From the CEO’s Desk


From Isolation Room Number 2….

Today as I write, I sit in my little office here at the old Women’s Gaol at Constitutional Hill with the Jo’burg cold seeping up through my shoes. I look at the sign on my office - Isolation Room Number 2 – this room was used to isolate women political prisoners in the apartheid era. I wonder how they lived in this cold space. I am also filled with a lingering sadness at the death of two activists for women’s, including lesbian rights. Both in one month – Busi (12th March 2007) and Wangari (12th April 2007). They were not just deaths. They were killings – this is the killing of activists. The killing by state failure, the killing by ignorance and the tyranny of those who hold power to decide who is acceptable and who not, who deserves which rights and who not. And so I am sad and I am angry.

And this killing of activists is happening all over the world, often silently and invisibly. And these two women were women’s rights defenders who inspired us. They were dangerous. In the exact ways that “they” don’t want women to be dangerous - women who are able to make, create change….

As activists, the combination of our personal experiences of discrimination, stigmatization, marginalization and the direct attack on our activist selves and our commitment to struggle against injustice, makes us powerful and beautifully dangerous. Dangerous to the enemies of equality, freedom and dignity.

And it is commitment – dangerous commitment - that I hope will continue to fill the air we breathe as we move in to a new phase of activism for lesbian rights in South Africa. We hold close to ourselves our OUTrage. And use it to fuel our activism… There are many opportunities for us to join the collective on LGBTI continuous struggles where we are able to set activist agenda. The International Lesbian and Gay Association (ILGA) Africa, 5-8 May 2007, and the upcoming Human Science Research Council (HSRC) on 9-11 May 2007: South Africa, conferences are such a political spaces. Not forgetting the Africa Human Rights Commission, Ghana meeting on 16-30 May 2007

SO
FEW has been in existence now for five years, and as a newcomer to the organization, I am so aware of the many things we have to celebrate as an organization and broader as a lesbian community. The challenges are huge, also. In this edition of our newsletter I would like to share briefly some of the internal changes that have taken place in the last six months and give you a brief glimpse into what you can expect in the months to come.

First, Donna Smith who headed FEW since it’s inception in 2002 left the organization at the end of January and is now working as a consultant. Donna made a mark on the development of organization as part of the team and with Zanele in particular, creating the organization and mobilizing black lesbians to engage in the development of our community. We wish Donna luck and look forward to working with her in her latest incarnation.

Since the last quarter of 2006, FEW has been engaged in a strategic repositioning process. This has involved a strategic thinking exercise over three days and an ongoing process of collectively refining the strategy so that it is translated into programmes, projects and interventions - action.

First, we drafted a simple statement of purpose, what some of you may think of as a vision:

The purpose of FEW is to ensure a world where LBT women know,
access and enjoy their rights to autonomy,
dignity and equality
in all aspects of their lives,
both in the private and the public domain
- FEW Strategic Plan Meeting_Aug.2006

This purpose will be put into action through three main programmes.
Campaigns – three major advocacy campaigns will be the core of our agenda for the next three years. These campaigns, as yet to be named, address the key issues of our right as lesbians to health, to safety an peace and third, to education.

Leadership development – this programme will select, train, mentor and support lesbian activists as leaders, able to speak out and act on our commitment to lesbian rights.

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Lesbian Health Project – here we will deal with the practical issues, the realities of lesbian lives. A series called “Being” has already started where we collectively explore various aspects of our identities. Some themes here are ‘being sexual’, ‘being parent’, ‘being older’, younger, activist and so on. We also are preparing for a stronger service provision element with a drop in center offering counseling and education and care. This centre is not intended to take on the role of government in the provision of services. Rather we will use the centre to set the standards of services accessed by lesbians, to document this carefully and to use this learning to advocate for better quality services in the mainstream health and other systems. Two key areas of focus of the Lesbian Health Project will be mental health and then sexual and reproductive health.

Whilst we will strengthen and consolidate the past efforts and work of FEW, we will also strengthen the political nature of our work and identity. This will mean that we invest in building leadership and strengthening participation by black lesbians in processes of claiming our rights, but also strengthen our voices in broader human rights work.

We are already actively involved in the women’s rights movement, working, as feminists and activists ourselves, to advance a broader women’s rights agenda as well the broader human rights agenda. We often engage in these forums (re)presenting ourselves as women only and our identities as lesbians is silenced, made invisible, or otherwise masked. This must stop. It will take a deliberate and conscious effort on both sides – those we work in solidarity with, and on our own part, to make and take the space so that our lesbian selves, identities are expressed and that any action planned includes the rights of lesbians.

Whilst the work of FEW is focused on black lesbians, we have worked with a range of organizations from the JWG [Joint Working Group], a network of LGBT organizations in South Africa, so host the National Lesbian Conference late last year. This process includes lesbians of all colours. Out of that Conference, a coalition or alliance of lesbians in the country is emerging with a distinctively political agenda. We will hold our first leadership institute in November this year, looking at Lesbian leadership and building the ideological base from which to strengthen our activisms.

Finally, I end with some happy sad news.
Zanele Muholi, a founding member of FEW, an activist and photographer, is moving on! She has been accepted for study at the Ryerson University in Toronto where she will work on her Master of Fine Arts degree in Documentary Media.

We congratulate Zanele on this achievement and stop to remember and reflect on her amazing contribution to lesbian rights and to the learning of each one of us who have been fortunate enough to know and work with her.

We wish her well and look forward to her return to South Africa, both during the two year period and certainly after.

We will miss her energy and creative drive and deep commitment to lesbian rights, the politics of knowledge and to “visual activism” ….

FEW and The Friends of Zanele Muholi, are hosting an exhibition of her work at Constitutional Hill on 2 June to raise funds as a contribution to Zanele’s studies. Please contact the FEW office for more information.

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We Remember….
Wangari Muthuki
women’s rights activist and feminist working for the Gender AIDS Forum, Durban, South Africa and a PhD student at the University of KwaZulu Natal.
Wangari died in a motor vehicle accident on 12th April on the KwaZulu Natal north coast. She will be missed for her powerful activism, fearless and relentless and her sharp mind.

Busi Sigasa
Lesbian rights activist, a womyn living with HIV and a poet. She made her mark with her excellent eye for detail and form. Busi was emerging as a powerful photographer. She inspired us and was one of the fearless women on the pavement outside the Johannesburg High Court during the Zuma trial. She played an important role in the One In Nine Campaign

Dawn Cavanagh
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NEWSLETTER 3: Feb. - June 2006