"I value being in a healthy space, I value being well, and I really value joy, and it wasn’t always like that"
Koleka Putuma is a South African queer poet and theatre-maker. She was nominated one of Okay Africa's most influential women in 2019.
"In this climate where censorship is gaining traction and being weaponised to discourage dissent, speech, or the act of speaking, and insisting on holding each other through dialogue and communication is both a protest and a promise to never be silent/silenced."
"I found myself negotiating with what it meant to be Black and queer and South African, and viewing my body in those kinds of spaces"
"We are more than these bodies that live in patriarchal societies that have been affected by our histories in our past."
"I feel as a Black queer woman in South Africa, I’m confronted with a lot of those issues that are rooted in capitalism and whiteness and patriarchy on a daily basis"
"I think that at the heart of activism is dialogue"
"he experience of being Black, queer and erased, from the archive, from politics, isn’t a singular story. It is not just my story, it is the story of multiple women."