book to document experiences of African lbt women

By Lesego Masike (BTM Reporter)

August 3, 2007: In its mission to educate policy makers about the existence of LBT women in Africa and to tackle the myth that homosexuality is unAfrican, The Coalition of African Lesbians (CAL) is planning to publish a book that will document lived experiences of lesbian, bisexual, and transgender women in the continent.

As part of CAL’s research project, the book will “increase lesbians’ political voice in the continent, create a platform for expression and help eradicate homophobia.” This is according to CAL director, Fikile Vilakazi.

To date Vilakazi has visited over 11 countries that house member organisations in Africa to discuss the content for the book and it was agreed that it should be in a form of poetry, short stories and diaries. These visits were also aimed at starting community based work in different countries and to meet individual lesbian women, some of whom are not affiliated to any organisations.

While excitement escalated about the initiative, concerns were raised during the Johannesburg meeting about copyrights of the book, following past incidents whereby those who contributed said that they were not clear as to who owns the copyright for their work.

Responding to this CAL has promised that what ever profit that might be made from the book will be distributed to the contributors. “We are committed to principles of non-exploitative research and every one will own copyright of their chapters”, said Vilakazi

The book is scheduled to be published in 2008 in South Africa through Jacana books and will be distributed in areas where CAL has members and in relevant Departments that contribute to the construction of laws in countries.