Transgender Day of Visibility 2024: A Call to Counter and Challenge Anti-Rights through Truth

I love following media as I believe it is a reflection of society. When media reports blame victims and survivors in moments of trauma, it’s often a gendered reflection of how society perceives victims and survivors. More importantly, the culture of erasure and exploitation of people of colour and non-confirming folks. Trans and gender diverse movements were erased from movement history until the 1990s. Biopics showcase how queer erasure was (and still is) a common occurrence among Black communities. 

The consequences of erasure can easily be measured: loss of income, opportunity cost and a lack of social protection. Even when we seek accountability and are vindicated, what is lost can never be recouped. Our commemorative dialogue reflects on being trans and gender diverse in this sector, capturing Caribbean, East African, Latin American and South Asian perspectives. When conceptualising this a few weeks ago, I was mid-flight and thinking to myself ‘I do not want to earn rest’. Neither do I think anyone is not deserving of it. It is confusing how our sector and capitalism have normalised this kind of thinking. That rest is to be earned and productivity is deserving of social protection and/or wellbeing. I could also replace myself with the planet here; that we must plunder and extract from it only to rehabilitate and regulate how its ecosystems adopt or change as a result of our occupancy. The cycle manifests itself as international law being toothless to those occupying other states and deploying apartheid systems. These are all connected. 

The intricate connection to my surroundings cannot be separated from my diverse gender identity neither my history as a Black African. I was raised ploughing and tending to my grandmother’s fields every holiday in Zimbabwe. From as young an age as I could remember, sustenance farming has been a part of my family. Before then, all my grandmother had to her name was the house her former employers left her before returning to England, this was after spending most of her adult life as a domestic worker. Land, climate, subsistence farming, food security and intergenerational learning are the terms one could apply within this short glimpse of my life. It’s a disposition many others across Africa have, not having factored in my migrant status because of the ethnic cleansing the Ndebele people had to endure under the command of Mnangagwa, who currently serves as president of Zimbabwe. Africans are inherently intersectional – from birth. We have defied and succumbed to atrocities, injustice in community and resilience. I am proud of my heritage, just as I am so for being a product of Botswana’s fiscal stewardship from the relatively lower end of mining beneficiation. This alone, acknowledges how diverse and expansive our realities are as a people. 

The African Charter on Human and People’s Rights is the only international instrument that acknowledges rights beyond just the individual. So, I posit the same for trans and gender diverse Africans. That we are a community despite the linguistic, jurisdictional and development barriers. That the naming and framing of issues yields power, inequity, and colonial remnants. We see this in mainstream gender movements that deny a trans man reproductive narrative and, in some instances, reduce people’s experiences into bodily autonomy. We are denied personhood because we do not conform to gender roles, expressions, and existence palatable to patriarchy. Our agency and autonomy counter the policing of bodies and experiences: destablising social, normative, and hierarchical power. More importantly, our disposition in struggle can see through fragility that comes with privilege. I could go on, but understand that it makes no difference to those that benefit from privilege, power and patriarchy. 

What I ask for, is truth. Facing the truth is the reckoning we need as a world seemingly defined by conflict, humanitarian and climate crisis. As trans and gender diverse folks, we have to face our truths on a daily basis. We live these truths no matter how painful, challenging and invisible they may be to the world. I had a difficult time throughout my youth, as accepting who I was relied on my surroundings – leaving me unsafe. 

My truth has only lessened the burden and safety in variant ways, a deferred dream. I cannot dream when there is an ongoing genocide in Palestine, efforts to rescind prohibition of FGM in The Gambia, anti-LGBT law enactments in Ghana, Uganda, similar threats in Burundi, Kenya, Tanzania, Malawi; conflict in Sudan, Haiti, struggle in New Papua, Myanmar, Afghanistan, Tigray; anti-trans politics in the UK, US and Russia; plundering of resources and childhood in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Neither does an institutional cyclical state of want in resourcing bring peace or stability for interpersonal refuge, community, learning, rest or thriving. It is a prism of unmet hopes, deferred plans, and daily systems of patchwork in grassroots activism. I flag this because we are yet to understand the extent and breadth of mental health within our work in seeking belonging and existence. That beyond diagnosis, public reactions to triggers and patterns of sabotage; where exactly and how do we grapple with the complexities of what is deeply invisible. So we unearth these issues in solidarity and commemoration, acknowledging the role trans and gender diverse folks play in bringing truth, wherever we are.

Dumi is the Founder of  Success Capital Organisation a youth, queer, feminist-led, managed and serving organisation working in the nexus of human rights and sustainable development. Dumi is trustee of Womankind Worldwide among others. 

References

1. ‘Perspective | It’s Not Enough to Celebrate Transgender Women of Color during Pride. It’s Time to Learn Their History.’ Washington Post, 25 June 2021. www.washingtonpost.com, https://www.washingtonpost.com/gender-identity/its-not-enough-to-celebrate-transgender-women-of-color-during-pride-its-time-to-learn-their-history/.
2. Youtube playlist airing from the 31st of March 2024: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLwPHvuI3Aetrxamb9BFyxsdS8FmFJMSqW
3.  ‘The Disjunction of “Black” and “White” Africa: The Case of the Racist Campaign Against Sub-Saharan Africans in Tunisia’. BIC-RHR, 21 Mar. 2023, https://www.bic-rhr.com/research/disjunction-black-and-white-africa-case-racist-campaign-against-sub-saharan-africans; Banda, Tomaida, and Ronald Kimambo // 14 June 2023. ‘Opinion: Why We’ve Stopped Using the Term “Sub-Saharan Africa”’. Devex, 14 June 2023, https://www.devex.com/news/sponsored/opinion-why-we-ve-stopped-using-the-term-sub-saharan-africa-105692.
4. The Yogyakarta Principles plus 10 article 37: “Every victim of a human rights violation on the basis of sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression or sex characteristics has the right to know the truth about the facts, circumstances and reasons why the violation occurred. The right to truth includes effective, independent and impartial investigation to establish the facts, and includes all forms of reparation recognised by international law. The right to truth is not subject to statute of limitations and its application must bear in mind its dual nature as an individual right and the right of the society at large to know the truth about past events.
5. Gatsha, Dumiso. ‘Reflecting on Activism through Zanyiwe Madikizela’s Words’. Womankind Worldwide, 7 Nov. 2023, https://www.womankind.org.uk/reflecting-on-activism-through-zanyiwe-madikizelas-words