Giving a FAKA about
In just one short, event-packed year, this duo has made an imprint on the public consciousness
Fela Gucci and Desire Marea may be the monikers of gender-nonconforming performance artists Thato Ramaisa and Buyani Duma, but the characters were born in 1991, the same year that birthed the dark-brown bodies that unsettle ignorances and tickle fancies everywhere they go as FAKA.
It’s almost been a year since FAKA furnished the internet with From a Distance, a four-minute video in which the duo take Bette Midler’s words to the top of the Melville Koppies where God watched them dance to their own song, bare-chested and wearing coppercoloured Afro wigs.
Although FAKA was only established last year with the introduction of the brashtag #siyakaka, in the past 12 months they have already performed a much-talked-about scene at Stevenson Gallery’s Sex exhibition, recorded Isifundo Sokuqala, the follow-up song and video to From a Distance, and performed at the Berlin Biennale.
The collective has also appeared in the New York Times, collaborated on a futuristic shoot with Adidas and disrupted what they have termed Ni v e a n e s s : “T h e e v e r - p o l i s h e d , superficial persona of the cisgender metrosexual, who wears head-to-toe Markhams. He stays in Sandton or in a Marshalltown bachelor pad and carries a lot … The fact that you are ‘Nivea’ over, like, ‘Vaseline’ — it is a form of self-protection.”
That’s not bad for Duma, a copywriter at the Joe Public advertising agency who hails from KwaZuluNatal, and Katlehong-born Ramaisa, who is about to start a new job managing an artist residency space.
As they prepare to release their first EP Bottoms Revenge in October, during a Sunday-afternoon Google hangout, the two discussed being cultural capital in an irrationally capitalist society, using public transport in Jo’burg, mental health and dealing with the gaze of two-faced photographers. Fela: I have never had a physically violent experience in taxis except having people look at me like I’m strange. I immediately feel unsafe for being visible, especially when there are men in the taxi. Desire: Sometimes it is a drama but it is a subtle drama, mostly: a change of mood as soon as you walk in. In the morning most people are minding their own bad moods.
The people who cause drama are usually people in the neighbouring taxi. When both taxis stop at a robot, a passenger from the other taxi may start shit and comment on your appearance. I guess the distance gives them that power. Sometimes the driver of that other taxi would ask the driver of the taxi I am in what’s going on, and my driver would be embarrassed like his squad saw him at the mall with his gay cousin type of vibe.
I have recently started using the Gautrain for safety, peace and convenience. Fela: I don’t feel safe in public spaces, especially as someone who has clinical anxiety. My being visible, coupled with the anxiety, often makes me feel unsafe. I realise that I disrupt the idea of masculinity that most men uphold and that puts me at a risk of being attacked. Desire: Mostly power. It’s unsafe because the power might expose the fragility in men and when they confront that so suddenly, they might retaliate with an attack that reinforces their ideas. Desire: For me, the lines are very blurred lately. The aim was always for the performance to become our lives, but it is a scary commitment and a huge sacrifice. Fela: Personally, there’s no separation. It feels really organic to exist as Fela Gucci. The only time that it feels like I need to switch off from existing as Fela Gucci to Thato is when I’m forced to be in a space with extended family who make it difficult for me to exist as myself. They hold a lot of prejudice and expect me to perform masculinity. Desire: The virtual visibility is performative and you could say that it is an idealistic and utopian representation of our lives and what we want our existence to mean. Our existence is that in many ways, but there are obviously complexities. The pressure does come from that, but that’s what we wanted. Lately, we can’t be anywhere as anybody other than Fela Gucci and Desire. der-conforming person. It’s very difficult for me to not exist as myself, so as much as I hold anxieties of being visible, I’m not willing to compromise my power. Desire: Our ancestors guide us through it all. Fela: My personal experience has been quite violent. Nothing physical, but the violence of policing my expression. I have had an uncle tell me with spite that I dress gay, which has made it very difficult for me to speak openly about my identity with my family. So, yes, I think family can be a really oppressive institution.