Sexuality and Social Justice at the WSF
March 19th, 2007 by SokariSexuality and Social Justice is an exhibition of 10 portraits with audio and text based interviews from the World Social Forum in January 2007.
The exhibition pays tribute to activists who are doing brave work with sexuality and social justice in diverse ways. It was created during the days of the WSF with Gabrielle Le Roux approaching inspiring people who were saying particularly ground breaking things and asking them if they were willing to sit for a portrait and be interviewed by Sokari Ekine.
The portraits and interviews were done in the tents and under the trees of the sports stadium where the event was held. The exhibition is by no means a “Who’s Who?” of sexuality issues, but a tribute to some of the people who are putting their life on the line around sexuality issues in Africa, Latin America and India.
The exhibition consists of 10 portraits with audio and text based interviews and will be available in its entirety within the next couple of weeks.
Portraits: Gabrielle Le Roux
Gabrielle Le Roux is a feminist cultural activist with a particular interest in the intersection of sexuality and social justice. She is also a portrait artist who does portraits from life as a way of paying tribute to people who are doing brave and exciting work that is not sufficiently recognised. She originated the idea of doing projects of portraits and stories to raise awareness about different social issues in 2001 and has been creating travelling exhibitions with this concept since then.
Interviews: Sokari Ekine
Sokari Ekine is a human rights activist. She writes an award winning blog, Black Looks which focuses on those issues generally ignored by the mainstream media and other African bloggers such as LGBTI, HIV/AIDS and other human rights issues. She is also the editor of Pambazuka News and contributes to two other blogs: African Women and Taking Place: Ideas for the Masses
The Exhibition
Fikile Vilakazi -South Africa. Director of the Coalition of African Lesbians
Bishop Christopher Senyonjo - Uganda. Integrity
Victor Mukasa - Uganda. Director of Sexual Minorities Uganda [SMUG]
Phumi Mtetwa - South Africa/Ecuador. Fundación de Acción, Estudios y Participación Social (FEDAEPS)
Coordinator of The International Network LGBT South-South Dialogue and Represent of the SSD in the International Council of the World Social Forum.
Ayaan Ali Hirsi - Kenya/Somalia. Human Rights Activist - Somalia Girls Human Empowerment
Listen to Interview
Elavarthi Manohar - India. Director of Sangama Campaigns, Bangalor
Listen to Interview
Fadzai Muparutsa - Zimbabwe. Programme Manager, Gays and Lesbians Zimbabwe [GALZ]
Unfortuantely due to time constraints we were unable to interview the following three activists from Nigeria, India and Mali. Where possible we have linked to internet sites that document some of their activism in the area of sexuality and social justice.
Dorothy Aken’Ova - Nigeria. International Center for Reproductive & Health Rights [INCRESE] Links: BBC; International Women’s Health Coalition; Speech to UN on Alternative Families.
Chandini - India. Chandini is from the hijara tradition of transgender sexworkers in India. She is a sex worker activist from Banglalore and a member of Sangama.
Mrs Djikne Hatouma Gokou - Mali. Presidente Union Malienne des Association et Comites de Femmes Handicapees.
Sokari
Sokari responds to questions by Gabrielle.
1) What are your thoughts on sexuality and social justice
I think it is important that we in the LGBTI community move beyond the ghettoisaton of sexuality in strict terms of our own sexual orientation to a much broader vision whereby sexuality is encompasses issues of concern to all sexual minorities inclusive of hetronormativity. We in the LGBTI community are part of the wider global community of citizens and as such need to broaden our remit to begin to work with other social movements that are part of the struggle for human dignity and recognition of diversity and differences. Social justice and equality is central to all people. For example you cannot struggle for the rights of refugees and displaced people without including the struggle for LGBTI’s, as if there are none of us who are displaced peoples or refugees. On another level human rights cannot be exclusive therefore we must all work towards inclusiveness of all movements whilst respecting and recognising our diversities and differences.
2) What issues need more focus
The above – ie the broadening of the LGBTI movement into one of human rights and of building coalitions with other social movements. We need our voices to be heard in the movement to end the war in Iraq, in Palestine, in the trafficking of women, in the shack dwellers organisations across the world, with social movements through out the globe – we cannot simply stay as African LGBTI in isolation. Yes we have our own specific issues that need to be dealt with but we are part of global movement for social justice and must participate at all levels in all areas.
3) What are the most ground breaking things happening in the current linking of sexual rights and social justice debates
The debate on the above and what we need to do to make this happen.
4) What is your experience of doing the project at the world social forum
On the specifics and of the project, I have to say that it was very challenging but ultimately satisfying that despite all the difficulties we managed to achieve a reasonable outcome.
Personally I had a number of agendas. Firstly, as part of the Fahamu group and editor of the Pambazuka News I was responsible for reporting on the WSF, participating in our video and audio workshops for women and attending the launch of two of our publications including one on Women in Africa. Secondly I wanted to attend a number of workshops both at the Q-spot and also the feminist dialogues and other workshops held by various social movements. Thirdly I had to carry out the interviews for the project. We had not been able to select any participants prior to arriving at the WSF and the setting up of the Q-Spot where Gabrielle was based. Because I had other work to do the selection was largely left to Gabrielle and we had to communicate by sms when she found someone and often there was a rush to both do the portrait but also the interview. It was often difficult to find a quiet shady space and the interviews were carried out in a rushed and often nosey environment.
If we were to do this again, I would suggest a far more discussion and organisation around the event and the processes needed to carry it out. The placing together of portraits of activists in action and interviews is an innovative idea and I think the choice of the topic “sexuality and social justice” has enabled us to present an important debate through the mixture of medium and media – art and audio technology – something that has not been done before. This was a challenge but one that was well worth going through all the problems – it was also a learning and reflective process
Contacts:
Gabrielle - livingancestors at yahoo dot com
Sokari - sokari at fahamu dot org
Cross Posted At African Women’s Blogs
