Because for several members of the Collective who are queer, it was a question of belonging, because this is what happens when a country kind of asks whether queer people belong, which is not something that the average citizen of any country has to consider. [...] But I don’t think that we went into it thinking of the archive as structurally as we do now, because we’ve done a lot more research in the years since. [...] Because when we think back about a collection of 250 plus stories taken from nine cities and towns across the country, that is an archive in and of itself. [...] And so, we felt like that might make for an interesting read in a different kind of way, such that then people are able to see what multiple queer folk from across the country think around one thing, or what their experiences were around one particular arena. [...] And so, we wanted to do it in a way that then we can really see the depth and the breadth of possibilities in queer life. And again, queer life not being a monolith. [...] It can also really be limited by the translator as well, and in our contexts, you might find a situation where people would have to be sure, for instance, that the translator is queer-friendly, you know what I mean? [...] And you’ll find that some of the issues, we should not be dealing with some of those issues in this day and age. [...] And the bookshop has to hide it in some kind of a corner of the shop. [...] And this in a way subverts and challenges the power structures that you alluded to earlier. [...] And so, this project has been interesting in terms of allowing us to be the documenter.
- Pages
- 11
- Published in
- South Africa
