KROMOTHERAPY: PERFORMANCE AS INTERVENTION Selogadi Mampane, University of Pretoria

–Saskia Wierenga,Urgency Required: Gay and Lesbian Rights are Human Rights, 2009 “There histories are frequently denied them, under the pretext that lesbianism is a Western invention. Their citizenship is at times virtually suspended, as in cases where it is said that homosexuality is un- African. There sexuality is variously classified as unnatural, sick (so psychiatric treatment is prescribed) or deviant.”

Hate Crimes Members of the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Intersex and Queer or LGBTIQ community are especially at risk of falling victim to Hate Crimes such as rape and murder Di Silvo (2011:1470) explains that ‘corrective rape’ specifically works “to ‘cure’ lesbians of their nonconforming sexual orientation - or correct it - the belief being that homosexuality is an imported white disease” However, “poor Black women who live in townships” (di Silvo 2011:1469) are particularly at risk More so, being masculine-presenting and subverting the gendered hierarchy in a more aesthetically, socially visible manner, puts one especially at risk of experiencing a Hate Crime. This highlights how intersections between race, ethnicity, sex, gender and class, work to subordinate Black, masculine-presenting, female-bodied Queer (in the broader sense of the word) people in many ways

Tokoza, Johannesburg This intervention will focus on facilitating conversation about sex, gender and sexual orientation in the township of Tokoza, Johannesburg Tokoza is a township in which human rights organisations like Iranti-Org have documented numerous killings and other forms of violence specifically against Black lesbians This is an educational intervention, which seeks to: - tell the unheard and silenced stories of oppression from the LGBTIQ community in Tokoza - Provide an educational platform which works to unpack the stigma attached to African homosexualitites but more so to Black, Queer, female-bodied, masculinities

Kromotherapy Kromotherapy follows the narrative of a Queer, Black, female- bodies person as she navigated her way through her often misunderstood and abject identity within the context of Hate Crimes in South Africa Kromo (Chromo) therapy references a complementary medicine method as well as the Rainbow Nation which is supposedly South Africa and the rainbow colours of the ‘universal’ LGBTIQ flag The performance as intervention will be a travelling work and members of the community will follow the narrative and performer as she makes her way from a local shebeen (tavern) through the streets of the township to where she meets her death

Kromotherapy, Capitol Theatre, iCapitoli, 2013