ZANELE MUHOLI

South African, born 1972

Zanele Muholi (born July 19, 1972, Umlazi, South Africa) identifies as a visual activist—rather than an artist—and is nonbinary, using they/them pronouns. Their work, primarily photography, seeks to make more visible the Black LGBTQIA+ community in South Africa, where discrimination has often repressed queer and trans stories. Muholi says of their work that “my mission is to re-write a Black queer and trans visual history of South Africa for the world to know of our resistance and existence at the height of hate crimes in South Africa and beyond.”