South African queer activist and filmmaker, Bev Ditsie, was part of the group that created the first Pride march in Africa. The event happened in Johannesburg in 1990.
Ditsie told City Press: “It was the first time that a lot of queer people realised that there is a legitimate fight; that our existence is legitimate, it cannot be erased or shamed away.”
Ditsie was also the first African lesbian to address queer rights at the United Nations in Beijing in 1995. “We already had a president that supported us, so it was easy for me to volunteer to make the speech,” she told City Press, referring to Nelson Mandela’s role in the struggle for democracy.
As a filmmaker and documentarian, she believes there’s too much poverty porn about Africa. “ There’s no self-love. But I have been very proud to work on formats like Mzansi Magic’s Project Runway. We are showcasing talent, our own heritage and history – that’s been a joy for me.”
Watch her full interview here.
She told News24 that she’s been lucky to be affirmed in her queerness all her life. She remembers fondly how her great-great-grandmother rejected the notion that queer people were un-African, upending one of history’s greatest lies.
“My great-great grandmother was still alive until I was in my late teens; she passed away when she was 95 years old … She said, ‘I don’t understand when people say there is a problem with you and this is un-African, where do they get that?’
She says to me, ‘We’ve always had people like you until the colonisers arrived and gave us a bible and told us that you should not exist. So don’t let them tell you anything.”