Sizwe Ndlovu
“They told me being gay was 'un-African.' But my ancestors' languages had words for men like me long before the missionaries arrived with their laws.”
Meet Sizwe. He's 33, a contemporary dancer and choreographer in Johannesburg, openly gay and married — a marriage his country's constitution protects. He grew up in KwaZulu-Natal and first fell for dance at church, later training in both classical and traditional Zulu movement; his work braids the two together. He mentors LGBTQ+ youth from the townships, many of them told their identity is a foreign import — and he teaches them, patiently, the opposite: that same-sex love is documented across pre-colonial African societies, and that it was colonial-era penal codes, not African tradition, that made it a crime.
- Art
- Contemporary & Zulu dance
- Married
- Yes — protected by law since 2006
- Mentors
- LGBTQ+ township youth
- Home
- KwaZulu-Natal, now Johannesburg
“Homosexuality is 'un-African' — a modern Western import with no place in African tradition.”
Historians have documented same-sex relationships and diverse gender roles across many pre-colonial African societies. In much of Africa it was colonial-era laws — not indigenous culture — that first criminalized homosexuality. South Africa's 1996 Constitution was the first in the world to explicitly prohibit discrimination based on sexual orientation, and in 2006 South Africa became the first African nation to legalize same-sex marriage.
SourceConstitution of South Africa (1996), Section 9(3); Civil Union Act (2006); Murray & Roscoe, 'Boy-Wives and Female Husbands: Studies in African Homosexualities' (1998).
Do you assume certain cultures are simply 'more homophobic' by nature?
It's an easy story to tell — but often an inaccurate one. Prejudice has a history, and much of it was imported and enforced by colonial law. Sizwe's country went on to write one of the world's most progressive constitutions.
Good. Now ask yourself: when a prejudice is called 'tradition,' who benefits from us believing it was always there?
Sizwe reclaims a history that was taken from him. Is there a part of your own identity or heritage that you've been told is 'wrong' or 'foreign' — and what would it mean to reclaim it?
You do not need to answer. Notice what feels familiar, what remains unfamiliar, and where your own experience differs.
Understanding does not require agreement. Sometimes paying closer attention is enough for today.
Question one 'always been that way'
Pick a belief you think of as timeless tradition and look up its actual history. You may find it is newer — or more borrowed — than you assumed. History is rarely as fixed as prejudice pretends.
Note an act of kindness — today’s or your own. This stays on your device only; nothing is uploaded or counted publicly.
“No one is born hating another person... People must learn to hate, and if they can learn to hate, they can be taught to love.”
Nelson Mandela, Long Walk to Freedom