By Steven Lang
A group of senior Rhodes academics led the University’s first-ever Gay Pride March through the streets of Makhanda on 30 September 2023. Dressed in their academic robes, they were in marked contrast to the other colourful parade members that started in Church Square on a busy Saturday morning.
About 150 people slowly marched up High Street waving rainbow flags and holding placards asking, “Why chase rainbows when you can be one? Be yourself, with Pride” or asserting “Beyond the Binary, Love always wins”.
The Gay Pride march was the closing event of Rhodes University’s Pride Week, which began on 26 September 2023.
President of Rhodes Student Representative Council, Avuxeni Tyala, explained why the event is so important, “ . . . because there’s so many members of the student body who need to be told that you can be bold, you can be you, and there’s absolutely nothing wrong with that.”
Some members of the LGBTQI community were making a determined effort to be bold, wearing colourful outfits and dancing joyfully, but others were still a little cautious about enjoying newly discovered freedoms.
Tyala said that Pride Week was significant because it is just a foretaste of what lies ahead, “I think it is going to be so much better, more fabulous in the years to come. “
Chair of the Organising Committee, Advocate Shuaib Rahim, said, “It’s important that we celebrate Pride at Rhodes because in our institutional development plan, we acknowledge, we celebrate diversity, and we wish to create an inclusive and dynamic space where all staff and students are welcome. And this is just the beginning”.
In some parts of the country, Gay Pride is a reaction against latent homophobia in certain sections of local communities. Rahim said that in Makhanda, as in other parts of the country, there are some challenges in this regard, “But we also believe that by creating spaces like this across the university within the community, we will actually then help create those spaces for people to be themselves.”
The march on High Street took the parade through the arch on campus up to the Rhodes administration building where a speech was read on behalf of the Vice Chancellor, Dr Sizwe Mabizela. His words reiterated the Pride 2023 theme, Celebrating Identity, calling for “a welcoming and inclusive culture that ensures that all community members are celebrated as the rich tapestry that acknowledges and celebrates all ways of being”.
Marchers then continued to the St Peter’s lawns behind Eden Grove, where a surprise party was held with a dancing competition. RMR supplied the music as dancers showed their moves to much cheering and goodwill.
