Z Matebeni
Biographic Data
| ID | 17570 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Z Matebeni |
| GIVEN NAMES | Z |
| FAMILY NAME | Matebeni |
| SIGNATURE | MATEBENI Z |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of the Western Cape |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-8202-8431 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 22 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 58 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 22 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2008 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 4 |
Transitions
In this powerful and thought-provoking dialogue, Jabu Pereira and zethu Matebeni confront the complexities of identity, belonging, and resilience within the academic landscape of South Africa. As they reflect on their shared journey over the past three decades, they delve into the intersections of race, gender, and sexuality, challenging the oppressive narratives that have historically marginalized queer voices. This conversation is not just an e…
Understanding ‘violence’ within protest
There is a dearth of research in occupational science towards understanding 'violence' within the context of protest, including why and how these two phenomena occur in and of each other and why both are characteristic of Post-Apartheid South Africa. This gap in knowledge is particularly concerning as both the profession of occupational therapy and the discipline of occupational science are concerned with human occupation as a means of analysing …
The State of LGBT Rights in Africa
The State of LGBT Rights in Africa
The Writer’s Café
This paper offers a critical reflection on the experiences of facilitating postgraduate and undergraduate seminars in the field of sociology through a decolonial forum we term the Writer’s Café. The paper represents our attempt at grappling with issues of power by negotiating, distinguishing and finding our collective and acceptable regimes of truth through this forum. The frameworks of ubuntu and decolonisation became integral in the conceptuali…
Nongayindoda
In her groundbreaking text, Male Daughters, Female Husbands, Ifi Amadiume offers an ethnographic account which depicts, among others, gender in the making in Nnobi society in Nigeria. This paper, drawing from Amadiume’s work, looks at three related specific moments of understanding gender and sex categories in a South African context. Through empirical research based on a qualitative study; a literary text; as well as visual arts, the paper track…
HIV and sexually transmitted infection knowledge among women who have sex with women in four Southern African countries
Women who have sex with women in Southern Africa, where HIV prevalence is high, are often presumed to have minimal risk for sexually transmitted infections (STI) and HIV despite research documenting female-to-female transmission. This study examined the demographic and social factors contributing to female-to-female STI/HIV transmission knowledge among Southern African women who have sex with women using an integrated model of health literacy. In…
Southern African Lesbian and Bisexual Women Responses to Symptoms of Sexually Transmitted Infections
Queer in Africa
African sexualities are dynamic, multi-faceted and resilient. However, people with non-heterosexual sexualities and gender variant identities are often involved in struggles for survival, self-definition, and erotic rights. Queer in Africa forms an entry point for understanding the vulnerabilities of queer Africans as shaped by social, cultural and political processes, aiming to provide innovative insights about contentious disagreements over the…
Ihlazo
Pride parades can be understood as the stage where identity politics is performed [De Waal, S., and A. Manion, eds. 2006. PRIDE: Protest and Celebration. University of the Witwatersrand, GALA]. [Johnston, L. 2007. “Mobilizing Pride/Shame: Lesbians, Tourism and Parades.” Social & Cultural Geography 8 (1): 29–45] argues, ‘Pride parades are visible expressions of collectivities which may homogenize experience and exclude those who do not conform to …
Queer politics and intersectionality in South Africa
In an interview with Nadia Davids, Zethu Matabeni discusses contemporary queer politics in South Africa and Cape Town in particular. Matebeni contextualizes current queer activism in a broader historical trajectory in which she observes the ongoing exclusive boundaries of Pride celebrations and positions two recent protest movements, #FeesMustFall and Rhodes Must Fall
Southern Perspectives on Gender Relations and Sexualities
Este artigo parte do contexto sul-africano para repensar a produção de conhecimento sobre relações de gênero e sexualidade. Lidando com a violência brutal e o assassinato de mulheres lésbicas blacks em particular, sigo as maneiras como aquilo que venho chamando de 'virada queer' contribuiu simultaneamente com o avanço e a invisibilização de determinadas lutas. Com base na experiência do movimento #RhodesMustFall e algumas produções artísticas e c…
Sexual Minorities in South Africa
Vocabularies of the non-normative
“The problem with English is this: You usually can't open your mouth and it comes out just like that – first you have to think what you want to say. Then you have to find the words. Then you have t
Intimacy, Queerness, Race
‘What do we see when we look at ourselves?’ asked South African visual activist/artist Zanele Muholi in her 2006 photographic collection Only Half the Picture. The question, a deeply challenging introspection, required black women in particular to reflect on the ways in which history has made us not look at ourselves, but be looked at. The images Muholi presented were viewed as both troubling and liberating. This article, using a queer framework,…
I thought we are safe”
HIV-prevention and service programmes have long either ignored or overlooked lesbians. The experiences of lesbians with HIV have similarly been unrecognised and unreported. This erasure has contributed to the invisibility of lesbians in relation to HIV and related health risks. This community participatory study, based on in-depth interviews with 24 self-identifying African lesbians living with HIV in South Africa, Zimbabwe and Namibia, focuses o…
Queer(ing) porn - A conversation
In this conversation I engage with Jabu Pereira,1 a Johannesburg-based black queer person who curates interventions on subjects related to gender, queerness and the body, and Ignacio Rivera, black
Transforming Youth Identities
Raça', ressentimento e racismo
A partir de uma perspectiva qualitativa, este artigo analisa a forma como as pessoas 'negras' na África do Sul esforçam-se por superar e ressignificar as marcas de uma história de repressão e de marginalização 'raciais'. Seguiremos a trajetória de Mpho, uma mulher 'negra' com o objetivo de refletir como 'raça' e gênero articulados envolvem situações de negociação, coerção, ressentimento e recusa. Estudaremos como certos indivíduos reorganizaram s…
All Sexed Up
A saúde sexual de mulheres lésbicas não é um tema frequentemente discutido em nossas sociedades. As questões de saúde da mulher são classificadas sob uma única categoria abrangente e excluem algumas das preocupações específicas de mulheres lésbicas, que, em geral, não têm o mesmo comportamento em relação à saúde que as mulheres heterossexuais. Esta tendência se deve a uma série de razões, entre as quais: falta de conhecimento sobre saúde e risco …
Feminizing Lesbians, Degendering Transgender Men
This essay looks at the recent lesbian feminist leadership institute held in February 2008 in Mozambique, aimed at developing African lesbian feminist thinkers and leaders. More than sixty participants from many African countries attended the weeklong institute. Many of the attendees identified as lesbian, others as not lesbian in same-sex relationships; there were a few transgender men as well as heterosexual women. The diversity of the particip…
Building capacity for Aids NGOs in southern Africa
In this paper, we present the evaluation results of an AIDS non-governmental organization (NGO) capacity building 20-month pilot initiative in five countries in southern Africa called the NGO Institute. A five-person international team conducted a 2 week evaluation of the pilot in 2004 to assess the strength of the model, designed and funded by Bristol-Myers Squibb Foundation. The NGO Institute functioned through a separate consortium in each cou…
Vocabularies of the non-normative
“The problem with English is this: You usually can't open your mouth and it comes out just like that – first you have to think what you want to say. Then you have to find the words. Then you have t
Southern Perspectives on Gender Relations and Sexualities
Este artigo parte do contexto sul-africano para repensar a produção de conhecimento sobre relações de gênero e sexualidade. Lidando com a violência brutal e o assassinato de mulheres lésbicas blacks em particular, sigo as maneiras como aquilo que venho chamando de 'virada queer' contribuiu simultaneamente com o avanço e a invisibilização de determinadas lutas. Com base na experiência do movimento #RhodesMustFall e algumas produções artísticas e c…
Nongayindoda
In her groundbreaking text, Male Daughters, Female Husbands, Ifi Amadiume offers an ethnographic account which depicts, among others, gender in the making in Nnobi society in Nigeria. This paper, drawing from Amadiume’s work, looks at three related specific moments of understanding gender and sex categories in a South African context. Through empirical research based on a qualitative study; a literary text; as well as visual arts, the paper track…
Queer politics and intersectionality in South Africa
In an interview with Nadia Davids, Zethu Matabeni discusses contemporary queer politics in South Africa and Cape Town in particular. Matebeni contextualizes current queer activism in a broader historical trajectory in which she observes the ongoing exclusive boundaries of Pride celebrations and positions two recent protest movements, #FeesMustFall and Rhodes Must Fall
Queer(ing) porn - A conversation
In this conversation I engage with Jabu Pereira,1 a Johannesburg-based black queer person who curates interventions on subjects related to gender, queerness and the body, and Ignacio Rivera, black
Transforming Youth Identities
Ihlazo
Pride parades can be understood as the stage where identity politics is performed [De Waal, S., and A. Manion, eds. 2006. PRIDE: Protest and Celebration. University of the Witwatersrand, GALA]. [Johnston, L. 2007. “Mobilizing Pride/Shame: Lesbians, Tourism and Parades.” Social & Cultural Geography 8 (1): 29–45] argues, ‘Pride parades are visible expressions of collectivities which may homogenize experience and exclude those who do not conform to …
All Sexed Up
A saúde sexual de mulheres lésbicas não é um tema frequentemente discutido em nossas sociedades. As questões de saúde da mulher são classificadas sob uma única categoria abrangente e excluem algumas das preocupações específicas de mulheres lésbicas, que, em geral, não têm o mesmo comportamento em relação à saúde que as mulheres heterossexuais. Esta tendência se deve a uma série de razões, entre as quais: falta de conhecimento sobre saúde e risco …
Feminizing Lesbians, Degendering Transgender Men
This essay looks at the recent lesbian feminist leadership institute held in February 2008 in Mozambique, aimed at developing African lesbian feminist thinkers and leaders. More than sixty participants from many African countries attended the weeklong institute. Many of the attendees identified as lesbian, others as not lesbian in same-sex relationships; there were a few transgender men as well as heterosexual women. The diversity of the particip…
Building capacity for Aids NGOs in southern Africa
In this paper, we present the evaluation results of an AIDS non-governmental organization (NGO) capacity building 20-month pilot initiative in five countries in southern Africa called the NGO Institute. A five-person international team conducted a 2 week evaluation of the pilot in 2004 to assess the strength of the model, designed and funded by Bristol-Myers Squibb Foundation. The NGO Institute functioned through a separate consortium in each cou…
All Sexed Up
A saúde sexual de mulheres lésbicas não é um tema frequentemente discutido em nossas sociedades. As questões de saúde da mulher são classificadas sob uma única categoria abrangente e excluem algumas das preocupações específicas de mulheres lésbicas, que, em geral, não têm o mesmo comportamento em relação à saúde que as mulheres heterossexuais. Esta tendência se deve a uma série de razões, entre as quais: falta de conhecimento sobre saúde e risco …
Feminizing Lesbians, Degendering Transgender Men
This essay looks at the recent lesbian feminist leadership institute held in February 2008 in Mozambique, aimed at developing African lesbian feminist thinkers and leaders. More than sixty participants from many African countries attended the weeklong institute. Many of the attendees identified as lesbian, others as not lesbian in same-sex relationships; there were a few transgender men as well as heterosexual women. The diversity of the particip…
Transforming Youth Identities
Raça', ressentimento e racismo
A partir de uma perspectiva qualitativa, este artigo analisa a forma como as pessoas 'negras' na África do Sul esforçam-se por superar e ressignificar as marcas de uma história de repressão e de marginalização 'raciais'. Seguiremos a trajetória de Mpho, uma mulher 'negra' com o objetivo de refletir como 'raça' e gênero articulados envolvem situações de negociação, coerção, ressentimento e recusa. Estudaremos como certos indivíduos reorganizaram s…
Queer(ing) porn - A conversation
In this conversation I engage with Jabu Pereira,1 a Johannesburg-based black queer person who curates interventions on subjects related to gender, queerness and the body, and Ignacio Rivera, black
Intimacy, Queerness, Race
‘What do we see when we look at ourselves?’ asked South African visual activist/artist Zanele Muholi in her 2006 photographic collection Only Half the Picture. The question, a deeply challenging introspection, required black women in particular to reflect on the ways in which history has made us not look at ourselves, but be looked at. The images Muholi presented were viewed as both troubling and liberating. This article, using a queer framework,…
I thought we are safe”
HIV-prevention and service programmes have long either ignored or overlooked lesbians. The experiences of lesbians with HIV have similarly been unrecognised and unreported. This erasure has contributed to the invisibility of lesbians in relation to HIV and related health risks. This community participatory study, based on in-depth interviews with 24 self-identifying African lesbians living with HIV in South Africa, Zimbabwe and Namibia, focuses o…
Sexual Minorities in South Africa
Vocabularies of the non-normative
“The problem with English is this: You usually can't open your mouth and it comes out just like that – first you have to think what you want to say. Then you have to find the words. Then you have t
Queer politics and intersectionality in South Africa
In an interview with Nadia Davids, Zethu Matabeni discusses contemporary queer politics in South Africa and Cape Town in particular. Matebeni contextualizes current queer activism in a broader historical trajectory in which she observes the ongoing exclusive boundaries of Pride celebrations and positions two recent protest movements, #FeesMustFall and Rhodes Must Fall
Southern Perspectives on Gender Relations and Sexualities
Este artigo parte do contexto sul-africano para repensar a produção de conhecimento sobre relações de gênero e sexualidade. Lidando com a violência brutal e o assassinato de mulheres lésbicas blacks em particular, sigo as maneiras como aquilo que venho chamando de 'virada queer' contribuiu simultaneamente com o avanço e a invisibilização de determinadas lutas. Com base na experiência do movimento #RhodesMustFall e algumas produções artísticas e c…
Queer in Africa
African sexualities are dynamic, multi-faceted and resilient. However, people with non-heterosexual sexualities and gender variant identities are often involved in struggles for survival, self-definition, and erotic rights. Queer in Africa forms an entry point for understanding the vulnerabilities of queer Africans as shaped by social, cultural and political processes, aiming to provide innovative insights about contentious disagreements over the…
Ihlazo
Pride parades can be understood as the stage where identity politics is performed [De Waal, S., and A. Manion, eds. 2006. PRIDE: Protest and Celebration. University of the Witwatersrand, GALA]. [Johnston, L. 2007. “Mobilizing Pride/Shame: Lesbians, Tourism and Parades.” Social & Cultural Geography 8 (1): 29–45] argues, ‘Pride parades are visible expressions of collectivities which may homogenize experience and exclude those who do not conform to …
HIV and sexually transmitted infection knowledge among women who have sex with women in four Southern African countries
Women who have sex with women in Southern Africa, where HIV prevalence is high, are often presumed to have minimal risk for sexually transmitted infections (STI) and HIV despite research documenting female-to-female transmission. This study examined the demographic and social factors contributing to female-to-female STI/HIV transmission knowledge among Southern African women who have sex with women using an integrated model of health literacy. In…
Southern African Lesbian and Bisexual Women Responses to Symptoms of Sexually Transmitted Infections
The State of LGBT Rights in Africa
The State of LGBT Rights in Africa
The Writer’s Café
This paper offers a critical reflection on the experiences of facilitating postgraduate and undergraduate seminars in the field of sociology through a decolonial forum we term the Writer’s Café. The paper represents our attempt at grappling with issues of power by negotiating, distinguishing and finding our collective and acceptable regimes of truth through this forum. The frameworks of ubuntu and decolonisation became integral in the conceptuali…
Nongayindoda
In her groundbreaking text, Male Daughters, Female Husbands, Ifi Amadiume offers an ethnographic account which depicts, among others, gender in the making in Nnobi society in Nigeria. This paper, drawing from Amadiume’s work, looks at three related specific moments of understanding gender and sex categories in a South African context. Through empirical research based on a qualitative study; a literary text; as well as visual arts, the paper track…
Understanding ‘violence’ within protest
There is a dearth of research in occupational science towards understanding 'violence' within the context of protest, including why and how these two phenomena occur in and of each other and why both are characteristic of Post-Apartheid South Africa. This gap in knowledge is particularly concerning as both the profession of occupational therapy and the discipline of occupational science are concerned with human occupation as a means of analysing …
Transitions
In this powerful and thought-provoking dialogue, Jabu Pereira and zethu Matebeni confront the complexities of identity, belonging, and resilience within the academic landscape of South Africa. As they reflect on their shared journey over the past three decades, they delve into the intersections of race, gender, and sexuality, challenging the oppressive narratives that have historically marginalized queer voices. This conversation is not just an e…
Sociology (18 works) · African Sexualities and LGBTQ+ Issues (17 works) · Gender Studies (13 works) · Political science (12 works) · LGBTQ Health, Identity, and Policy (9 works) · Gender Studies (7 works) · Law (7 works) · Queer (7 works) · Lesbian (6 works) · Psychology (6 works)