Zambia

Makaveli: The Story Of An African Gay Bar

In 1997 a young guy thought he had done enough of selling second hand clothes, commonly known as 'Salaula' in Zambia. It was a family business. He thought of giving it a try by opening up a pub and it had to be right up in the middle shops and other pubs. It was not that big but it had to accommodate 450 to 500 people. He named it Makaveli, it was situated in the main city centre of Lusaka, Zambia's capital.

What does Makaveli mean, where did it come from and why give this name to a pub? Makaveli directly describes a certain area in California which has a centre road where you find boys in the hood. They are surrounding a drum of fire flames in order to get heated up.

This resulted into one of the USA rap artists naming his album after Makaveli. The way the video was made, it comprised mostly men, gangsters and just a few ladies. The guys were halfly dressed in a funny way. In other words: In Lusaka the owner wanted a place of 'men only' - drinking, dancing and performing.

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Makaveli became known in Lusaka amongst students from universities and colleges. They were just flocking in and they did discover that this place was a gay friendly pub, but it did not continue for a long time. After six months of operation some government officials came in and demanded the pub to close and open from somewhere else. During the discussion unknown people burnt down Makaveli to ashes.

But within two months time there was a sound of Makaveli in town again. This time it was surrounded by restaurants, barbershops and other pubs that welcomed it. Makaveli can now accommodate two to three hundred people. The clients can freely express themselves. It reminds me of four 'fruits' who had walked into a place called Pologrill. Other customers suspected them of being gay and management had to ask them to leave. Then they went to another place called Alpha Bar. Immediately they started dancing and were kicked out again. Reason: they were dancing carelessly…But with Makaveli it is free for all.

Makaveli has become a place where you find most of the guys kissing, even doing naughty things though the concept of a darkroom is unknown in Zambia. Makaveli now opens at 10am and closes in the early morning at about 02am. I had a chance of talking to one of the clients who says: "This bar, it's good that some fruits are happy about the place, Makaveli has done a tremendous job." The owner says he has acknowledged some 'fruits' because he is bisexual. That has also promoted his business partly, because when you look at the 'fruits' world they really want to spend and have fun. In the end it becomes business and at the same time it's leisure. This pub is not only opened in weekends, it's throughout the week. Unfortunately the lesbians have become so quiet about it and one lesbian I talked to said one day we will all have one place to walk into and proudly call it a gay and lesbian bar.

© Behind The Mask/Ndanji Chola

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