PARDON ME SWAGAA I DIDN’T GET THAT

What is even the truth when the Swaziland Action Group Against Abuse uses the Bible to justify not supporting the Pride March? We read their comments where the organisation emphatically stated it would not be participating in the march with a lot of pause and true bewilderment. We didn’t even realise SWAGAA was faith-based like that.

My incredibly smart friend Zanta Nkumane and I had a conversation about this and its many problematic corners...come and eavesdrop or whatever the visual equivalent is.

Nono: First of all I am so excited that the Pride March is shaking all the tables in the kingdom! Literally scattering all the hypocrites. I’m also so bored by all the prejudiced reactions because they prove precisely why an event of this manner is necessary.

Zanta: The world is changing. Our country can decide to adapt or die. We can no longer be this pocket of a country where time seems to stop moving and a people that refuse to evolve. Living in denial does not serve anyone, it stunts growth. Tables have been shook and will continue to be shaken. I don’t understand how we continue to fear love and acceptance. In the words of Kwanda in Inxeba - “How can love destroy a nation?”

Nono: Kindred, what is in the water there by SWAGAA? They say they will continue to serve the LGBTI community because they are well aware of the violence the demographic faces but I don’t understand how they are completely blind to the fact that this statement is a form of abuse! It’s like they can religiously rationalise the subjugation faced by LGBTI people but still want us to believe they are able to serve the community in any sort of honest way.

Zanta: *le sigh, le crise* How embarrassing was that statement coming from one of the oldest activist/human rights focused NGOs in the country? I just want them to know, and the country in fact, that we cannot hope to achieve a positive social shift if our movements remain exclusionary.

‘If we going to heal, let it be beautiful’ right? Beautiful means wholeness, inclusion. The narratives and discourses of religion and God in this country are heart breaking. They are articulated and expressed to yield and defend hate, exclusion and grey, shady morals. Morals that are switched on and off to suit whatever agenda is being shoved down our throats.

The same religion is used to excuse rape, murder of women and children – the very work SWAAGA is involved in. How did they not catch that?  When I got to where the communications officer of SWAGAA said ‘Lord Jesus’, in that damning article, I wanted to howl. If that’s the stance they are taking, then the work they are doing is void of true purpose – their goals will not be achieved.

Nono: Oh my soul, did you also see the comments by the Police PRO who was ‘speaking in his capacity as a man of God’. I was like ‘girl lol what are you even doing? Why are you even doing it?’ Churches are mad violent spaces because they can, do and have discounted people’s humanity. I’m not about it. Do we even have hate speech laws in the country, because I’m certain this qualifies?

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