LGBT Pride film shows what it’s like to live with prejudice and ignorance in Swaziland

A ground-breaking documentary on life in Swaziland / Eswatini as an LGBT person has been released. It focusses on the first ever Pride event that took place in the absolute monarchy in June 2018.

Homosexuality is illegal in Swaziland and LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transsexual) people are routinely discriminated against in the kingdom ruled since 1986 by King Mswati III. He has reportedly described homosexuality as being ‘satanic’ 

Riyadh Khalaf made a documentary Fighting For Pride: Swaziland with the assistance of YouTube’s Creators For Change project. It can be viewed on YouTube.

In an interview with Gay Times, he said there were three main contributors in the film, ‘A gay guy named Mlando, a lesbian called Alex, and a trans woman called Polycarp, and it was amazing to see that each of them had their own struggle, but their struggles were very individual. 

‘So the gay guy, Mlando, actually fled Swaziland to neighbouring South Africa to have a somewhat free and open life. He just couldn’t live as his true self in his home country, and it was devastating that he had to leave. But he made that journey back to his homeland for this Pride, which was a huge moment for him. There were tears in the interview, and he couldn’t believe it was finally happening in Swaziland, talking about his father beating him as a kid for not being masculine enough. 

‘Then we had the lesbian side which was fascinating, because they’re not believed to be lesbians, the men think that these women just haven’t seen the light, and that they need to basically just get their shit together and realise they actually fancy men. That’s why in Swaziland there have been corrective rapes of women, to try and snap them out of it, and if you say you’re a lesbian, what you’ll often hear is that the men will be really offended, like, “How dare you not be attracted to me?”

‘And then for the trans woman, Polycarp, that’s the most difficult story. She’s essentially terrified for her life every time she leaves her house. She doesn’t always “pass” when she’s out in public, so she speaks of being afraid of people coming up to her, grabbing her hair, pulling her into a ditch, and she said that her auntie tried to send her to a pastor to rid her of her possessions because she believes she has a demon. Her parents understand that she’s trans but beg her to present as a man for the sake of the family. So it’s multi-level and it’s just a constant battle with your identity and society and trying to find this middle ground where you can be who you are without offending everyone else.’

There is a great deal of prejudice against LGBT people in Swaziland. In May 2016, Rock of Hope, which campaigns for LGBTI equality in Swaziland and organised the Pride event, reported to the United Nations Universal Periodic Review on Swaziland that laws, social stigma and prejudice prevented LGBTI organisations from operating freely.

The report, presented jointly with three South African-based organisations, stated, ‘In Swaziland sexual health rights of LGBT are not protected. There is inequality in the access to general health care, gender affirming health care as opposed to sex affirming health care and sexual reproductive health care and rights of these persons. HIV prevention, testing, treatment and care services continue to be hetero-normative in nature only providing for specific care for men born as male and women born as female, thereby leaving out trans men and women as an unprotected population which continues to render the state’s efforts at addressing the spread and incidence of HIV within general society futile.’

The report added, ‘LGBTs are discriminated and condemned openly by society. This is manifest in negative statements uttered by influential people in society e.g., religious, traditional and political leaders. Traditionalists and conservative Christians view LGBTs as against Swazi tradition and religion. There have been several incidents where traditionalists and religious leaders have issued negative statements about lesbians.   

‘Human rights abuses and violations against members of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex population continue to go undocumented, unreported, unprosecuted and not addressed.’

It added, ‘There is no legislation recognizing LGBTs or protecting the right to a non-heterosexual orientation and gender identity and as a result LGBT cannot be open about their orientation or gender identity for fear of rejection and discrimination. For example, the Marriage Act, only recognizes a marriage or a union between a man and a woman. Because of the absence of a law allowing homosexuals to conclude neither marriage nor civil unions, same-sex partners cannot adopt children in Swaziland.’

See also

LGBTI Pride gets global attention

https://swazimedia.blogspot.com/2018/07/lgbti-pride-gets-global-attention.html

 

Kingdom’s first LGBTI Pride takes place

https://swazimedia.blogspot.com/2018/07/kingdoms-first-lgbti-pride-takes-place.html

 

‘Observer’ steps up LGBTI hate campaign

https://swazimedia.blogspot.com/2018/06/observer-steps-up-lgbti-hate-campaign.html

DAVE IN SWAZILAND TELLS THE TRUTH

The Swaziland Government’s official spokesperson, Percy Simelane, justified the detaining of two South African e.tv journalists last week as they tried to enter the kingdom to report on prodemocracy protests, by saying foreign journalists disrespected Swaziland. He insisted they would only be allowed to report in the kingdom if they were registered by the Swazi Government.

The two journalists detained were from the e.tv channel in South Africa. If Simelane is upset about foreigners ‘disrespecting’ the king, he had better not watch this segment from e.tv’s Late Nite News Dave in Swaziland. It tells some home truths that Simelane and his pay masters definitely would not like to see broadcast.


See also

GOVT ATTACKS ‘DISRESPECTFUL’ MEDIA
http://swazimedia.blogspot.com/2012/04/govt-attacks-disrespectful-media.html

MARBURG SUPPORT FOR GLOBAL WEEK

Message of Solidarity from Marburg to the democracy activists in Swaziland on the Global Week of Action

September 5th 2011 marks the "Global Day of Action to Free Maxwell Dlamini and All Political Prisoners". Maxwell Dlamini is president of the Swaziland National Union of Students and was arrested on false accusations on April 12th this year. He is one of at least five political prisoners currently held by the absolute monarchy in Swaziland.

Besides the activities at the University of Aarhus (Denmark), the consulate in Berlin (Germany) and London (UK), the University of Prishtina (Kosovo), across South Africa and Swaziland itself, activists in Marburg (Germany) came together for a banner action and to create the following video message of support:

SWAZI PRISONERS ON YOUTUBE

The Special Assignment documentary shown on South Africa’s SABC3 television on 1 June 2011 month is on YouTube. It features interviews with Maxwell Dlamini and Musa Ngubeni, the two political activists arrested during the April 12 protests and held on remand.

Part 1

Part 2



Part 3

GETTING THE FREEDOM MESSAGE OUT

I wrote last week about how social network sites, such as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube, played a big role in supporting the Tunisian uprising. Since then social networking-supported protests have spread to other Arab nations, including Egypt and the Yemen.

After my post was published I received some emails asking if I could give some practical tips on how to get the message out to mainstream media using social networking.

Happy to oblige. Here is a ‘four-step’ guide. In my original post I was writing about how social networking could be used during an uprising. Of course, you don’t have to wait for the spark that ignites the revolt in Swaziland; you can get your own messages out before that happens and, who knows, maybe hasten the spark along a little.

STEP ONE: SET UP ACCOUNTS

If you haven’t already got them, set up social network accounts. Do this now; don’t wait for the crisis to start. Learn how to upload to the sites and how to communicate with others from your sites.

There are a number of social network sites. These are the most popular and are the ones that journalists search when they are looking for information.

Facebook http://www.facebook.com/

Twitter http://twitter.com/

Flickr http://www.flickr.com/

Blogs. There are many different sites where you can set up a blog. Personally, I have found the Google ‘blogger’ to be easy to use and efficient. http://www.blogger.com

STEP TWO: COLLECT YOUR MATERIAL

There are three types of material that journalists will want: video, photographs and words (text). Television is the best way of getting the message out and this means you should try to get video material whenever possible. If that’s not available, photographs are the next best thing. You will need also to write a short piece to explain what the video and / or pictures show.

To do this you need a certain amount of equipment. Small handheld video cameras are excellent for this. If you don’t already have this, check around with people you know to see if they have one you can use.

Most digital cameras that take still photographs have a feature that allows you to shoot some moving images.

Lastly, some cell (mobile) phones allow you to take photos and video. The technical quality of these is usually quite poor (especially when broadcast over television). Only use these as a last resort.

Remember you are trying to interest journalists in your cause and the best way to do this is to make it as easy as possible for the journalists to understand what it is you want to say. So, edit your material savagely. That means if you have been on a protest march and have 20 minutes of video, don’t upload all 20 minutes. Take from it the most dramatic images that you have, for example, something to show how big the demonstration was and add to this some ‘action’ – police brutality, tear gas and rubber bullets are better than people standing on a stage making speeches.

STEP THREE: UPLOAD YOUR MATERIAL

You need an Internet connection that is fast enough to enable you to get online and upload video and pictures. In Swaziland, in normal circumstances, the Internet connection can be very slow and this can make uploading difficult. My own experience of this in Swaziland is that it is easier to upload during the night time (when fewer people elsewhere are trying to get on the Internet). This problem of Internet speed is another reason why you should keep your video as short and to the point as possible.

There are some places in Swaziland that have their own satellite Internet provision. They have it because they need to have fast access to the Internet for their own business etc.

Find out where such Internet connections exist and see whether it is possible to use them. If there is a major civil unrest, one possible source of Internet access will be foreign embassies in Swaziland. If the Swazi regime is about to be toppled (or has been toppled) foreign nations might be willing to allow access to their facilities. Of course, not all foreign embassies will be on the side of the people. I suspect the Americans will be a better bet than the Kuwaitis.

A possible alternative might be to take your material across the border to South Africa, but in a major crisis this might not be possible (if, for example, the borders are closed).

The present ruling regime in Swaziland might try to block access to your Internet sites. We have seen in the past that the PUDEMO site has been closed to access from within Swaziland.

It is not possible for the Swazi Government to block access from outside the kingdom. To ensure that you are able to access your Internet sites from within Swaziland set up a proxy server. A proxy server is simply a server in one country that you can access from another. Using a proxy server allows you to bypass censorship.

To set up a proxy server input ‘proxy server’ into any Internet search engine (e.g. Google) and you will be taken to dozens of different sites that offer the service. Some are free of charge (but I am told these tend to be less efficient than ones you pay a fee for). Personally, I have servers in nine different countries (catch me if you can ...).

STEP FOUR: GET NOTICED

Once you have your material online you need to tell journalists that it is there. If journalists already know there is an uprising in Swaziland they will search social network sites to see if anyone is putting material up. This can be a bit ‘hit and miss’ so to save them the bother and to make sure they find your material you should contact them directly.

In order of priority go for the television stations first; then the news agencies and finally individual newspapers.

The world’s most visible TV stations go out of their way to ask people to alert them to news stories and materials. These are the three biggest international TV news organisations. Email them with brief details of what you have and give them the internet address (URL) where you have uploaded the material.

BBC yourpics@bbc.co.uk.

CNN http://www.cnn.com/feedback/tips/newstips.html or ireport@cnn.com.

Al Jazeera www.english.aljazeera.net

After contacting the TV stations go for the international news agencies. These agencies want video, photographs and words. Put your message in the body of the email, do not send attachments.

The biggest international news agencies are:

Associated Press info@ap.org.

Reuter pics@reuters.com

Agence France Presse (AFP) afpjoburg@afp.com

Democracy activists will already probably have contacts in the media in southern Africa, but if you are searching for newspapers elsewhere go to http://www.world-newspapers.com/ for lists and websites.

You might like to consider setting up your own online ‘news room’. This is technically simple to do. All you need is to set up one Internet site and get all the people you know who are out videoing and photographing to send a copy of their material to that site (the online news room) – as well as sending it to their own site.

The advantage of the online newsroom is that it acts as a ‘one-stop shop’ for journalists. Once they know that it exists and that it is efficiently collecting material about the crisis, it will be their first port of call when seeking updates on the situation.

Setting up a news room will require cooperation between all the pro-democracy groups and activists. It will need to be fast and efficient and cannot be hindered by political in-fighting and petty bureaucracy.

If the online newsroom proves difficult to organize, you can send material to the already-existing website Swazi Media Commentary (www.swazimedia.blogspot.com). This site has been in operation for nearly four years and is already widely read by (among others) journalists all over the world.

Remember, that the object is to get the pro-democracy message out far and wide, by using conventional media outlets. This means you must be aware what it is that this media want and how to give it to them.

When you post video or pictures up to the Internet also put up a short explanation of what they show – where they were taken, when it happened and what the demonstration etc. they show was about.

If you have no video or pictures, and you want to send a report as text, that’s OK, but this has less chance of getting publicised than the video and pictures.

Whatever the reason for your writing, remember to think like a journalist. Keep what you have to say short and simple. Give information about what is happening and not rhetoric (keep the exhortations to overthrow the system for the political rallies). Be calm in your tone. Write in ‘proper’ English and not SMS-speak.

Give the journalists as many different ways of contacting you as possible if they have questions. This could include information about email address, Facebook sites etc, as well as cell phone numbers.

SWAZI ACTION GROUP AGAINST ABUSE

For those who missed the documentary-style video on the work of the Swaziland Action Group Against Abuse (SWAGAA) recently uploaded to YouTube, here it is.

It shows the work of SWAGAA as it works with women, children and men (mostly separately) to advocate against abuse.

SWAGAA was founded in 1990 and is one of the leaders in the fight against gender-based violence in Swaziland.

SWAGAA has worked for over a decade to bring the abuse of women and children into the public eye and to the attention of decision-makers, through advocacy, education, and media work.

In addition, SWAGAA provides counselling and other services to victims of abuse and has recently increased its involvement in programmes designed to prevent abuse, including an innovative project for engaging men.

SWAGAA has taken part in regional efforts to stem gender-based violence and hosted an international conference on preventing abuse in 2005. SWAGAA has been working in partnership with Canadian Crossroads International and the Transition House Association of Nova Scotia (THANS) since 2003.

The documentary was made by Canadian Crossroads International which is an international development organization that is reducing poverty, mitigating the impact of HIV and AIDS and increasing women’s rights around the world.

The video is in two parts.

SWAZI MEN AGAINST VIOLENCE

In Swaziland men are taking a stand against domestic violence.

This video, recently uploaded to YouTube looks at a program to involve men in the fight to stop violence against women in Swaziland, which emerged from a partnership between the Swaziland Action Group Against Abuse (SWAGAA), the Transition House Association of Nova Scotia (THANS) and Canadian Crossroads International.

SWAZILAND DEMOCRATS ON YOUTUBE

The People’s United Democratic Movement (PUDEMO), one of the banned political parties in Swaziland, has set up its own YouTube channel to provide information about its policies and activities. At the time of writing there are four videos on the site, but we are promised more.

Click here for more.

Click below to view one of the videos from the site that highlights police brutality, royal decadence, disregard for the rule of law, political persecution and the arrest of Mario Masuku, the PUDEMO President on false charges of terrorism.