Penny Stamps Speaker Series

Streaming Jun 24 – Jul 1

Zanele Muholi: Bathini

A photographer and self-proclaimed visual activist, Zanele Muholi explores black lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex identities and politics in contemporary South Africa. For her series “Faces and Phases” (2006-11), Muholi created more than 200 portraits of South Africa’s lesbian community. The images challenge the stigma surrounding gays and lesbians in South Africa, debunk the common rhetoric that homosexuality is un-African, and address the preponderance of hate crimes against homosexuals in her native country.

Bathini is a Zulu expression meaning ‘What are they saying?’ in English, which is the question that is ever asked when a black lesbian is ‘curatively’ raped and murdered.

With support from the Institute for Research on Women & Gender (IRWG) and the Department of Afroamerican and African Studies.