| Homosexuality has been the subject of heated and ongoing public debate in Africa. In the Southern African region, President Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe has declared, "homosexuals have no rights at all." His statements echo the sentiments of political leaders throughout Southern Africa who have, in recent years, issued statements condemning homosexuality by invoking the argument that homosexuality is "un-African", and a perversion "imported from the West". In stark contrast South Africa's Constitution guarantees equality on the basis of sexual orientation, in recognition of a long history of same-sex identities. This research project seeks to investigate same-sex identities within a context of changing ideas about gender, sexuality and identity in a society that continues to experience profound political and social transformation. The starting point for this research project is hairstyling and "hair saloons". Hairstyles are an important marker of cultural identity and hair saloons frequently provide safe social spaces for gay men as well as a significant point of interaction with broader communities. Hair saloons are thus sites where same-sex identities can be developed and expressed as well as negotiated with the outside world. In the South African public imaginary, gay lifestyles are associated with "modernity", a term which has both negative and positive connotations. This is particularly apparent in the ambiguous response to hairstylists, as a source of what is both desirable and regrettable about "modernity". This research will explore the articulation between "modernity" and contemporary same-sex identities in South Africa. The nature of rural and urban, traditional and modern, will be explored through a network of stylists and their associates who live and work outside of the metropole, in the urban peripheries, small towns and rural areas of South Africa's Mpumalanga province. |
