Pride: Protest and Celebration


Shaun de Waal & Anthony Manion (editors)

Publisher: Fanele, an imprint of Jacana Media
ISBN: 9781770092617

Format: paperback

Pages: 176 pp

Price: R120.00

Pride: Protest and Celebration is a history of South Africa’s gay pride marches and parades. It brings together a host of valuable and rare materials, including pictures, documents and personal testimonies of activists, organisers and participants. This beautiful collection also uses press clippings to trace how pride has been reported in the media,
helping to form both an historical record and a colourful scrapbook of memories of the most visible face of South Africa's LGBTQIA+ community.

South Africa's first gay pride march took place in October 1990, just as the liberation movements, including the ANC and the PAC, were returning home after decades in exile. That year, pride pushed for the inclusion of gay rights in the human rights for which South Africans were then fighting. That dream was realised in the constitution, ratified in1996, which enshrines protection against discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation – a constitution unique in the world.

Since then, pride has continually evolved. In 1994, it became a parade, and in later years it came to include a mardi gras and other activities. Its focus shifted from the political campaigns of its early years to a celebration of freedom and LGBTQIA+ culture. Yet it has been controversial within LGBTQIA+ circles as well as in the view of the larger society ­­ and there are still rights for which to fight.

About the editors:

Shaun de Waal was born in 1965 in Johannesburg. He has worked for the Mail & Guardian newspaper since 1989, having been literary editor from 1991 to 2005 and chief film critic since 1998. His books and arts journalism have been published there and elsewhere. His fiction has been published in journals and anthologies, as well as in book form (These Things Happen, 1996). His graphic novelette Jackmarks was published in 1998. He edited several volumes of the M&G Bedside Book series, and co­-wrote a monograph on South African artist Steven Cohen (2003). He has won the Sanlam Award for his fiction and the Thomas Pringle Award (twice) for his criticism.

Anthony Manion WAS the director of Gay and Lesbian Memory in Action (GALA). He was educated at the University of Cape Town, and has a particular interest in making history accessible to the public.