Zanele Muholi is a visual activist whose photographic exhibits have appeared in many places, including the Williams College Museum in the Massachusetts Berkshires.  She is co-founder, with Busi Kheswa, of the Forum for the Empowerment of Women (FEW in Africa), which provides safe space for women to meet and organize.  Their work has brought to light atrocities including assault, murder, and “corrective rape” – which purports to attempt to realign lesbian women’s thinking and force them to behave as heterosexuals.  Hate crimes have resulted  in the deaths of women such as Sizakele Sigasa, Salome Masooa, Simangele Nhlapo (and her two-year-old daughter), Madoe Mafubedu (age 16, raped and stabbed to death); Eudy Simelane, Noxolo Nogwaza.

I discovered Ms. Muhholi’s work at the Williams College museum in Massachusetts in 2014.  She has also exhibited in the Netherlands, Toronto, Atlanta, the U.K., Brazil, Africa, Florence, Rome, and Belgium.   She directed a documentary (Difficult Love) and founded Inkanyiso, a non-profit organization concerned with visual activism on behalf of the LGBTI community. Inkanyiso’s motto:  Produce.  Educate.  Disseminate.