Simon Nkoli

Simon Tseko Nkoli (26 November 1957 – 30 November 1998) was an anti-apartheid, gay rights, and AIDS activist in South Africa. His anti-apartheid activism as an openly gay man influenced the African National Congress (ANC) to publicly support gay rights and to prohibit discrimination based on sexual orientation in the South African constitution. He organized South Africa's first pride march and was one of the first Black South Africans to disclose that he was living with HIV/AIDS. In his activism, he utilized visibility as a tactic and spoke about the relationship between multiple forms of discrimination. His death from AIDS-related illness influenced fellow activists to establish the Treatment Action Campaign which successfully lobbied the government to expand access to HIV treatment.

Born in Soweto, Nkoli lived with his grandparents in Orange Free State for several years and later moved in with his mother in Sebokeng. Nkoli first became involved in anti-apartheid activism as a high school student during the 1976 Soweto uprising, later becoming active in the Congress of South African Students (COSAS), the United Democratic Front (UDF), and the Vaal Civic Association. Because of his activism, he was repeatedly detained by the police, sometimes for extended periods of time. During the Vaal uprising, he was arrested and imprisoned with 21 other anti-apartheid leaders in 1984. Their charges, which included treason, terrorism, and murder, carried a potential death sentence. During their years-long Delmas Treason Trial, Nkoli was diagnosed with HIV/AIDS and came out as gay to his co-defendants. His case gained international attention and a support campaign, especially among the LGBTQ community. The Gay Association of South Africa (GASA), the predominantly white organization Nkoli had joined before his arrest, did not offer any support to Nkoli during the trial, provoking criticism from foreign LGBTQ organizations.

After his acquittal in 1988, he co-founded the Gay and Lesbian Organization of Witwatersrand (GLOW), a multi-racial organization that hosted political rallies and social events. At South Africa's first pride march, he made a speech stating that he was fighting against both racism and homophobia and could not fight one without also fighting the other. With the National Coalition for Gay and Lesbian Equality (NCGLE), he lobbied successfully for anti-sodomy laws to be overturned and for anti-gay discrimination to be prohibited in the South African constitution. Nkoli co-founded the Township AIDS Project to provide education about HIV prevention to Black people, especially gay men in the townships. As a health educator, he took a sex positive, harm reduction approach. Like many South Africans, Nkoli struggled to consistently access effective HIV/AIDS treatment, and he vocally criticised the government's response to the epidemic.

Early life and family Nkoli was born on 26 November 1957 in Phiri, Soweto, a Black township in the Johannesburg area. His family spoke Sotho, and he was the oldest of four children. Eventually, Elizabeth accepted Nkoli's sexual orientation, and they maintained a relationship throughout his life. She died in 2023, 25 years after Nkoli's death. thumb The Vaal Civic Association (VCA) was formed in 1983 to organize around socio-economic issues in the Vaal Triangle area, including housing, transportation, and labor rights. It was affiliated with the UDF. Nkoli, who was active in the VCA, engaged in tenant organizing and gave speeches in support of rent strikes. On 3 September 1984, the VCA organized a general strike and march. Although the organizers had intended for the protest to be nonviolent, it escalated into widespread rioting after the police attempted to halt the march. According to Nkoli: "The police as usual intervened. They wanted the march to disperse. People became angry. Police started shooting at our people, setting dogs on them. There were police casspirs all over the place... By 11 a.m. lots of people had been shot dead." The unrest, known as the Vaal uprising, spread to other areas and continued into 1986.

Delmas Treason Trial On 23 September 1984, Nkoli attended the funeral of a student activist who had been killed in the Vaal uprising. At the burial, the police attacked the mourners, beating them with sjamboks and firing tear gas. Nearly 600 people were arrested for attending an "illegal gathering". The police interrogated Nkoli about his political views and sexuality, particularly about his relationships with white men. They told him that the ANC would never accept him because he was a moffie, a slur for a gay man. He later recounted that the police would "bring in things like a baton and tell me to go fuck myself with it. They also said they'd put me in prison with others and get me raped."

In June 1985, Nkoli and 21 other political leaders were charged with treason, murder, terrorism, and furthering the aims of the ANC, a banned organisation. Largely related to the Vaal uprising, the charges carried a potential sentence of death, and the defendants were denied bail. Their trial became known as the Delmas Treason Trial because of its initial location in the small town of Delmas. It was later moved to the Palace of Justice in Pretoria. The defendants included Malindi as well as high-ranking anti-apartheid leaders Terror Lekota, Popo Molefe, and Moss Chikane. The prosecutors questioned Nkoli about whether he had attended a certain event, and Nkoli responded that he had been at a GASA meeting at the time. He was released on bail the same month. The guilty verdicts were overturned the following year.

Later activism

GLOW While in prison for the Delmas Treason Trial, Nkoli wrote a letter about his vision for a gay organization that would be progressive and politically involved. After his release on bail, Nkoli began working with other gay activists to start a new group, founding the Gay and Lesbian Organization of Witwatersrand (GLOW) in 1988. He met the younger Beverley Palesa Ditsie at an early GLOW meeting and became her friend and mentor. Ditsie served as co-chair with Nkoli and has been credited as co-founding the organisation with Linda Ngcobo. By the early 1990s, GLOW had multiple branches throughout the Johannesburg area and 1,000 members.thumb alt=A poster centered on a pink triangle with the words "1990 pride", surrounded by figures joining hands. Below it is the words "Let's march! For unity in the community," alongside smaller text. Poster for South Africa's first pride march in October 1990Negotiations for the end of apartheid began in 1990, and restrictions on protesting were withdrawn. In October, GLOW organised South Africa's first pride march in Johannesburg. According to Edwin Cameron, Nkoli planned the event as both a protest for gay rights and a celebration of gay identity. In Nkoli's speech before the march he said: I am black and I am gay. I cannot separate the two parts into secondary and primary struggles. In South Africa I am oppressed because I am a black man, and I am oppressed because I am gay. So, when I fight for my freedom, I must fight against both oppressors...With this march gays and lesbians are entering the struggle for a democratic South Africa where everybody has equal rights and everyone is protected by the law: black and white, men and women, gay and straight.

About 800 people marched, while holding hands and chanting slogans. The mood was celebratory. Speeches continued after the march, with Nkoli telling attendees to kiss the person next to them, a potentially criminal act at the time.

Some white people did not participate due to the march's association with the anti-apartheid movement. In subsequent years, a mostly white Pride Committee began organizing the march. GLOW and Nkoli criticised the new organizers as disregarding the concerns of Black members of the community. For example, Nkoli disapproved of afterparty entrance fees which most Black people could not afford. He thought that the parade could not be considered "truly African".

Ngcobo died of AIDS-related causes in 1993. At Ngcobo's memorial services, tensions were present between the homophobic members of his church and the openly gay activists of GLOW. Nkoli gave a eulogy in front of a large GLOW banner, speaking about Ngcobo's activism for gay rights and leading the congregation in call and response.

According to Ditsie, she repeatedly tried to convince GLOW to address lesbian issues, such as corrective rape, but was unsuccessful. Ditsie left GLOW after she was invited to speak at the 1995 UN's World Conference on Women and Nkoli questioned whether participating in the conference would be relevant to the gay rights movement. They were estranged for a few years until Nkoli invited her to a 10th anniversary celebration for GLOW. Members of GLOW, including Nkoli and Ditsie, were actively involved in TAP's work. Their efforts were hindered by South African law which, for example, meant they could not show videos about safer sex or use dildos to demonstrate how to use a condom. TAP did not receive funding from the government, but they received donations from foreign groups, including LLH Norway.

Nkoli viewed the "Abstinence, be faithful, use a condom" approach to HIV prevention as ineffective and unnecessarily strict; he instead promoted sex-positive, harm reduction strategies. He used educational materials that normalized safer sex and often showed interracial relationships. In one TAP poster, Nkoli embraces a white man below the phrase: "If you really love him/ Think safer sex". Nkoli publicly announced his HIV diagnosis in 1990, despite his anxiety about doing so, and became one of the first openly HIV-positive Black South Africans. He believed that being visible as someone with HIV would help him educate his community about the virus. According to former TAP director Enea Motaung, Nkoli stated: "for people to know about the disease, I think I must disclose [my status]". Nkoli also founded a support group called the Positive African Men Project.

NCGLE and the Constitution Nkoli was instrumental in ensuring that gay rights were enshrined in the South African constitution. His visibility as an openly gay anti-apartheid activist, as well as the relationships he built with other activists during and after the Delmas Treason Trial, increased the acceptance of gay people among anti-apartheid leaders and the larger movement. Additionally, Nkoli lobbied ANC leaders. Lekota stated: "How could we say that men and women like Simon, who had put their shoulders to the wheel to end apartheid, should now be discriminated against?"

In a 1990 meeting with gay activists, ANC lawyer Albie Sachs spoke about Nkoli's contributions to gay rights, stating that "within the ANC it is easier to make a case for lesbian and gay rights when you know it is comrades who are being affected”. Nkoli's 1990 "Open Letter to Nelson Mandela" in the Village Voice, describes the experiences of gay and lesbian people in the townships and references Mandela's stated commitment to "the rights of all people".

In 1994, the interim constitution went into effect and included an "equality clause" prohibiting discrimination based on sexual orientation. In a February 1998 letter to McCaskell, Nkoli wrote about pausing his treatment because of liver damage and depending on a foreign donor to pay for his medication. He vocally criticised the government's response to the HIV/AIDS epidemic The march was attended by thousands of participants and included a ceremony to name a street corner in Hillbrow after Nkoli.

Personal life and personality

At the time of the Delmas Treason Trial, Nkoli was in a relationship with Roy Shepherd. Nkoli met Shepherd, a former Anglican minister, at the Gay Christian Community, a non-denominational Christian meeting group based in Johannesburg. During Nkoli's imprisonment, the two exchanged letters, and their relationship was a source of emotional support for Nkoli. A collection of their letters was published as part of the GALA Queer Archive under the title Till the Time of Trial: The Prison Letters of Simon Nkoli. In the later years of his life, he was in a relationship with Roderick Sharp.

Nkoli liked running and reading. Others have noted that he liked wearing leather. TAC successfully lobbied the government to expand access to HIV treatment.

Representation in media Nkoli has been the subject of several films. Canadian filmmaker John Greyson created A Moffie Called Simon (1986) while a member of SNAAC. The short film covers Nkoli's imprisonment and the activism of gay Canadians in solidarity with him. It includes news footage and Nkoli's prison letters with Shepherd and McCaskell. Nkoli and three other deceased South African AIDS activists are featured in Fig Trees (2009), Greyson's hybrid documentary-opera about the AIDS activism of Achmat and McCaskell. Melanie Chait's Out in Africa (1989), South Africa's first film about the gay rights movement, is about Nkoli and another gay anti-apartheid activist named Ivan Toms. Ditsie's Simon & I (2002) is a documentary about her friendship and activism with Nkoli. It includes interviews with people who knew him and footage from GLOW events, including the first pride march.

Gay Xhosa musician Majola released a song in 2017 honoring Nkoli on his album Boet/Sissy. Athi-Patra Ruga created a sculpture called Proposed Model for Tseko Simon Nkoli Memorial which was displayed at Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa. Conceived by Ruga as a "monument", the golden sculpture depicts a person lying down and covered in jewels and artificial flowers.

Robert Colman's play, Your Loving Simon, focuses on Nkoli's imprisonment during the Delmas Treason Trial and the hundreds of letters he wrote during that time. The play's title is the phrase Nkoli sometimes used to close his letters to Shepherd. First performed in 2003 at Johannesburg's Market Theatre, it features two actors—one in the role of Nkoli and the other as his fictional co-defendant.

The Market Theatre hosted the premiere of another play, Nkoli: The Vogue Opera, in November 2023. Composed by Phillip Miller and S’bo Gyre and directed by Rikki Beadle-Blair, the play was developed in consultation with people who had known Nkoli including his mother, Ditsie, and Heaton-Nicholls. The show is constructed as a vogue dance competition, with every category representing a different scene from Nkoli's life. The following year, Nkoli spoke at the opening ceremony for Gay Games III in Vancouver, Canada. Along with Morris Kight, Nkoli served as Grand Marshal of the 1994 San Diego Pride. In October 1995, Nkoli and Mtetwa were given a Stonewall Equality Award for their gay rights activism. Posthumously, Nkoli was given the Felipa de Souza Award by the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission.

In the 2010s, the Simon Nkoli Centre for Men's Health provided HIV services at the Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital in Soweto. On World AIDS Day 2017, Stellenbosch University renamed the building housing their Equality and Disability offices after Nkoli. Two years later, the university's museum held an exhibit about Nkoli entitled: "Black Queer Visibility: Finding Simon". The exhibit was co-hosted by the Simon Nkoli Collective which also sponsors a memorial lecture in Nkoli's name. The annual Feather Awards bestows a Simon Nkoli Award to recognize individuals for their contributions to the LGBTQ community. Winners have included Cameron, David Tlale, Thandiswa Mazwai, and Gloria Bosman. A monument to the defendants in the Delmas Treason Trial was erected at the Delmas Magistrates' Court in 2012.

Writing "An Open Letter to Nelson Mandela," Village Voice 35, no. 26 (26 June 1990): 29-30. "Wardrobes: Coming out as a black gay activist in South Africa". In Cameron, Edwin; Gevisser, Mark (eds.). Defiant Desire: Gay and Lesbian Lives in South Africa. New York: Routledge, 1995. de Waal, Shaun; Martin, Karen (eds.). Till the time of Trial: The prison letters of Simon Nkoli. GALA Queer Archive, 2007.