Remembering Simon Nkoli

Simon Tseko Nkoli (26 November 1957 – 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, and the Gay Association of South Africa (GASA), he was arrested as part of the Delmas Treason Trial in 1984. After his release in 1988, he founded the Gay and Lesbian Organisation of the Witwatersrand (GLOW) and organized South Africa's first pride parade. 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. After his death from AIDS-related complications, his colleagues established the Treatment Action Campaign.

On November 26, 1957, Nkoli was born in Phiri, Soweto in a seSotho-speaking family with three other children during apartheid-era South Africa.^[1][2] Because of the apartheid government's pass laws, his family were considered squatters, so they periodically had to hide from law enforcement.^[3][4] After his parents separated, Nkoli lived with his grandparents who were tenant farmers to a white landlord in the Orange Free State.^[4] When his grandparents and landlord tried to convince him to work with them full time, he ran away to Johannesburg to go to school and lived with his mother in Sebokeng.

As a young adult, Nkoli came out as gay to his family, who took him to traditional healers in an attempt to change his sexual orientation.^[2][4]

In high school, Nkoli was imprisoned for a few months for anti-apartheid activism.^[5] Nkoli organized his fellow students in a petition against the government's proposal to mandate that classes were delivered in Afrikaans.^[4]

He attended secretarial college in Johannesburg where he became a youth activist against apartheid, joining the Congress of South African Students (COSAS) and becoming secretary for the Transvaal division. Around 1981, he came out to COSAS; despite experiencing homophobia from his fellow activists, he won re-election with 80% of the vote.^[2][4][3]

In 1983, Nkoli joined the Gay Association of South Africa (GASA) whose membership was primarily white. GASA called itself "apolitical", while others called it "accommodationist", "apartheid-friendly", and "looking for gay power within the current racist political structure".^[6][7] In an attempt to create more Black-friendly spaces within GASA, Nkoli created the Saturday Group.^[4][5][8]

During the Vaal uprising, Nkoli organized and spoke at rallies in support of rent strikes. In September 1984, he attended a funeral for a friend who was killed at a protest, and he was arrested. Nkoli was held without charge for 9 months before being charged with treason.^[5][4] Twenty one other political leaders were also charged, including Terror Lekota, Popo Molefe, Tom Manthata, Gcina Malindi and Moss Chikane.^[1] They became collectively known as the Delmas 22, and their years long trial was called the Delmas Treason Trial.^[5][4]

While imprisoned together during the trial, some of his fellow defendants expressed homophobic beliefs. In the ensuing discussion, Nkoli came out as gay to his fellow defendants. Some of them feared that his sexual orientation would decrease their support and advocated for him to be tried separately, but they eventually agreed to be tried together.^{[9][4][5][10]}

Although Nkoli had been at a GASA meeting when the alleged crime took place, GASA declined to corroborate his alibi.^[11][1]

As news of the trial spread, Nkoli gained supporters in Europe and North America, including the Simon Nkoli Anti-Apartheid Committee in Toronto.^[5] Despite Nkoli's growing fame as the "gay Mandela", GASA declined to support Nkoli or advocate for his acquittal.^[12] GASA did not make an official statement about his trial until 1986 during which they appeared to justify his imprisonment. GASA president, Kevin Botha, warned international organizations against supporting Nkoli.^[4][5] In his letters from prison, Nkoli wrote about GASA's lack of support and whether he should remain in the organisation.^[13][8] Because of GASA's behavior towards Nkoli, the International Lesbian and Gay Association (ILGA) considered revoking their membership.^[8]

While in prison, Nkoli was diagnosed with HIV/AIDS.^[4]

Following Nkoli's acquittal and release from prison in 1988, he founded the Gay and Lesbian Organisation of the Witwatersrand (GLOW), the first "non-racial" and first township-based gay rights organization.^[14][8][1]

Nkoli noticed a need for HIV education for Black South African communities; according to Nkoli, the apartheid government did not provide HIV education materials in Black South African languages and denied that AIDS existed among the population.^[15][16] Community-based HIV prevention efforts targeted white men.^[1] Nkoli and GLOW helped to establish the Township AIDS Project (TAP) which provided HIV prevention and education programs, especially in the townships.^[7][14][2]

After his release from prison, Nkoli had been contacted by supporters around the world who asked him to visit. 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.^[7][17][18] San Francisco and Atlanta honored him with Simon Nkoli Days.^[19][15] 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!" The tour was coordinated in part by the National Association of Black and White Men Together.^[16] By the following year, TAP had received enough donations to officially open offices in Soweto.^[20][21]

In July 1990, Nkoli reported that the police had raided the Glowbar, the only Black gay bar in Soweto and the meeting place for GLOW. After the owner was arrested, the Glowbar got a new owner, a homophobic white man who did not want gay clientele.^[22]

Along with LGBT activist, Beverley Palesa Ditsie, Nkoli organised the first pride parade in South Africa in October 1990.^[23] He led the march of about 800 people through Johannesburg chanting "Out of Closets— Into the Streets" and "Not the Church, Not the State— We Ourselves Decide Our Fate."^[24][1] Some participants wore paper bags over their heads to protect their identities^[23][14] but later recounted taking off the bags once it started raining.^[11][24] Edwin Cameron gave a speech against the criminalisation of gays and lesbians.^[23] In his 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."^[9][11]

In 1990, Nkoli publicly disclosed that he was living with HIV, becoming one of the first openly HIV-positive African gay men.^[4] He founded "Positive African Men", a support group for Black men living with HIV in Johannesburg.^[25][26]

He was a member of the ILGA board, representing the African region and advocated for the ILGA conference to come to South Africa.^[14][1]

In 1995, Nkoli met with the newly elected President Nelson Mandela.^[9] He helped in the campaign for the inclusion of protection from discrimination in the Bill of Rights in the 1994 South African constitution and for the repeal of the sodomy law, which happened in May 1998 in his last months.

Nkoli vocally criticized the South African government for its response to the HIV/AIDS epidemic.^[3] In an interview, he advocated writing letters to the Department of Health, saying "people are dying anyway without action. Why not die with action?"^[4]

For 12 years, Nkoli lived with HIV and was seriously ill during the last 4 years of his life.^[3] Although effective HIV treatment became available in 1996, Nkoli was unable to access it.^[27] He went into a coma on 30 November 1998 and died.^[4]

His memorial service was held on 4 December at St. Mary's Cathedral in Johannesburg, and his funeral was held on 10 December at the Mphatlalatsane Community Hall in Sebokeng. His coffin was draped in a rainbow flag and flowers, and many people spoke in tribute of him, including Prudence Mabele, Terror Lekota, Popo Molefe, and Gcina Malinde.^[28][29] In obituaries, Zackie Achmat called him a "gay martyr" and Mark Gevisser called him: "A leading light of gay and AIDS activism in SA [South Africa]".^[1][3]

Nkoli's surname is pronounced "Nkodi" and was often spelled this way, including by Nkoli himself.^[8]

Nkoli met his longtime partner, Roy Shepherd, at the age of 19. He later recalled meeting him at the GCC or Gay Christian Community.^[8] During Nkoli's trial and imprisonment, the two exchanged letters, and their relationship "sustained" Nkoli.^[10] 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.^[8][30] Excerpts from these letters were also published in the book Yes, I Am!: Writing by South African Gay Men. ^[31]

In the last five years of his life, he was in a relationship with Roderick Sharp.^[3][32]

Nkoli's imprisonment and subsequent coming out have been called "a watershed in gay politics" in South Africa: it challenged notions of anti-apartheid activists as exclusively heterosexual men and required "anti-apartheid activists to consider the place that gay rights would hold within an ANC-led government".^[6][4] His co-defendent, Terror Lekota, later 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?”^[33][3]

Nkoli is credited with influencing the attitude of the African National Congress towards being more supportive of gay rights.^[10] As an openly gay man and anti-apartheid activist, he assisted in linking the two movements together, saying: "I cannot be free as a black man if I am not free as a gay man."^[34][6] Through his work with GLOW, he helped to ensure that gay rights were explicitly protected in the South African Constitution.^[4][35][1]

Nkoli died due to a lack of access to effective HIV/AIDS treatment, unlike fellow activist Edwin Cameron, who did have access and so was able to live longterm with HIV/AIDS. Zackie Achmat observed this difference^[27] and co-founded the Treatment Action Campaign (TAC), soon after Nkoli's death. TAC successfully lobbied the government to provide South Africans with the HIV/AIDS treatment that Nkoli was unable to access.^{[27][36][37][33]} In his obituary of Nkoli, Achmat wrote: "the Delmas Treason Trial shows that lesbian and gay equality is integrally linked to struggles for bread, condoms and freedom around the world!"^[1]

• August 24, 1989, was declared Simon Nkoli Day in San Francisco.^[15][38]
• September 9, 1989, was declared Simon Nkoli Day in Atlanta.^[19]
• He opened the first Gay Games in New York and was made a freeman of that city by mayor David Dinkins.^[3]
• In 1996, Nkoli was given the Stonewall Award in the Royal Albert Hall in London.^[39][40]
• In September 1999, Nkoli was honored at the gay pride parade that he had founded in Johannesburg. A street corner in Hillbrow was named after him, and his partner, Roderick Sharp, spoke at the dedication ceremony.^[32][41]
• On World AIDS Day 2017, Stellenbosch University renamed a building Huis Simon Nkoli House^[42][43]
• In 2019, Stellenbosch University Museum held an exhibit about Nkoli^[9]
• There is an annual Simon Nkoli Memorial Lecture organized by the Simon Nkoli Collective.^[9][44]
• The Feather Awards, an annual event for the South African LGBTQ community, include a Simon Nkoli Award.^[45][46]

• Canadian filmmaker John Greyson made a short film about Nkoli titled A Moffie Called Simon in 1987.^[47]
• Nkoli's account of coming out as a black gay activist in South Africa is included as a chapter in Mark Gevisser's and Edwin Cameron's Defiant Desire: Gay and Lesbian Lives in South Africa (1994) pages 249–257.
• Nkoli was the subject of Robert Colman's 2003 play, "Your Loving Simon"^[48] and Beverley Ditsie's 2002 film "Simon & I".^[49]
• John Greyson's 2009 film Fig Trees, a hybrid documentary/opera includes reference to Nkoli's activism.^[50]
• South African musician Majola has a song called "Nkoli" on his album Boet/Sissy (2017)^[9]
• Athi-Patra Ruga created a sculpture called Proposed Model for Tseko Simon Nkoli Memorial (2017)^[9][51]
• In November 2023, a stage production honouring Nkoli's life and activism called Nkoli: The Vogue Opera premiered at Johannesburg's Market Theatre.^[52] 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 (these included his mother Elizabeth, fellow activist Beverly Ditsie, and defence lawyer Caroline Heaton-Nicholls).^[53] The final product incorporated Opera, Voguing and other aspects of Ballroom culture, hip hop, rap, anti-Apartheid protest songs, and other elements. It was written by Miller and South African musician Gyre, and directed by British actor Rikki Beadle-Blair.^[54]

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