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. His anti-apartheid activism as an openly gay man influenced the African National Congress (ANC) to publicly support gay rights and to prohibit discrimination based on sexual orientation in the South African constitution. He organized South Africa's first pride march and was one of the first Black South Africans to disclose that he was living with HIV/AIDS. In his activism, he utilized visibility as a tactic and spoke about the relationship between multiple forms of discrimination. His death from AIDS-related illness influenced fellow activists to establish the Treatment Action Campaign which successfully lobbied the government to expand access to HIV treatment.

Born to a Sotho-speaking family, Nkoli was raised primarily in the townships. He first became involved in anti-apartheid activism as a student during the 1976 Soweto uprising, later becoming active in the Congress of South African Students (COSAS), the United Democratic Front (UDF), and the Vaal Civic Association. Because of his activism, he was repeatedly detained by the police, sometimes for extended periods of time. After the Vaal uprising began, he was arrested and imprisoned with 21 other anti-apartheid leaders in 1984. Their charges, which included treason, terrorism, and murder, carried a potential death sentence. During their years-long Delmas Treason Trial, Nkoli was diagnosed with HIV/AIDS and came out as gay to his co-defendants. His case gained international attention and a support campaign, especially among the LGBTQ community. The Gay Association of South Africa (GASA), the predominantly white organization Nkoli had joined before his arrest, did not offer any support to Nkoli during the trial, provoking criticism from foreign LGBTQ organizations.

After his acquittal in 1988, he co-founded the Gay and Lesbian Organisation of the Witwatersrand (GLOW), a multi-racial organization that hosted both political rallies and social events. At South Africa's first pride march, he made a speech stating that he was fighting against both racism and homophobia and could not fight one without also fighting the other. With the National Coalition for Gay and Lesbian Equality (NCGLE), he lobbied successfully for anti-sodomy laws to be overturned and for anti-gay discrimination to be prohibited in the South African constitution. Nkoli co-founded the Township AIDS Project to provide education about HIV prevention to Black people, especially gay men in the townships. As a health educator, he took a sex positive, harm reduction approach. Like many South Africans, Nkoli struggled to consistently access effective HIV/AIDS treatment, and he vocally criticised the government's response to the epidemic.

Early life and family

Nkoli was born on 26 November 1957α in Phiri, Soweto,[4][5] to a Sotho-speaking family.[6][7] He was the oldest of four children.[4][8][7] When he was 9 years old, Nkoli had to hide his parents from the police in a cabinet because they lived in an area forbidden to them by the apartheid-era Pass laws and Group Areas Act.[9][8][10] He recounted this experience in "Wardrobes" in the anthology Defiant Desire: Gay and Lesbian Lives in South Africa.[11][12][13] 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 in the Vaal Triangle area.[4][14][15] Nkoli's family was working class.[16][8][17] His mother, Elizabeth, was employed as a domestic worker and later a sales clerk, while his step-father, Elias, was a hotel chef.[14][18]

Elizabeth was upset when Nkoli came out as gay.[19][18] Hoping to change his sexual orientation, she took him to multiple sangomas, a Christian clergyman, and a psychologist. The psychologist, who was also gay, encouraged Nkoli to accept his sexual orientation.[20][21][15] Nkoli later called himself "lucky" that, instead of disowning him, his mother "tried to help me, in the ways that she knew how".[22][23] Eventually, Elizabeth accepted Nkoli's sexual orientation, and they maintained a close relationship throughout his life.[7][22][24] Because of his anti-apartheid activism, Nkoli was detained frequently. On several occasions, Elizabeth was harassed by police who came to her home looking for him. She died in 2023, 25 years after Nkoli's death.[7][22]

Early activism

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

Anti-apartheid activism

Nkoli first became involved in activism in high school, organizing students and spearheading a campaign opposing Afrikaans as his school's language of instruction during the 1976 Soweto uprising.[25][26][8] During the uprising, he was arrested for the first time.[27][28] Nkoli was active in several groups including Young Christian Students, Young Christian Workers, and Vaal Youth Crusade.[25][29][30]

While attending secretarial college in Johannesburg,[31][2] Nkoli joined the Congress of South African Students (COSAS), an anti-apartheid group. He became secretary for its Vaal Triangle branch while his friend Gcina Malindi served as chair.[4][32] At the time, the Vaal Triangle branch primarily organized around student concerns and rent increases.[33][8][26] After his colleagues in COSAS encouraged him to bring a girlfriend to their events, Nkoli came out to them as gay.[34][35][3] The group held lengthy discussions about whether he should give up his position as secretary, with some arguing that homosexuality is "un-African".[36][15] Ultimately, 80% of the group voted to support him as secretary.[4][12]

Affiliated with both the United Democratic Front (UDF) and the then-banned African National Congress (ANC),[37][8] Nkoli gave speeches and participated in marches, boycotts, and sit-ins.[2] He was frequently detained by the police for his activism, sometimes for months at a time.[7][15][2] Additionally, Nkoli worked at the South African Institute of Race Relations and assisted political prisoners via the Detainees Support Committee.[19][38][26]

Gay activism

In 1983, Nkoli joined the Gay Association of South Africa (GASA).[39][40] A mostly white organization which considered itself to be apolitical, GASA occasionally supported apartheid politicians and released statements denouncing homophobia but did not condemn apartheid.[41][42][43] Nkoli opposed GASA's apolitical stance and was unable to attend many of their events because they were held in white-only locations.[44][45] Additionally, he felt that GASA tokenized their Black members, allowing them to join primarily to convince the international gay community that GASA was not racist.[46][47][48] In an effort to create a more Black-inclusive space within GASA, Nkoli recruited new members via the City Press.[49][45] They met on Saturdays— initially at the GASA office but later at members' homes in Soweto after white members complained that they were disruptive.[50][51] In May 1984, Nkoli and the new members formed the Saturday Group, a GASA-affiliated organization that aimed to be a place for gay people of all races.[52][53][54] According to Nkoli, the Saturday Group primarily provided counseling to gay Black people but also organized parties and had white members.[52] Nkoli estimated that it had 124 members when he was arrested in September 1984, after which it disbanded.[55][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, including housing, transportation, and labor rights.[56] It was affiliated with the UDF.[57][58] Nkoli, who was active in the VCA,[58] engaged in tenant organizing and gave speeches in support of rent strikes.[59][60][26] On 3 September 1984, the VCA organized a general strike and march. The protest was motivated by multiple factors, including rent increases, sub-par living conditions, and the collaboration of local Black officials with the apartheid government. Although the organizers had intended for the protest to be nonviolent, it escalated into widespread rioting after the police attempted to halt the march.[61][58] 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... By 11 a.m. lots of people had been shot dead."[62] The police shot and killed multiple people. Protesters battled the police, set fires, blocked roads, and killed several Black officials.[61][58] The unrest, known as the Vaal uprising, spread to other areas and continued into 1986.[63]

Delmas Treason Trial

Arrest and charges

On 23 September 1984, Nkoli attended the funeral of a student activist who had been killed in the Vaal uprising.[64][25] At the burial, the police attacked the mourners, beating them with sjamboks and firing tear gas.[64][65] Nearly 600 people were arrested for attending an "illegal gathering".[64][66] The known activists, including Nkoli, were separated from the other detainees by the Security Branch and severely beaten again.[65] For at least nine months, Nkoli was held without charge,[25][67] mostly in solitary confinement.[66][68] The police interrogated Nkoli about his political views and sexuality, particularly about his relationships with white men.[69][68] They told him that the ANC would never accept him because he was a moffie.[19][70] 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."[69][71]

In June 1985, Nkoli and 21 other political leaders were charged with treason, murder, terrorism, and furthering the aims of the ANC, a banned organisation. Largely related to the Vaal uprising,[72][58][73] the charges carried a potential sentence of death, and the defendants were denied bail.[74][66][75] Their trial became known as the Delmas Treason Trial because of its initial location in the small town of Delmas.[67] It was later moved to the Palace of Justice in Pretoria.[68][76] The Delmas 22[27][b] included Nkoli's friend Gcina Malindi as well as high-ranking anti-apartheid leaders Terror Lekota, Popo Molefe, and Moss Chikane.[78][76] Most of the defendants, like Nkoli, were affiliated with the UDF.[67][50] Their legal team included George Bizos, Zak Yacoob, and Caroline Heaton-Nicholls.[79]

Coming out to co-defendants

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

Towards the end of 1985, Nkoli was taken out of solitary confinement[75][68] and held with the rest of his co-defendants in Modderbee Prison.[80][81][82] While discussing a love letter between two male prisoners, some of Nkoli's co-defendants made homophobic comments. Nkoli responded angrily, saying: "You’re actually talking about homosexual men and I am one." His disclosure sparked several weeks of debate among the defendants.[83][19] Fearing that Nkoli's sexual orientation would damage their public support, some argued that he should be tried separately.[26][27][84] Others vouched for him and his work as an activist.[27][85] Their legal team advised against separate trials and asked the defendants to be nicer to Nkoli.[75][84] Nkoli argued that homophobia and racism were equally objectionable.[86][85] In the end, Nkoli's co-defendants generally became more accepting of his sexual orientation, especially UDF leaders Terror Lekota and Moss Chikane,[87][88] and the Delmas 22 were all tried together.[83][75]

Reactions

As news of the trial spread, Nkoli gained supporters in Europe and North America, inspiring anti-apartheid activism, especially in the gay community.[27][89] A group of Canadians, including Tim McCaskell, founded the Simon Nkoli Anti-Apartheid Committee (SNAAC) in Toronto.[27][90] The City of London Anti-Apartheid Group campaigned in support of Nkoli during their Non-Stop Picket of the South African Embassy.[91][92][93] Nkoli received correspondence from his international supporters,[94][78] including more than 150 Christmas cards in 1986.[95][96] He later stated that his global support campaign "helped the ANC to see that a human rights struggle without a gay rights dimension was unacceptable".[97]

GASA, the gay organization Nkoli had joined before the Delmas Treason Trial, declined to support him or advocate for his acquittal.[98][99] 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".[100][28] Because of GASA's behavior towards Nkoli, the Scottish Homosexual Rights Group (SHRG) and other members of the international gay community criticised them as racist and advocated for their expulsion from the International Lesbian and Gay Association (ILGA).[101][54] At ILGA's annual meeting in 1986, GASA representative Kevan Botha made a speech defending his organization by pointing to Nkoli's murder charge and stating that GASA was apolitical.[102][101] He also spoke about GASA's "multiracial work".[103][54] Previously, Nkoli had advocated against ousting GASA from ILGA, but after Botha's speech he openly criticised the organization.[104][54] At their 1987 meeting, ILGA suspended GASA's membership, and GASA disbanded soon after.[105][106]

Verdict

Court proceedings began in October 1985 and lasted approximately 420 days, making it one of the longest trials in South African history.[75][76][67] Nkoli testified in June 1987.[107][108] The prosecutors accused Nkoli of attending an illegal meeting,[109][68] and Nkoli came out as gay by stating that he had in fact been at a GASA event at the time.[110][111][112] He was released on bail the same month.[108][113][107] Restricted from working, he was supported financially by SNAAC.[90][114] The court decided the case in November 1988: Nkoli and ten of his co-defendants were acquitted, while the other eleven were found guilty.[115][116][68] The guilty verdicts were later overturned.[48][117]

Later activism

GLOW

While in prison for the Delmas Treason Trial, Nkoli wrote a letter about his vision for a gay organization that would be progressive and politically involved.[118][119] After his release on bail, Nkoli co-founded the Gay and Lesbian Organisation of the Witwatersrand (GLOW) with Beverley Palesa Ditsie and Linda Ngcobo in April 1988.[120][121] GLOW, a predominantly Black organization, included white members[122][123] and aimed to be a place for "All South Africans who are Committed to a Non-Racist, Non-Sexist, Non-Discriminatory Democratic Future".[124] In contrast to GASA, GLOW was politically minded and involved in both the gay rights and anti-apartheid movements.[124][58][125] GLOW hosted committees on various topics and also had a newsletter, a drag competition called Miss GLOW,[120][122] and a bar in Soweto called the Glowbar.[126][127] By the early 1990s, GLOW had multiple branches throughout the Johannesburg area[120][128] and 1,000 members.[129]

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 was unbanned, and negotiations for the end of apartheid began.[130][131][132] The state of emergency that had prohibited protests and other civil rights was withdrawn.[129][133] On 13 October of that year, GLOW organised the first pride march in South Africa.[134][17] According to Edwin Cameron, Nkoli planned the march as both a protest for gay rights and a celebration of gay identity.[17][135][136] The event began inside the South African Institute of Race Relations.[131][137] Ditsie, Cameron, and others made speeches.[138][139] In Nkoli's speech he said:

I am black and I am gay. I cannot separate the two parts into secondary and primary struggles. In South Africa I am oppressed because I am a black man, and I am oppressed because I am gay. So, when I fight for my freedom, I must fight against both oppressors...With this march gays and lesbians are entering the struggle for a democratic South Africa where everybody has equal rights and everyone is protected by the law: black and white, men and women, gay and straight.[139][140][141]

The march of about 800 people[142][143] walked from Braamfontein to Hillbrow in Johannesburg.[144][131] The mood was celebratory.[145][146] Participants held hands and chanted:[145][147] "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."[148][149][150] Some participants wore paper bags over their heads to protect their identities,[131][142] but many took them off once it started raining.[151][150] The speeches continued after the march, with Nkoli telling attendees to kiss the person next to them.[149][152]

The pride march became an annual event with thousands of participants.[153][154] Initially, some white people did not participate due to the march's association with the anti-apartheid movement. Eventually, a mostly white Pride Committee took over the responsibility of organizing the march. GLOW and Nkoli criticised 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 could not be considered "truly African".[155][156]

TAP and HIV/AIDS education

Nkoli tested positive for HIV in prison in 1985, two years after the first documented AIDS-related deaths in South Africa.[157][158] After prison, he began working to educate others about the virus.[159] In particular, he noticed a lack of awareness about HIV among Black people.[126][111][160] At the time, HIV was widely considered to be a "white disease".[161][162][163] Existing community efforts to address AIDS mostly involved white people,[160][164][165] and educational materials in Black South African languages did not exist.[160][166][167] In 1989, Nkoli and Peter Busse co-founded the Township AIDS Project (TAP).[168][169] TAP was one of the first organizations to focus on HIV prevention for Black people, especially gay men and those who lived in the townships.[168][170][171]

Between July and September 1989, Nkoli travelled to cities throughout Europe and North America raising money for TAP and speaking about apartheid, gay rights, and AIDS in South Africa.[1][128][172] His trip included the ILGA conference in Vienna, Lesbian and Gay Community Services Center in New York City, and a conference at MIT called "From Stonewall to Sharpeville".[1][158][172] The tour was coordinated by SNAAC and James Credle from the National Association of Black and White Men Together.[173][174][167]

In 1990, TAP opened their first office in Soweto.[175][176] TAP was affiliated with GLOW,[126][172][160] and members of GLOW, including Nkoli and Beverly Ditsie, were actively involved in TAP's work.[168][146] Their efforts were hindered by South African law which, for example, meant they could not show videos about safer sex or use dildos to demonstrate how to use a condom.[162][126] The government did not provide funding for TAP, but they received donations from foreign groups, including LLH Norway.[162][126]

Nkoli viewed the "Abstinence, be faithful, use a condom" approach to HIV prevention as ineffective and unnecessarily strict; he instead promoted sex-positive, harm reduction strategies. He used educational materials that normalized safer sex and often showed interracial relationships.[171] In one TAP poster, Nkoli embraces a white man below the phrase: "If you really love him/ Think safer sex".[177] Additionally, Nkoli believed that being visible as someone with HIV would help him educate his community about the virus.[161] According to former TAP director Enea Motaung, Nkoli stated: "for people to know about the disease, I think I must disclose [my status]".[161] The decision to publicly announce his diagnosis was nerve-wracking for Nkoli,[161][12] but in 1990, he did, becoming one of the first openly HIV-positive African men.[178][158] At the time, fewer than ten AIDS activists were open about their positive status, according to Peter Busse.[169] Nkoli worked with TAP until 1996 and also founded a support group called the Positive African Men Project.[179][158][180]

NCGLE and the Constitution

Nkoli was instrumental in ensuring that gay rights were enshrined in the South African constitution.[181][182][183] His visibility as an openly gay anti-apartheid activist as well as the relationships he built with other activists both during and after the Delmas Treason Trial increased the acceptance of gay people among anti-apartheid leaders and the larger movement.[87][184][125][185] Additionally, Nkoli directly lobbied ANC leaders to support gay rights.[186][187] Terror Lekota stated: "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?"[188][82]

In a 1990 meeting with gay activists, ANC lawyer Albie Sachs spoke about Nkoli's contributions to gay rights, stating that "within the ANC it is easier to make a case for lesbian and gay rights when you know it is comrades who are being affected”.[189] Nkoli's 1990 "Open Letter to Nelson Mandela" in the Village Voice, describes the experiences of gay and lesbian people in the townships and references Mandela's stated commitment to "the rights of all people".[190]

In 1994, the interim constitution went into effect and included an "equality clause" prohibiting discrimination based on sexual orientation.[187][191][58] Nkoli told the Chicago Tribune that gay people would nevertheless continue to face discrimination in their communities.[192] The equality clause faced pushback from conservative South Africans, with 65% of ANC supporters saying they opposed homosexuality.[132] To ensure that the equality clause would be included in the final version of the Constitution, a multi-racial coalition of more than 50 organizations called the National Coalition for Gay and Lesbian Equality (NCGLE)[193][194][41] was mobilized by Nkoli, Zackie Achmat, and others.[181][195][183] Nkoli lobbied Zak Yacoob and Arthur Chaskalson, two of his Delmas Treason Trial lawyers who were involved in finalizing the Constitution.[196] Nkoli, Phumizile Mtetwa, and Ian McKellan met with the newly elected President Nelson Mandela as part of an NCGLE delegation in 1995. During the meeting, Mandela reaffirmed the ANC's commitment to gay rights.[187][194][140]

The NCGLE's lobbying campaign was ultimately successful, and in 1996, South Africa became the first country in the world to explicitly prohibit discrimination against gay people in its constitution.[181][195][183] Nkoli and the NCGLE also campaigned against South Africa's anti-sodomy laws, which were repealed in the last year of his life.[183][179]

Death

According to Nkoli, 25 members of GLOW died of AIDS-related causes between 1988 and 1998,[197][198] including co-founder Linda Ngcobo in 1993. At Ngcobo's memorial services, tensions were present between the homophobic members of his church and the openly gay activists of GLOW.[199][200] Nkoli gave a eulogy in front of a large GLOW banner, speaking about Ngcobo's activism for gay rights and leading the congregation in call and response.[201][12][200]

In the last four years of Nkoli's life, he was regularly ill.[153][12] Effective HIV treatment became available in 1996; but, like many South Africans, Nkoli faced issues with accessing and affording it.[202][203][204] In a February 1998 letter to Tim McCaskell, Nkoli wrote about pausing his treatment because of liver damage and depending on a foreign donor to pay for his medication.[205] He vocally criticised the government's response to the HIV/AIDS epidemic[153][12] and wanted to go on hunger strike.[206][205] In a 1998 interview, Nkoli advocated for a "fighting campaign" on behalf of people living with AIDS, saying "people are dying anyway without action. Why not die with action?"[153][206] Nkoli went into a coma and died from AIDS-related illness on 30 November 1998 at Johannesburg General Hospital.[206][107]

A memorial service was held in Johannesburg at St. Mary's Cathedral on 4 December.[207][158][107] Terror Lekota spoke about how Nkoli positively influenced his views of gay people.[37][208] Zackie Achmat urged the audience to take action on behalf of people with AIDS, saying "cry, rage, mobilise. Don't only mourn."[153][206] On 10 December, Achmat and a small group gathered at St. George's Cathedral to announce the establishment of the Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) to lobby the government to ensure access to HIV medications for all South Africans.[209][210] On 12 December, Nkoli's funeral was held at the Mphatlalatsane Community Hall in Sebokeng.[158][207][180] His coffin was draped in a rainbow flag, red ribbons, and flowers.[207][211] Popo Molefe, Gcina Malindi, Peter Busse, Phumizile Mtetwa, and others spoke.[207] Nkoli was buried in Sebokeng Cemetery.[207][211] In an obituary, Achmat called Nkoli a "gay martyr".[212][206]

As the ILGA board member for the African region,[153] Nkoli had advocated for the annual conference to be held in South Africa and was a member of the 1999 conference planning committee.[107][207][213] The 1999 conference was held in Johannesburg in the year after his death and closed with the 10th annual edition of the pride march.[214][215] The march was attended by thousands of participants and included a ceremony to name a street corner in Hillbrow after Nkoli.[216][217][218]

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.[219][94] Nkoli met Shepherd, a former Anglican minister,[220] at the Gay Christian Community,[78][221] a non-denominational Christian meeting group based in Johannesburg.[222] During Nkoli's imprisonment, the two exchanged letters, and their relationship was a source of emotional support for Nkoli.[223][219] 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.[224] In the last 5 years of Nkoli's life, he was in a relationship with Roderick Sharp.[12][217][179]

Gcina Malindi was Nkoli's close friend since high school.[225][7][65] They were active in the anti-apartheid movement together, attending protests[7] and serving in the leadership of their local COSAS branch.[32] Malindi has spoken about reassuring Nkoli's mother during Nkoli's frequent arrests.[7] They were detained together in September 1984[65] and imprisoned together during the Delmas Treason Trial.[67] Malindi supported Nkoli throughout prison, including his coming out[226][7][227] and his HIV diagnosis.[157] Malindi also spoke at Nkoli's funeral.[207]

Nkoli became a friend and mentor to the younger Beverly Ditsie after they met at a meeting he had organized about gay rights.[150][228] Together, they founded GLOW and organized the first pride march.[150][58][229] GLOW and Nkoli greatly influenced Ditsie.[145][48][150] According to Ditsie, she repeatedly tried to convince GLOW to address lesbian issues, such as corrective rape, but was unsuccessful.[150][230][48] Ditsie left GLOW after she was invited to speak at the 1995 UN's World Conference on Women and Nkoli questioned whether participating in the conference would be relevant to the gay rights movement.[150][154][48] They were estranged for two years until Nkoli invited her to a 10th anniversary celebration for GLOW.[150][154] In 2002, she released Simon & I, a documentary about their friendship and activism.[48][150][154]

Nkoli liked running[231][232][126] and reading.[12][78][150] His interest in fashion is evident in his prison letters to Shepherd, in which he describes the clothes he wore and wanted.[78][233] In one letter, he asks Shepherd for a sky-blue Christian Dior or Carducci suit.[136][78][234] One obituary said that he wore "a camouflage mini-skirt, jackboots and beret" to gay bars.[235] Others have noted that he liked wearing leather.[12][236] 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".[237] Nkoli has been described as light-hearted, mischievous, and "always laughing, always making jokes".[12][145][10] Joy was an important aspect of his activism; for example, the 1990 pride march was both a political protest and a celebration of queer identity.[145][17] Tim McCaskell said he was "a slight, shy, and fey young man with a ready laugh that concealed an iron determination."[174] Scholar Maya Bhardwaj wrote that Nkoli is known for "not only his militance but also his relentless optimism".[145]

Legacy

Influence

Nkoli is a gay icon in South Africa[238][239][240] and has been called the "gay Mandela".[241][6][242] His coming out challenged notions of gayness as not African[112][238][243] and anti-apartheid activists as exclusively heterosexual.[184] His contributions to the anti-apartheid movement as an openly gay man motivated the ANC's leadership to support gay rights.[244][245][184] With Nkoli's influence, the gay rights movement in South Africa shifted from being apolitical and white to being anti-apartheid and multi-racial.[246][122][149] 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.[184][247] The Johannesburg pride march he founded is now an annual event with thousands of participants.[153][154] However, violence and discrimination against LGBTQ people has persisted, especially for Black members of the community.[248][23][154] 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.[155][156][154]

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

Visibility was an important part of Nkoli's politics and activism,[249][250][251] whether by coming out to the Delmas 22,[228][19] organizing the country's first gay pride march,[252][134] wearing t-shirts with gay slogans and imagery,[253] or publicly disclosing his HIV diagnosis.[254] Nkoli experienced racism from the gay rights movement and homophobia from the anti-apartheid movement, but he continued to participate in both movements.[1] He emphasized the intersectionality of these movements,[255][256][257] as demonstrated by his speech at South Africa's first pride march: "I'm fighting for the abolition of apartheid, and I fight for the right of freedom of sexual orientation. These are inextricably linked with each other. I cannot be free as a black man if I am not free as a gay man."[245][258] In an essay entitled "Wardrobes", Nkoli compared his experiences of racism to his experiences of homophobia and advocated for visibility:[238][259]

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.[260]

As one of the first openly HIV-positive African men, Nkoli challenged notions of HIV as an illness affecting only gay white men.[261] He has been credited with influencing other AIDS activists to disclose their status.[206][262][263] Nkoli's death contributed to the birth of the Treatment Action Campaign (TAC).[170] He died after facing issues accessing effective HIV/AIDS treatment,[264] while fellow activist Edwin Cameron was able to access treatment and live longterm with HIV/AIDS.[203][204][209] 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.[203][209][204] Soon afterwards, Achmat co-founded TAC.[265][114] TAC successfully lobbied the government to expand access to HIV treatment.[266][267][268]

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.[269] The short film covers Nkoli's imprisonment[270] 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[271] and Tim McCaskell.[272] 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.[273][274] 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.[275] Beverley Ditsie's Simon & I (2002) is a documentary about her friendship and activism with Nkoli.[276][249][277] It includes interviews with people who knew him and footage from GLOW events, including the first pride march.[145]

Gay Xhosa musician Majola released a song in 2017 called "Nkoli" on his album Boet/Sissy.[278][140] Athi-Patra Ruga created a sculpture called Proposed Model for Tseko Simon Nkoli Memorial which was displayed at Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa.[279][280][281] Conceived by Ruga as a "monument",[280][281] the golden sculpture depicts a person lying down and covered in jewels and artificial flowers.[279]

Robert Colman's play, Your Loving Simon, focuses on Nkoli's imprisonment during the Delmas Treason Trial and the hundreds of letters he wrote during that time. The play's title is the phrase Nkoli sometimes used to close his letters to Shepherd.[234] First performed in 2003 at Johannesburg's Market Theatre,[282] it features two actors—one in the role of Nkoli and the other as his fictional co-defendant.[283][284]

The Market Theatre hosted the premier of another play, Nkoli: The Vogue Opera, in November 2023.[285][286] Composed by Phillip Miller and S’bo Gyre and directed by Rikki Beadle-Blair,[285][287] the play was developed in consultation with people who had known Nkoli including his mother, Beverly Ditsie, and Caroline Heaton-Nicholls.[288] The show is constructed as a vogue dance competition, with every category representing a different scene from Nkoli's life.[285] The music incorporates multiple styles, including opera, hip-hop, and anti-Apartheid protest songs.[289][286] Gyre described it as "if Hamilton and RuPaul’s Drag Race had a baby in South Africa".[285]

Honours

During Nkoli's post-acquittal speaking tour in 1989, several US cities declared Simon Nkoli Days, including San Francisco,[166][12] Atlanta,[290] and Manhattan.[291] The following year, Nkoli spoke at the opening ceremony for Gay Games III in Vancouver, Canada.[292][293] Along with Morris Kight, Nkoli served as Grand Marshal of the 1994 San Diego Pride.[294] In October 1995, Nkoli and Phumizile Mtetwa were given a Stonewall Equality Award for their gay rights activism.[295][6][296] Posthumously, Nkoli was given the Felipa de Souza Award by the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission,[297][298] and a street corner in Hillbrow was named in his honor.[217][299]

In the 2010s, the Simon Nkoli Centre for Men's Health provided HIV services at the Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital in Soweto.[300][301][302] On World AIDS Day 2017, Stellenbosch University renamed the building housing their Equality and Disability offices after Nkoli.[303][304] Two years later, the university's museum held an exhibit about Nkoli entitled: "Black Queer Visibility: Finding Simon".[144][140][305] The exhibit was co-hosted by the Simon Nkoli Collective[144] which also regularly sponsors a memorial lecture in Nkoli's name.[212][306] The annual Feather Awards bestows a Simon Nkoli Award to recognize an individual for their contributions to the LGBTQ community.[307][308] Winners have included David Tlale, Thandiswa Mazwai, Edwin Cameron, and Gloria Bosman.[307][309] A monument to the Delmas 22 was erected at the Delmas Magistrates' Court in 2012.[117]

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

Footnotes

  1. ↑ Some sources say 1959.[1][2] Some sources say that he was 15 during the 1976 Soweto Uprising, which would mean he was born in 1960.[3]
  2. ↑ Sometimes called the Vaal 22 [77]

Citations

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  285. 1 2 3 4 Heywood, Mark (15 November 2023). "Icon Simon Nkoli gets the glamour treatment". Daily Maverick. Retrieved 13 March 2025.
  286. 1 2 Bhana, Aarti (19 June 2026). "'You strike a queer, you strike a rock': How 'Nkoli' revives the legacy of Simon Nkoli". Mail & Guardian. Retrieved 3 July 2026.
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  291. ↑ "Gay South African activist Simon Nkoli spoke to a standing- room-only crowd" (PDF). OutWeek. 1 October 1989. p. 24.
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  301. ↑ Malan, Mia (11 June 2011). "Saved by 'township treatment'". The Mail & Guardian. Retrieved 2 February 2025.
  302. ↑ Moyle 2015, pp. 118.
  303. ↑ Parrott, Aydn (1 December 2017). "Stellenbosch names varsity building after HIV activist Simon Nkoli". TimesLive.
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  305. ↑ Wyk, Lucian van (22 November 2019). "'Flip the script' – Understanding Transgender in 2019". SMF News. Retrieved 13 March 2025.
  306. ↑ Martin 2020, p. 14.
  307. 1 2 "Thandiswa Mazwai named as Simon Nkoli Award recipient". SowetanLIVE. 9 October 2023. Archived from the original on 14 November 2024. Retrieved 13 March 2025.
  308. ↑ Simpasa, Precious (10 November 2024). "Feather Awards XVI: Celebrating a world without borders". The South African. Retrieved 13 March 2025.
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Works cited

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

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