How I'm bringing queer pride to my rural village
-
0:01 - 0:02"You don't belong here"
-
0:02 - 0:06almost always means, "We can't find
a function or a role for you." -
0:07 - 0:11"You don't belong here" sometimes means,
"You're too queer to handle." -
0:12 - 0:14"You don't belong here"
-
0:15 - 0:17very rarely means,
-
0:17 - 0:21"There's no way for you to exist
and be happy here." -
0:22 - 0:24I went to university
in Johannesburg, South Africa, -
0:24 - 0:27and I remember the first time
a white friend of mine -
0:27 - 0:30heard me speaking Setswana,
the national language of Botswana. -
0:31 - 0:33I was on the phone with my mother
-
0:33 - 0:38and the intrigue which painted itself
across her face was absolutely priceless. -
0:38 - 0:41As soon as I hung up,
she comes to me and says, -
0:41 - 0:43"I didn't know you could do that.
-
0:43 - 0:46After all these years of knowing you,
how did I not know you could do that?" -
0:47 - 0:51What she was referring to was the fact
that I could switch off the twang -
0:51 - 0:52and slip into a native tongue,
-
0:52 - 0:56and so I chose to let her in
on a few other things -
0:56 - 0:58which locate me as a Motswana,
-
0:58 - 1:01not just by virtue of the fact
that I speak a language -
1:01 - 1:03or I have family there,
-
1:03 - 1:08but that a rural child lives
within this shiny visage of fabulosity. -
1:08 - 1:10(Laughter)
-
1:10 - 1:14(Applause)
-
1:15 - 1:18I invited the Motswana public
into the story, my story, -
1:18 - 1:21as a transgender person years ago,
in English of course, -
1:21 - 1:24because Setswana
is a gender-neutral language -
1:24 - 1:27and the closest we get
is an approximation of "transgender." -
1:27 - 1:31And an important part of my history
got left out of that story, -
1:31 - 1:34by association rather than
out of any act of shame. -
1:35 - 1:38"Kat" was an international superstar,
-
1:38 - 1:42a fashion and lifestyle writer,
a musician, theater producer -
1:42 - 1:43and performer --
-
1:43 - 1:47all the things that qualify me
to be a mainstream, whitewashed, -
1:47 - 1:49new age digestible queer.
-
1:49 - 1:50Kat.
-
1:51 - 1:54Kat had a degree from one
of the best universities in Africa, -
1:54 - 1:56oh no, the world.
-
1:56 - 1:59By association, what Kat wasn't
-
1:59 - 2:01was just like the little
brown-skinned children -
2:01 - 2:04frolicking through the streets
of some incidental railway settlement -
2:04 - 2:06like Tati Siding,
-
2:06 - 2:09or an off-the-grid village like Kgagodi,
-
2:09 - 2:12legs clad in dust stockings
whose knees had blackened -
2:12 - 2:15from years of kneeling
and wax-polishing floors, -
2:15 - 2:19whose shins were marked
with lessons from climbing trees, -
2:20 - 2:21who played until dusk,
-
2:21 - 2:24went in for supper by a paraffin lamp
-
2:24 - 2:28and returned to play hide-and-seek
amongst centipedes and owls -
2:28 - 2:32until finally someone's mother
would call the whole thing to an end. -
2:32 - 2:37That got lost both in translation
and in transition, -
2:37 - 2:38and when I realized this,
-
2:38 - 2:44I decided it was time for me to start
building bridges between myselves. -
2:44 - 2:46For me and for others to access me,
-
2:46 - 2:49I had to start indigenizing my queerness.
-
2:50 - 2:53What I mean by indigenizing
is stripping away the city life film -
2:53 - 2:56that stops you from seeing
the villager within. -
2:56 - 3:01In a time where being brown, queer,
African and seen as worthy of space -
3:01 - 3:03means being everything but rural,
-
3:03 - 3:05I fear that we're erasing
the very struggles -
3:05 - 3:07that got us to where we are now.
-
3:08 - 3:10The very first time I queered
being out in a village, -
3:10 - 3:13I was in my early 20s,
and I wore a kaftan. -
3:13 - 3:18I was ridiculed by some of my family
and by strangers for wearing a dress. -
3:18 - 3:23My defense against their comments
was the default that we who don't belong, -
3:23 - 3:26the ones who are better than, get taught,
-
3:26 - 3:28we shrug them off and say,
"They just don't know enough." -
3:29 - 3:34And of course I was wrong,
because my idea of wealth of knowledge -
3:34 - 3:40was based in removing yourself
from Third World thinking and living. -
3:41 - 3:43But it took time for me to realize
that my acts of pride -
3:43 - 3:47weren't most alive in
the global cities I traipsed through, -
3:47 - 3:51but in the villages where I speak
the languages and play the games -
3:51 - 3:53and feel most at home and I can say,
-
3:53 - 3:55"I have seen the world,
-
3:55 - 3:58and I know that people like me
aren't alone here, we are everywhere." -
3:59 - 4:02And so I used these village homes
for self-reflection -
4:03 - 4:06and to give hope
to the others who don't belong. -
4:06 - 4:08Indigenizing my queerness
-
4:08 - 4:12means bridging the many
exceptional parts of myself. -
4:13 - 4:14It means honoring the fact
-
4:14 - 4:17that my tongue can contort itself
to speak the Romance languages -
4:17 - 4:24without denying or exoticizing the fact
that when I am moved, it can do this: -
4:24 - 4:28(Ululating)
-
4:29 - 4:30It means --
-
4:30 - 4:32(Cheers)
-
4:32 - 4:36(Applause)
-
4:36 - 4:40It means branding cattle with my mother
or chopping firewood with my cousins -
4:40 - 4:43doesn't make me
any less fabulous or queer, -
4:43 - 4:47even though I'm now accustomed
to rooftop shindigs, wine-paired menus -
4:47 - 4:49and VIP lounges.
-
4:49 - 4:50(Laughter)
-
4:50 - 4:55It means wearing my pride
through my grandmother's tongue, -
4:55 - 4:58my mother's food, my grandfather's song,
-
4:58 - 5:01my skin etched with stories
of falling off donkeys -
5:01 - 5:05and years and years and years
of sleeping under a blanket of stars. -
5:07 - 5:10If there's any place I don't belong,
-
5:10 - 5:15it's in a mind where the story of me
starts with the branch of me being queer -
5:15 - 5:17and not with my rural roots.
-
5:17 - 5:21Indigenizing my queerness
means understanding -
5:21 - 5:25that the rural is a part of me,
and I am an indelible part of it. -
5:25 - 5:27Thank you.
-
5:27 - 5:30(Applause)
- Title:
- How I'm bringing queer pride to my rural village
- Speaker:
- Katlego Kolanyane-Kesupile
- Description:
-
In a poetic, personal talk, TED Fellow Katlego Kolanyane-Kesupile examines the connection between her modern queer lifestyle and her childhood upbringing in a rural village in Botswana. "In a time where being brown, queer, African and seen as worthy of space means being everything but rural, I fear that we're erasing the very struggles that got us to where we are now," she says. "Indigenizing my queerness means bridging the many exceptional parts of myself."
- Video Language:
- English
- Team:
- closed TED
- Project:
- TEDTalks
- Duration:
- 05:49
Brian Greene edited English subtitles for How I'm bringing queer pride to my rural village | ||
Brian Greene edited English subtitles for How I'm bringing queer pride to my rural village | ||
Brian Greene edited English subtitles for How I'm bringing queer pride to my rural village | ||
Brian Greene edited English subtitles for How I'm bringing queer pride to my rural village | ||
Brian Greene edited English subtitles for How I'm bringing queer pride to my rural village | ||
Brian Greene approved English subtitles for How I'm bringing queer pride to my rural village | ||
Brian Greene edited English subtitles for How I'm bringing queer pride to my rural village | ||
Joanna Pietrulewicz accepted English subtitles for How I'm bringing queer pride to my rural village |