Black bull, ancestors and me : my life as a lesbian sangoma / Nkunzi Zandile Nkabinde.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Nkabinde, Nkunzi Zandile.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Nkabinde, Nkunzi Zandile.

Lesbians--South Africa--Biography.

Lesbians.

Gender identity--South Africa.

Gender identity.

Healers--South Africa--Biography.

Healers.

Ancestor worship--South Africa.

Ancestor worship.

Rites and ceremonies--South Africa.

Rites and ceremonies.

South Africa--Religious life and customs.

South Africa.

Genre:

Biographies.

Physical Description:

162 pages, 8 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations (chiefly color), portraits (some color) ; 21 cm

Place of Publication:

Auckland Park, South Africa : Fanele, [2008]

Summary:

In traditional Zulu culture, a man must be a man and do male things and a woman must be a woman and do female things but with sangomas it is more flexible. I can dance like a woman and wear a woman's clothes and dance like a man and wear a man's clothes. I can do the work of a man, like slaughtering a goat or a cow although in traditional Zulu culture a woman cannot slaughter...

As a sangoma, Nkunzi Zandile Nkabinde is able to explore dimensions of her sexual identity because of her relationship with both male and female ancestors.

In this fascinating book, we discover how Nkunzi's urge to live and draw others into her sense of interconnectedness emerges as a consistent theme in her story. Conscious of her constitutional rights as an urban young lesbian in a time of a relentless spate of hate crimes against township lesbians, Nkunzi is simultaneously sensitive to the demands of the guiding ancestral voice of the traditional, rural Zulu patriarch whose name she bears.

Her quest is for a middle path of balance and integration between the living and the dead, the traditional and the modern.

Contents:

Life and Death 1

A Child in Two Worlds 14

Out and About 31

Following the Light 39

Remembering the Ancient Paths 52

Finding the Balance 67

In Search of Community 77

The Ancestors Don't Mind 121

Doing Things Differently 132

Hate Crimes 143

Making Connections 150.

ISBN:

9781920196066

1920196064

OCLC:

244628532

Publisher Number:

99943001494