Wits students have said a picket against Inxeba- The Wound is a homophobic move.
A group of Wits University students, mostly Xhosa, held a picket on Tuesday August 15 afternoon in front of the institution’s Great Hall. The purpose was to express their dissatisfaction on a film based on the Xhosa culture which addresses homosexuality and the isiXhosa initiation rite of passage.
Inxeba- The Wound, is a 2017 film directed by John Trengove and written by Malusi Bengu and Thando Mgqolozana. It depicts a love triangle between three men who went to the mountain for their initiation.
Kamvalethu Spelman, a second year Accounting Sciences student, addressed the picketers saying that the film portrayed the isiXhosa’s sacred cultural rituals in a distasteful manner. “They have taken our land, and now they want to take our culture. We all know that circumcision should never be shown on TV, no matter what. That movie shows our culture as though it is something dirty”, he said.
Spelman added that the movie showed initiates sleeping together and that was not permissible in the Xhosa culture. A majority of the crowd responded by saying, Inyala lonto (that’s rubbish), which offended some homosexual identifying students who attended the picket.
Kwezilomso Tiwani, a first year Mechanical Engineering student who was offended by the picketers said, “the picket is homophobic, its heteronormative, it’s people who have never had those experiences. I was coming here as an observer, I feel offended by it [picket] as a gay man who went to the mountain and who experienced the hazardous nature of going to the mountain as a gay man.”
He added that “the experiences of sexual minority on the mountain are quite different and that’s what the movie is trying to unfold.”
Gauteng chairperson of the Congress of Traditional Leaders’ (Contralesa) youth wing Nikiwe Bam, also expressed dissatisfaction, “It’s our culture that is being exposed and not in a true manner, the tradition should be respected, whatever issues that arise, there are platforms and traditional leaders, those people must be the ones who address the issues. People must not find ways of capitalising on our tradition. It’s just a way of making money”, Bam said.