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There have been pride parades in South Africa celebrating
LGBT pride
LGBT pride (also known as gay pride or simply pride) is the promotion of the self-affirmation, dignity, equality, and increased visibility of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people as a social group. Pride, as opposed to sham ...
since 1990. South African
pride parade
A pride parade (also known as pride march, pride event, or pride festival) is an outdoor event celebrating lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer culture, queer (LGBTQ) social and self-acceptance, achievements, LGBT rights by country o ...
s were historically used for political advocacy protesting against legal
discrimination against LGBT people {{broad-concept article
Discrimination against LGBT people includes:
*Discrimination against lesbians
*Discrimination against gay men
*Discrimination against bisexuals
*Discrimination against asexuals
*Discrimination against transgender men
*Discrim ...
, and for the celebration of
equality before the law
Equality before the law, also known as equality under the law, equality in the eyes of the law, legal equality, or legal egalitarianism, is the principle that all people must be equally protected by the law. The principle requires a systematic ru ...
after the
apartheid
Apartheid (, especially South African English: , ; , "aparthood") was a system of institutionalised racial segregation that existed in South Africa and South West Africa (now Namibia) from 1948 to the early 1990s. Apartheid was ...
era.
They are increasingly used for political advocacy against
LGBT hate crimes, such as the so-called
corrective rape
Corrective rape, also called curative rape, as well as homophobic rape, is a hate crime in which one or more people are raped because of their perceived sexual orientation such as homosexuality or bisexuality. The common intended consequence ...
of lesbians in
township
A township is a kind of human settlement or administrative subdivision, with its meaning varying in different countries.
Although the term is occasionally associated with an urban area, that tends to be an exception to the rule. In Australia, Ca ...
s, and to remember victims thereof.
Johannesburg
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The Gay and Lesbian Organisation of the Witwatersrand (GLOW) was founded by gay anti-apartheid activist
Simon Nkoli
Simon Tseko Nkoli (26 November 1957 – 30 November 1998) was an anti-apartheid, gay rights and AIDS activist in South Africa.
Nkoli was born in Soweto in a seSotho-speaking family. Nkoli became a youth activist against apartheid, joining the ...
in 1988.
The first South African pride parade was held towards the end of the
apartheid
Apartheid (, especially South African English: , ; , "aparthood") was a system of institutionalised racial segregation that existed in South Africa and South West Africa (now Namibia) from 1948 to the early 1990s. Apartheid was ...
era in
Johannesburg
Johannesburg ( , , ; Zulu and xh, eGoli ), colloquially known as Jozi, Joburg, or "The City of Gold", is the largest city in South Africa, classified as a megacity, and is one of the 100 largest urban areas in the world. According to Demo ...
on 13 October 1990, the first such event on the African continent.
[ The first event attended by 800 people was initiated and organised by GLOW, and the crowd was addressed by Nkoli, Donné Rundle, Beverly Ditsie, ]Edwin Cameron
Edwin Cameron SCOB (born 15 February 1953 in Pretoria) is a retired judge who served as a Justice of the Constitutional Court of South Africa. He is well known for his HIV/AIDS and gay-rights activism and was hailed by Nelson Mandela as "one ...
and gay Dutch Reformed Church
The Dutch Reformed Church (, abbreviated NHK) was the largest Christian denomination in the Netherlands from the onset of the Protestant Reformation in the 16th century until 1930. It was the original denomination of the Dutch Royal Family and ...
minister Hendrik Pretorius Hendrik may refer to:
* Hendrik (given name)
* Hans Hendrik, Greenlandic Arctic traveller and interpreter
* Hendrik Island, an island in Greenland
* Hendrik-Ido-Ambacht, a municipality in the Netherlands
* A character from ''Dragon Quest XI''
See ...
.[ In his speech, Nkoli said:][
Section Nine of the country's 1996 Constitution provides for equality and ]freedom from discrimination The right to freedom from discrimination is internationally recognised as a human right and enshrines the principle of egalitarianism. The right to freedom from discrimination is recognised in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and enshrined ...
on the grounds of sexual orientation among other factors.[ Over time, the celebration factor came to overshadow the protest factor despite ongoing social issues. The 2012 parade was marred by a clash between activist participants and members of the Joburg Pride organising body,][ and the organising body disbanded in April 2013 due to internal conflict about whether the event should continue to be used for political advocacy. Two new committees were formed around May 2013. One of them was called "Johannesburg Pride" and would carry on the history of the oldest and largest LGBTQIA Pride in South Africa & (Africa), The other committee would organise a "Johannesburg People's Pride", which is "envisioned as an inclusive and explicitly political movement for social justice". As of June 2019, Johannesburg Pride is the largest Pride event in Africa.
]
Cape Town
Annual pride parades have been held in Cape Town
Cape Town ( af, Kaapstad; , xh, iKapa) is one of South Africa's three capital cities, serving as the seat of the Parliament of South Africa. It is the legislative capital of the country, the oldest city in the country, and the second largest ...
subject to interruptions since 1993, and as part of the Cape Town Pride
Cape Town Pride is an annual gay pride event ending with a pride parade held in Cape Town, South Africa. It usually runs from around the end of February and is a week of festivals, parties and other events.
The first South African pride parade w ...
event since 2001.[
The Mother City Queer Project (MCQP) costume party has also been held annually in Cape Town (nicknamed the Mother City) since 1994.]
Other areas
*Eastern Cape
The Eastern Cape is one of the provinces of South Africa. Its capital is Bhisho, but its two largest cities are East London and Gqeberha.
The second largest province in the country (at 168,966 km2) after Northern Cape, it was formed in ...
:
Nelson Mandela Bay Pride has taken place annually in Port Elizabeth
Gqeberha (), formerly Port Elizabeth and colloquially often referred to as P.E., is a major seaport and the most populous city in the Eastern Cape province of South Africa. It is the seat of the Nelson Mandela Bay Metropolitan Municipality, Sou ...
since 2011.
* Free State:
Free State Pride has been held in Bloemfontein, one of South Africa's three national capitals, since 2012.
*Gauteng
Gauteng ( ) is one of the nine provinces of South Africa. The name in Sotho-Tswana languages means 'place of gold'.
Situated on the Highveld, Gauteng is the smallest province by land area in South Africa. Although Gauteng accounts for only ...
:
Other pride parades held in the Johannesburg area include Soweto Pride which has taken place annually since 2005 in Meadowlands, Soweto
Soweto () is a township of the City of Johannesburg Metropolitan Municipality in Gauteng, South Africa, bordering the city's mining belt in the south. Its name is an English syllabic abbreviation for ''South Western Townships''. Formerly a s ...
,[ and Ekurhuleni Pride which has taken place annually since 2009 in the ]East Rand
The East Rand is the urban eastern part of the Witwatersrand that is functionally merged with the Johannesburg conurbation in South Africa. The region extends from Alberton in the west to Nigel in the east, and south down to Nigel. It includes ...
township of KwaThema
KwaThema is a township south-west of Springs in the district of Ekurhuleni, Gauteng, South Africa. It was established in 1951 when Africans were forcibly removed from Payneville because it was considered by the apartheid government to be too clos ...
. On 24 April 2011, LGBT rights activist and Ekurhuleni Pride Organising Committee member Noxolo Nogwaza was raped and murdered in KwaThema, in what was described as a hate crime
A hate crime (also known as a bias-motivated crime or bias crime) is a prejudice-motivated crime which occurs when a perpetrator targets a victim because of their membership (or perceived membership) of a certain social group or racial demograph ...
by Human Rights Watch
Human Rights Watch (HRW) is an international non-governmental organization, headquartered in New York City, that conducts research and advocacy on human rights. The group pressures governments, policy makers, companies, and individual human r ...
and Amnesty International
Amnesty International (also referred to as Amnesty or AI) is an international non-governmental organization focused on human rights, with its headquarters in the United Kingdom. The organization says it has more than ten million members and sup ...
. Three years earlier, lesbian Banyana Banyana
The South Africa women's national soccer team, nicknamed ''Banyana Banyana'' (The Girls), is the national team of South Africa and is controlled by the South African Football Association.
Their first official match was held on 30 May 1993 agai ...
footballer Eudy Simelane
Eudy Simelane (11 March 1977 – 28 April 2008) was a South African footballer who played for the South Africa national team and an LGBT rights activist. She was raped and murdered in her hometown of KwaThema, Springs, Gauteng.
Early life
Sim ...
was raped and murdered in the same township. In 2016, Ekurhuleni Pride took place in the township of Vosloorus
Vosloorus is a large township situated south of Boksburg and just east of Katlehong in Ekurhuleni, just 30 kilometres south-east of Johannesburg, Gauteng, South Africa. It was established in 1963 when Black Africans were removed from Stirtonville ...
. Since then, the event has been held in Centurion
A centurion (; la, centurio , . la, centuriones, label=none; grc-gre, κεντυρίων, kentyríōn, or ) was a position in the Roman army during classical antiquity, nominally the commander of a century (), a military unit of around 80 ...
and KwaThema
KwaThema is a township south-west of Springs in the district of Ekurhuleni, Gauteng, South Africa. It was established in 1951 when Africans were forcibly removed from Payneville because it was considered by the apartheid government to be too clos ...
.
Pretoria Pride has been held annually in Pretoria
Pretoria () is South Africa's administrative capital, serving as the seat of the Executive (government), executive branch of government, and as the host to all foreign embassies to South Africa.
Pretoria straddles the Apies River and extends ...
, South Africa's executive capital, since 2013.
*KwaZulu-Natal
KwaZulu-Natal (, also referred to as KZN and known as "the garden province") is a province of South Africa that was created in 1994 when the Zulu bantustan of KwaZulu ("Place of the Zulu" in Zulu) and Natal Province were merged. It is locate ...
:
Durban Pride has been held every year in Durban
Durban ( ) ( zu, eThekwini, from meaning 'the port' also called zu, eZibubulungwini for the mountain range that terminates in the area), nicknamed ''Durbs'',Ishani ChettyCity nicknames in SA and across the worldArticle on ''news24.com'' from ...
, the largest city in the province, since 2011.
The Pink Mynah Festival is held in Pietermaritzburg
Pietermaritzburg (; Zulu: umGungundlovu) is the capital and second-largest city in the province of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. It was founded in 1838 and is currently governed by the Msunduzi Local Municipality. Its Zulu name umGungundlovu ...
, the provincial capital, in October. The event includes a beauty pageant
A beauty pageant is a competition that has traditionally focused on judging and ranking the physical attributes of the contestants. Pageants have now evolved to include inner beauty, with criteria covering judging of personality, intelligence, ...
, a fashion show, a pride parade and a picnic.
*Limpopo
Limpopo is the northernmost province of South Africa. It is named after the Limpopo River, which forms the province's western and northern borders. The capital and largest city in the province is Polokwane, while the provincial legislature is ...
:
Limpopo Pride has been held in since 2012. In 2015, various government officials, including the mayors of Polokwane and the Capricorn District Municipality
Capricorn is one of the 5 districts of Limpopo province of South Africa. The district is named after the Tropic of Capricorn which runs through it. The capital of Capricorn is Polokwane. The vast majority of its 1,261,463 people speak Northern Soth ...
as well as councillors and members of the police service, marched in the parade.
*Mpumalanga
Mpumalanga () is a province of South Africa. The name means "East", or literally "The Place Where the Sun Rises" in the Swazi, Xhosa, Ndebele and Zulu languages. Mpumalanga lies in eastern South Africa, bordering Eswatini and Mozambique. It ...
:
On 9 August 2014, a pride parade took place in Nelspruit
Mbombela (also known as Nelspruit) is a city in northeastern South Africa. It is the capital of the Mpumalanga province. Located on the Crocodile River (Mpumalanga), Crocodile River, Mbombela lies about by road west of the Mozambique border, ea ...
. This marked the first time a pride parade was held in the province of Mpumalanga. One month later, on 6 September 2014, the town of Ermelo organised its first pride parade.
*North West
The points of the compass are a set of horizontal, radially arrayed compass directions (or azimuths) used in navigation and cartography. A compass rose is primarily composed of four cardinal directions—north, east, south, and west—each sepa ...
:
The first pride parade in the province was held in November 2007 in Mahikeng
Mafikeng, officially known as Mahikeng and previously Mafeking (, ), is the capital city of the North West province of South Africa.
Close to South Africa's border with Botswana, Mafikeng is northeast of Cape Town and west of Johannesburg. In ...
, the provincial capital.
Pride parades have taken place annually in Klerksdorp
Klerksdorp () is located in the North West Province, South Africa. Klerksdorp, the largest city in the North West Province, is located southeast of Mahikeng, the provincial capital. Klerksdorp was also the first capital of the then Transvaal Repub ...
since 2010.
On 1 October 2016, a pride parade was held in the township of Kanana
Kanana is a community council located in the Berea District of Lesotho. Its population in 2006 was 19,311.
Education
Ha Fusi Primary School is a church school, run by the Anglican Church of Lesotho. After teaching at the primary school in 200 ...
.
*Western Cape
The Western Cape is a province of South Africa, situated on the south-western coast of the country. It is the fourth largest of the nine provinces with an area of , and the third most populous, with an estimated 7 million inhabitants in 2020 ...
:
The Pink Loerie Mardi Gras has been held in Knysna
Knysna () is a town with 76,150 inhabitants (2019 mid-year estimates) in the Western Cape province of South Africa. and is one of the destinations on the loosely defined Garden Route tourist route. It lies at 34° 2' 6.3168'' S and 23° 2' 47. ...
since 2001.[
The Khumbulani Pride ("Remember Pride"), which aims to honour the lives of LGBT people lost in hate violence in the Western Cape, has taken place in different townships in the province every year since 2013. In 2013, it was held in ]Gugulethu
Gugulethu is a township in the Western Cape, South Africa and is 15 km from Cape Town. Its name is a contraction of ''igugu lethu'', which is Xhosa for ''our pride''. The township was established along with Nyanga in the 1960s.
History
The ...
and remembered hate crime victims such as 19-year-old Zoliswa Nkonyana who was stabbed and stoned to death in Khayelitsha
Khayelitsha () is a township in Western Cape, South Africa, on the Cape Flats in the City of Cape Town Metropolitan Municipality. The name is Xhosa for ''New Home''. It is reputed to be the largest in 2006 for living openly as a lesbian.[ In 2014 and 2015, it took place in the townships of Samora Michel and Khayelitsha, respectively. In 2016, the event was held in the township of Langa.Khumbulani Pride remembers victims of LGBTI violence in Langa]
Mambaonline Since then, the event has been held in Strand
Strand may refer to:
Topography
*The flat area of land bordering a body of water, a:
** Beach
** Shoreline
*Strand swamp, a type of swamp habitat in Florida
Places Africa
*Strand, Western Cape, a seaside town in South Africa
* Strand Street, ...
and Delft
Delft () is a List of cities in the Netherlands by province, city and Municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality in the Provinces of the Netherlands, province of South Holland, Netherlands. It is located between Rotterdam, to the southeast, ...
.
See also
*LGBT rights in South Africa
Lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people in South Africa enjoy the same rights as non-LGBT people. South Africa has a complex and diverse history regarding the human rights of LGBT people. The legal and social status of between 4 ...
* List of LGBT events in South Africa
*Gay pride flag of South Africa
The gay flag of South Africa is a pride flag that aims to reflect the freedom and diversity of South Africa and build pride in being an LGBTQ South African. It was registered as the flag of the LGBTQ Association of South Africa in 2012 and is ...
References
External links
*
*
*
*
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*
PFLAG South Africa
{{LGBT in South Africa
1990 establishments in South Africa
*
Recurring events established in 1990
South African culture