From oppression to expression:
Cape Town director Andrew Brukman on his latest short film, ‘The Men Who Speak Gayle’.
In a stellar form of cinematic activism, Brukman explores the secret language of Gayle and follows some of the last ‘queens’ in South Africa’s queer community to speak it. By Catherine Del Monte
In socio-linguistics you learn that language extends far beyond its technical function of conveying thoughts and ideas. Language is the fabric of connection – a relic of bygone times and experiences. And while we take the communicative conduit for granted, the language one speaks and the way in which one speaks it can tell you a lot about an individual and a specific time in society.
In many places before the turn of the century, homosexuality or “being queer” was against the law and in some cases even punishable by death. This gave rise to a number of argots within the queer communities to avoid identification and persecution.
An argot is a secret, or “coded” language often used by a particular group of people: in the LGBTQI+ communities, in the context of oppressive times in their respective societies, argots such as Lavender developed in the US, Polari in the UK, and Gayle and the very rare isiNgqumo (the isiXhosa and isiZulu Gayle counterpart) in South Africa.
Gayle or Moffietaal, as it was initially known, is said to have originated in the coloured queer communities in Cape Town’s District Six – a designated coloured area in apartheid South Africa.
During the 1950s, Gayle grew legs from
South Africa’s historically oppressive and punitive political landscape.
Cape Town-based director Andrew Brukman explores this secret language in a “faboosh” (fabulous) and moving short film released in July this year, titled The Men Who Speak Gayle. The 10-minute short unravels the history of Gayle, which arguably became the Trojan horse of the queer community during apartheid, representing an invisible forcefield among a sector of South African society whose very existence was outlawed.
In the 1960s and 70s, there lived an iconic trans figurehead and hairdresser from District Six named Kewpie (born Eugene Fritz) who was said to have developed and popularised Gayle with her group of friends.
“What is interesting about Gayle’s origins is that, geographically, District Six was surrounded by white suburbs and anyone who was ‘liberal and white’ and wanted to mix with other races would go to District Six purely because of its proximity. Based on that, I think we could surmise that many of these liberals were somewhere on the queer spectrum and so Gayle spilt over from District Six through these ‘visitors’ and then on to the airlines,” says Brukman.
The concept for the film was born more than four years ago. As Brukman says: “The film took longer to come out than I did!” One day, Brukman’s friend, Frances van Hasselt, a Cape Townbased fashion designer, told him about a secret language one of her colleagues started speaking while they were working on the shop floor. When Frances inquired about the language, her colleague’s response was: “Well, it’s Gayle darling, don’t you know?”
Later, in the corners of the internet, Brukman found Nathan Kennedy, a drag performer and Gayle speaker from the Cape Flats. “He [Kennedy] was doing Facebook videos and comedy skits using Gayle. The story just exploded into life when I met him and so began the journey of The Men Who Speak Gayle,” says Brukman.
As part of the British Council’s #MoreFilmsForFreedom annual digital programme, Brukman entered his short and the concept was selected to be commissioned to be part of short films hosted by the BFI Flare film festival exploring LGBTQI+ stories as a way of connecting and celebrating LGBTQI+ communities everywhere.
The short follows Kennedy – one of the last people to speak Gayle – to the desert town of Prince Albert to find Louis van Brakel, a former “trolly dolly” (air steward) for SAA back in the 1980s and who is 30 years Kennedy’s senior. What ensues is a moving connection between two completely different characters based on the commonality of Gayle.