Drag artist and activist Belinda Qaqamba Ka-Fassie belongs to the Xhosa-speaking people of South Africa. They are also queer and showing that it's possible for a person to be proudly both.
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00:00How does the Mama Africa of drag celebrate queerness and Xhosa culture despite pushback?
00:24I cannot separate my Xhosa-ness from my queerness because they both are part of my identity.
00:36Belinda Krakama-Kafasi is a drag artist and activist living in Kayalicha, a township on
00:42the Cape Flats.
00:43Their drag persona is inspired by their Xhosa culture and prominent female South African
00:47trailblazers.
00:49So why do they combine their culture and their love for drag?
00:55When I say I'm a Xhosa queer or queer Xhosa, it's because the two for me are interlinked.
01:01Because I'm proudly Xhosa, I'm also proudly queer.
01:05But for me, it is also important because it's also a work of undoing these erroneous ideas
01:10that being queer is an African.
01:14I grew up in a house full of feminists.
01:17There was always space for me to be.
01:20I don't remember coming out.
01:23The first time we really spoke about it was after I won a pageant and I was on the front
01:30page and my parents saw that and it was just, oh, you wear dresses now.
01:36I come from a very affirming home and most of the prejudice and the bullying I've always
01:42received outside home.
01:44Belinda is the founder of a movement called Hashtag Black Drag Magic, which tells the
01:49stories of the struggles of Black queer people living in townships where discrimination is
01:53part of everyday life.
01:57How is Belinda working towards changing that?
02:00Hashtag Black Drag Magic was born out of a previous project that I was doing with Leanne
02:05Olvacher called Queens of Cape Town.
02:08I then had an idea that we needed to film drag queens who navigate daily lives in the
02:14townships and when it won the World Press Award, it then became a movement.
02:19The township space itself, for queer life, it's a difficult space to navigate.
02:25Normally, drag is perceived with one narrow definition, that it's lip-syncing, it's clapping.
02:34Drag is also protesting.
02:36I think in the township, particularly, it plays a political role because it transgresses
02:41a very cis, heteronormative, traditional space.
02:47It really revolutionises our ideas of gender and being.
02:52Belinda is preparing for their next performance as a headliner at Cape Town Pride.
02:57Why are events like this important showcases for queer people living in the townships?
03:02We've been deemed invisible for a very long time, not because we want to, but because
03:08we haven't been given the space.
03:10So it's for black artists, like queer people, very important to be visible in Cape Town Pride.
03:18It also reflects the diversity of the community, but it also sends a different message that
03:24queerness is not necessarily a white thing.
03:27And that's the dominant narrative in Africa, that queerness was imported from the West.
03:35So black visibility in queer spaces is therefore very much important.
03:44My duty in Pride, it's always to show that Pride is not just a party and a celebration,
03:50but it's also a protest.
03:52For this year's Pride, Belinda is performing songs by Brenda Fussey, the iconic
03:56Xhosa singer dubbed the Madonna of townships by Time magazine.
04:01But why has Belinda chosen Brenda Fussey?
04:05My first memory of music, of song, is Brenda Fussey.
04:11It's Belinda, the panda, the Fussey.
04:15My drag name was really born out of that memory, celebrating who Brenda was as a fearless,
04:24queen of pop, and how magical she was, but her messaging as well, because her messaging
04:29is still relevant today.
04:37My black president celebrates Nelson Mandela as the first black president, but it also
04:43is a song of freedom, and I'm calling also for freedom.
04:48Cape Town Pride raises awareness of LGBTQ plus issues and continuously campaigns for
04:54the freedoms of the queer community in South Africa.
04:58We are very lucky to be in South Africa, a country that affords us our human dignity.
05:04We really carry the struggle of our siblings that are in all parts of Africa, who are really
05:11denied existence in their own homeland.
05:16Here in South Africa, we need to appreciate and protect the legislation that provides
05:21us with our freedom and liberty.
05:24For Belinda, this freedom is not just political, it is also deeply personal.
05:29Why is it so important to her life as a drag artist?
05:33It's the only time when I'm free, when I'm on stage.
05:37It's the type of freedom that I want for everyone.
05:41It's so liberating.
06:12Because queer futurism is real.
06:16They will not kill us all.
06:19In fact, they can kill us.
06:21We're not going anywhere.
06:24So, Amanda to the queers.
06:29The Mama Africa of Drag is making a statement by challenging traditional norms, bringing
06:34awareness to the fact that culture and orientation are one when it comes to who you are.
06:41America!
06:43America!
06:45America!