Linda Ngcobo

Linda Ngcobo (c. 1965 – February 1993) was a South African LGBTQ activist and a founding member of the Gay and Lesbian Organization of Witwatersrand (GLOW). He was one of the first Black gay activists to die of AIDS-related illness in South Africa.

Biography

Ngcobo was Zulu. He studied to be a teacher and resided in Soweto. The organization held its first Miss GLOW competition, an annual drag show organized by Ngcobo, in Soweto in 1988.

With Hugh McLean, Ngcobo co-authored "‘Abangibhamayo bathi ngimnandi’ (Those who fuck me say I’m tasty): Gay sexuality in Reef township", an essay in the 1995 anthology Defiant Desire: Gay and Lesbian Lives in South Africa. McLean and Ngcobo interviewed 20 men about their sexuality. Their work showed how gay sexuality is "unexpectedly integrated into township culture". Ngcobo recounted ways that he would make his body seem more female when having sex with a pantsula.

Some people in Ngcobo's township considered him to be a woman, including his family, who assigned him chores associated with women. One of his boyfriends thought he could give birth.