The Fifth Annual Pride Book Fair was surely a highlight on Cape Town Pride 2010’s event calendar. Emcee Odidiva sparkled as he introduced the authors and editors of the growing body of South African GLBTI literature.
He reflected that the Book Fair is one of those slightly more serious events. “It’s a little more toned down and we get to deal with our issues and talk about them. And how many issues there are indeed. I’ve never heard of homophobia being so prominent in the news as in the last three months. Everywhere you turn, there’s drama out there. Malawi – damn! Kenya – pshewwwww! It just hasn’t stopped.”
He said, “We’re lucky in this beautiful country to be protected, to be allowed to be who we are. But now, as the son of a preacher and it being a Sunday, I’m so glad we’re getting to discuss topics like self image and shame with the heavyweights of literature here tonight”.
Miriam Dancing is a moving collection of narratives by lesbian, bisexual and transgender women who tell their personal stories of love and hope. Elise van Wyk started by lighting a candle to commemorate the 31 South African lesbians who, despite legal protection, had been killed in hate crimes. “I do this every time I do a presentation,” she said, “and every time, there are more women to be remembered.” Referring to a chapter in the book, “We Weep for our Sisters”, she said, “We honour them; they are not here to tell their stories.”
A slide show presented exquisite images of women who love women, alone and together, at work and breaking bread, at play and in embrace. The candid photography was tender, sensual and intimate, inspiring a sense of the vibrant and sacred lives of its subjects.
Odidi paid tribute to Kalk Bay Books and all the other independents that historically provided an outlet for the kind of literature he wanted to read.
Zinaid Meeran, author of Saracen at the Gates, cycled to Kalk Bay as part of his training for the Argus cycle tour. After tucking his bicycle in between the book shelves, he read from his debut novel. won the 2009 EU Literary Award and raised appreciative chuckles at the detailed description of “glazed erotic trances” and uncles perving over expanses of naked young flesh.
He spoke of the oddness that was his youth, marooned between the deep green ocean of sugar cane on one side of a narrow strip of KwaZulu-Natal coast, and the deep blue sea on the other. His Afrikaans grandfather, Coloured mother and Indian father (who seldom emerged from peanut-popping on the Lazyboy) didn’t make things easier. “I was confused on a number of fronts. I had no idea why people expected me to be a man; I couldn’t figure out why they thought I was Indian. I just didn’t get it. I knew I was all those things – Afrikaner, Coloured and Indian.” He said his book was a battle cry for those without racial, sexual or gender identity. “It’s for those who know they are something made up of fragments of history – those who have first hand experience of roots anarchy.”
Next up was Charl Marais and Joy Wellbeloved, co-editors of TRANS, launched in the Whale Well at Iziko last year. Marais talked about how the 26 contributors to this book experienced doctors and social workers who were ill-informed and didn’t know what treatment or advice to offer; familial bewilderment and colleagues who didn’t know how to deal with them; as well as religious leaders who prescribed guilt and damnation. He concluded: “Although transgenderism is classified as a psychiatric disorder, there’s nothing that a hormone pill and a surgeon’s scalpel can’t fix!”
The final contribution was a short story “Sweet is the Night Air”, the latest publication from independent publisher Robin Malan, who relit the candle to honour the event. Junkets Publisher’s Yes, I Am! was compiled by Malan with Ashraf Johaardien, and includes luminaries like Damon Galgut, André Carl van der Merwe, Gerald Kraak, K Sello Duiker, Zackie Achmat, David Lan, Peter Krummeck, Shaun de Waal and Pieter-Dirk Uys.
As book lovers and gay lovers filed out in the night, the full moon rising over the Helderberg sent silvery rays over the sea. It wasn’t too much of a stretch to imagine that Artemis had lingered between the shelves with a glass of Leopard’s Leap, heartily approving of the festivities.
Book details
•Saracen at the Gates by Zinaid Meeran
EAN: 9781770097704
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•TRANS: Transgender Life Stories from South Africa edited by Ruth Morgan, Charl Marais, Joy Rosemary Wellbeloved
EAN: 9781920196226
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•Miriam Dancing compiled by Elise van Wyk
•Yes, I Am!: writing by South African gay men edited by Robin Malan, Ashraf Johaardien
EAN: 9780520458283
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March 2nd, 2010 by Liesl
