphatlalatsane Community Hall in Sebokeng.[181] His coffin was draped in a rainbow flag and flowers,[184] and many people spoke in tribute of him, including AIDS activists Prudence Mabele and Peter Busse as well as his Delmas Treason Trial co-defendants Terror Lekota, Popo Molefe, and Gcina Malinde.[181] That same day, Achmat and a small group gathered at St. George's Cathedral to announce the establishment of the Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) which aimed to expand access to HIV medications in South Africa.[180][185]

Personal life and personality

Nkoli's partner Roy Shepherd (L) at South Africa's first pride march in October 1990

At the time of the Delmas Treason Trial, Nkoli was in a relationship with Roy Shepherd. Nkoli met Shepherd, a former Anglican minister,[186] at the Gay Christian Community,[31][87] a non-denominational Christian meeting group based in Johannesburg.[187] During Nkoli's imprisonment, the two exchanged letters, and their relationship "sustained" Nkoli.[74] A collection of their letters was published as part of the GALA Queer Archive under the title Till the Time of Trial: The Prison Letters of Simon Nkoli.[87][31] In the last 5 years of Nkoli's life, he was in a relationship with Roderick Sharp.[32][188][182]

Nkoli became a friend and mentor to Beverly Ditsie after she attended a meeting he had organized about gay rights. Together, they founded GLOW and organized the first pride march.[99][189] According to Ditsie, she repeatedly tried to convince GLOW to address lesbian issues, such as corrective rape, but was unsuccessful.[99][190] Ditsie left GLOW and stopped speaking to Nkoli after he told her that participating in the 1995 UN's World Conference on Women would not be relevant to the gay rights movement. Several years later, Nkoli invited her to a 10th anniversary celebration for GLOW, and they became friends again. In 2002, she released Simon & I, a documentary about their friendship and activism.[99][101]

Nkoli was an athlete,[191][32] especially a runner.[192][157][107] He liked reading[32][31][99][74] and was a Christian.[184] His interest in fashion is evident in his prison letters to Shepherd, in which he describes the clothes he wore and wanted.[31][193] He dressed stylishly and was called "Mr. Elegant".[193][194][195] One obituary said that he wore "a camouflage mini-skirt, jackboots and beret" to gay bars.[196] Others have noted his fondness for wearing leather.[32][197]

Nkoli was "playful and irreverent",[6] had a "mischievous smile",[32] and was "always laughing, always making jokes".[198][124] He was a serious activist but also saw the importance of pleasure and joy.[194] As a sex educator, he eschewed moralistic HIV prevention messaging in favor of a sex-positive framework. One colleague said that Nkoli displayed nude photos of Black men in his office.[163] According to Beverly Ditsie, Nkoli had a habit of walking around naked and was "the [freest] human I have ever come across in my whole life".[199] Nkoli was fearless[200] and charismatic,[195][196] as evidenced by his ability to convince his homophobic Delmas 22 co-defendants to accept his sexual orientation. However, he was also prone to conflict and struggled to effectively organize movements.[32][198]

Legacy

Influence

Nkoli's imprisonment and coming out are milestones in LGBTQ history in South Africa:[35][173][76] it challenged notions of gayness as not African[43][201][202] and anti-apartheid activists as exclusively heterosexual men. His contributions to the anti-apartheid movement as an openly gay man motivated the ANC's leadership to support gay rights.[203][204][205] At Nkoli's memorial service, his Delmas 22 co-defendant Terror Lekota stated:[27] "How could we say that men and women like Simon, who had put their shoulders to the wheel to end apartheid, should now be discriminated against?"[76][82]

Black South African man in a vest, holding a megaphone.
Simon Nkoli at South Africa's first pride march in October 1990

With Nkoli's influence, the gay rights movement in South Africa shifted from being apolitical and white to being explicitly anti-apartheid and multi-racial.[206][103][140] Through his activism with GLOW and NCGLE, Nkoli contributed to the repeal of anti-gay laws and the inclusion of the equality clause in the Constitution which explicitly protects gay rights.[205][207] The Johannesburg pride march he founded is now an annual event with thousands of participants.[143][101] However, violence and discrimination against LGBTQ people has persisted, especially Black members of the community.[208][17][101] The pride march is no longer organized by GLOW, and its mostly white organizers have been accused of ignoring the needs of Black LGBTQ people.[144][145][101]

Visibility was an important part of Nkoli's politics and activism,[209][210][211] whether by coming out to the Delmas 22,[189] organizing the country's first gay pride march,[212][132] wearing t-shirts with gay slogans and imagery,[213] or publicly disclosing his HIV diagnosis.[214] Nkoli emphasized the intersectionality of the gay rights and anti-apartheid movements,[215][216][217] as demonstrated by his speech at South Africa's first pride march: "I cannot be free as a black man if I am not free as a gay man."[204][218] In an essay entitled "Wardrobes", Nkoli compared his experiences of racism to his experiences of homophobia and spoke in favor of visibility:[201][219]

the closet I have come out of is similar to the wardrobe my relieved parents stepped out of when I unlocked them after the police left. If you are black in South Africa, the inhuman laws of apartheid closet you. If you are gay in South Africa, the homophobic customs and laws of this society closet you. If you are black and gay in South Africa, well, then it really is all the same closet, the same wardrobe. Inside is darkness and oppression. Outside is freedom.[220]

As one of the first openly HIV-positive African men, Nkoli challenged notions of HIV as an illness affecting only gay white men.[221] He has been credited with influencing other AIDS activists like Edwin Cameron to disclose their status in an effort to fight HIV-related stigma.[173][222][223] Nkoli's death contributed to the birth of the Treatment Action Campaign (TAC).[37] He died because he could not afford effective HIV/AIDS treatment,[177] while fellow activist Edwin Cameron was able to access treatment and so was able to live longterm with HIV/AIDS.[176][178][180] Zackie Achmat, who noticed the difference between Nkoli and Cameron's health outcomes and also struggled to pay for his own medications, spoke at Nkoli's funeral calling for an organized campaign for treatment access.[176][180][178] Soon afterwards, Achmat co-founded TAC.[224][76] TAC successfully lobbied the government to provide South Africans with the treatment that Nkoli was unable to access.[225][226][227]

Representation in media

Nkoli has been the subject of several films. Canadian filmmaker John Greyson created A Moffie Called Simon (1986) while a member of the Simon Nkoli Anti-Apartheid Committee in Canada.[228] The short film covers Nkoli's imprisonment[229] and the activism of gay Canadians in solidarity with him. It includes news footage and Nkoli's prison letters with his then-partner Roy Shepherd[230] and Tim McCaskell.[231] Nkoli and three other "murdered" South African AIDS activists are featured in Fig Trees (2009), Greyson's hybrid documentary-opera about the AIDS activism of Zackie Achmat and McCaskell.[232] Alexander Chapman, as Nkoli, criticizes Bill Clinton and Bill Gates from his hospital bed with the line: "iPods and cell phones won’t lure me till you cure me now, Bill."[233]

Melanie Chait's Out in Africa (1989), South Africa's first film about the gay rights movement, is about Nkoli and another gay anti-apartheid activist named Ivan Toms.[234] Beverley Ditsie's Simon & I (2002) is a documentary about her friendship and activism with Nkoli.[235][209][236] It includes interviews with people who knew him and footage from GLOW events, including the first pride march.[198]

In 2017, gay Xhosa musician Majola released a song called "Nkoli" on his album Boet/Sissy,[237][135] Athi-Patra Ruga created a sculpture called Proposed Model for Tseko Simon Nkoli Memorial.[238][239][240]

At least two theater productions have been created in honor of Nkoli. Robert Colman's Your Loving Simon (2003) focused on Nkoli's imprisonment and the hundreds of letters he wrote during that time.[241] The production featured two actors—one in the role of Nkoli and the other as a fictional co-defendant.[242][243] In November 2023, Nkoli: The Vogue Opera premiered at Johannesburg's Market Theatre.[244][245] Developed as GLOW: The Life and Trials of Simon Nkoli, the production began in 2020 as a workshopped collaboration between South African composer Phillip Miller, the cast members, and various consultants who had known Nkoli (including his mother, fellow activist Beverly Ditsie, and defence lawyer Caroline Heaton-Nicholls).[246] The final product incorporated opera, voguing and other aspects of Ballroom culture, hip-hop, rap, anti-Apartheid protest songs, and other elements.[247] It was written by Miller and South African musician Gyre, and directed by British actor Rikki Beadle-Blair.[248]

Honours

During Nkoli's post-acquittal speaking tour in 1989, several US cities declared Simon Nkoli Days, including San Francisco,[115][32] Atlanta,[249] and Manhattan.[250] The following year, Nkoli spoke at the opening ceremony for Gay Games III in Vancouver, Canada.[251][252] Along with Morris Kight, Nkoli served as Grand Marshal of the 1994 San Diego Pride.[253] In October 1995, Nkoli and Phumzile Mtetwa were given an Equality Award for their gay rights activism at Stonewall's annual fundraising gala at the Royal Albert Hall.[254][3][255] Posthumously, Nkoli was given the Felipa de Souza Award by the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission.[256][257][258]

As the ILGA board member for the African region,[143] Nkoli advocated for the annual conference to be held in South Africa and was a member of the 1999 conference planning committee.[182][181][259] The 1999 conference was held in Johannesburg in the year after his death and closed with the 10th annual edition of the pride march that he had founded.[260][261] The march was attended by thousands of participants[262][263] and included a ceremony to name a street corner in Hillbrow after Nkoli.[188][264]

In the 2010s, the Simon Nkoli Centre for Men's Health provided HIV services at the Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital in Soweto.[265][266][267] On World AIDS Day 2017, Stellenbosch University renamed the building housing their Equality and Disability offices after Nkoli.[268][167] Two years later, the university's museum held an exhibit about Nkoli entitled: "Black Queer Visibility: Finding Simon".[139][135][269] The exhibit was co-hosted by the Simon Nkoli Collective[139] which also regularly sponsors a memorial lecture in Nkoli's name.[183][270]. The annual Feather Awards bestows a Simon Nkoli Award to recognize an individual for their contributions to the LGBTQ community.[271][272] Winners have included David Tlale, Thandiswa Mazwai, Edwin Cameron, and Gloria Bosman.[271][273] A monument to the Delmas 22 was erected at the Delmas Magistrates' Court in 2012.[274]

Writing

  • "An Open Letter to Nelson Mandela," Village Voice 35, no. 26 (26 June 1990): 29-30.
  • "Wardrobes: Coming out as a black gay activist in South Africa". In Cameron, Edwin; Gevisser, Mark (eds.). Defiant Desire: Gay and Lesbian Lives in South Africa. New York: Routledge, 1995.
  • "This Strange Feeling." In Krouse, Matthew; Berman, Kim (eds.). The Invisible Ghetto: Lesbian & Gay Writing from South Africa. London: Gay Men's Press, 1995.
  • de Waal, Shaun; Martin, Karen (eds.). Till the time of Trial: The prison letters of Simon Nkoli. GALA Queer Archive, 2007.
  • "August 1987 A Letter from South Africa". In Ridinger, Robert B. (ed.). Speaking for Our Lives. New York: Taylor & Francis, 2014.

See also

Notes

^α Some sources say 1959.[117][24] Some sources say that he was 15 during the 1976 Soweto Uprising, which would mean he was born in 1960.[30]

References

Citations

  1. ^ a b c d e Mchunu 2023, p. 4.
  2. ^ Achmat 1998, p. 18-19.
  3. ^ a b c d "Simon Nkoli: The Gay Mandela". Out Africa Mag. 10 September 2013. pp. 18–19. Retrieved 19 July 2024 – via issuu.com.
  4. ^ a b c d Lishivha, Welcome Mandla (3 December 2023). "Being Simon Nkoli's mother: Who will remember me?". Daily Maverick. Archived from the original on 13 October 2025. Retrieved 28 February 2025.
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Works cited

source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simon_Nkoli

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