anyway since im going to be in this car ride for an hour and my body won’t rest i want to talk ab ‘umndeni’ and why it’s important that south africa has that show.

now im going to be speaking from a very emotion pov because im not smart like that, this a disclaimer if i don’t delete before 7am.

anyway! i think it’s really important that we have representation of queer life outside of the city/suburbs that is an actual reality — especially in this country where the only queers highlighted are city queers who discuss the complexities of being a queer q big english words.

with*, the show also shows the very clear connection between black spirituality and queerness, which is something that’s always been around us if most of us think about it — for instance most queer weddings/companionships i know of are usually officiated by amadlozi.

back to representation; as a black trans body i feel like we are only put in the limelight when we fit a certain aesthetic (passing, lightskin, skinny and femme presenting) but queens who can’t necessarily afford makeup/wigs/hormones are seen as a joke still.

the show has a range of different trans and queer identities — of all color with very a different aesthetic from the avg queen. it felt so good to see a trans woman in full ndebele housewife attire to me, that was probably the most affirming image i’ve ever seen in my life.

when you watch the show from a different perspective, like other than just a funny reality tv show ab ‘drag queens’ / ‘gay sangomas’ — you understand the hardships black transwomen face with dating sexually ambiguous men who still think they are ‘gay’.

how incredibly transphobic ciswomen are whenevr they have a dispute with a transhunny — how transphobic gay men are as well and how they feel entitled to that because we are supposed to be under the same umbrella.

the role language barriers play in identity and finding oneself outside of english terminology! if anything i get incredibly uncomfortable seeing them mention that they identify as women and the cast AND production still misgendering them during the show. (subtitles)

u would think a show with that big of an audience would invest in taking the girls to therapy and showing them more of themselves outside of their everyday identity struggles and stop using it as just clickbait because this show is bigger than just them now.

if 12 y/o me knew that queer culture existed around tradition and cultures that i felt rejected me and my being, i believe i would’ve been much more interested in my african identity instead of having to find myself in american/europian shows.

african queer erasure is a big thing, queerness is not western and it never was.