Kewpie’s dolls
A photo exhibition in Cape Town looks back on a queer community that flourished in the ’60s and ’70s, despite apartheid’s restrictive silos
Dancing shoes and up-style hairdos, feathers and fancy eyelashes ... During the ’60s and ’70s, Kewpie was a social butterfly of note in District Six, flitting between her hair salon, drag-queen performances, netball matches and gay beauty pageants.
She was also an icon in her own right — representing the fluid identities born in the layered fabric of District Six. Now, pictures of and by Kewpie are being exhibited in her old stomping ground.
The gay community of this area has been immortalised through a collection of some 700 photographs and negatives, which made their way into an archive in Johannesburg.
Kewpie — Daughter of District Six explores the life of a vibrant queer figure and a lifestyle that found expression even in the rigid silos of apartheid.
He never dressed like that at home
“The lifestyle Kewpie chose brought him to independence,” says Ursula Hansby, 71, Kewpie’s younger sister and only surviving family member.
There were six children in the family but large age gaps and untimely deaths meant they did not all share the house in District Six, where Hansby and Kewpie — or Eugene, as their parents had named him — grew up.
Hansby says she and Kewpie got on well. “We had no choice, we were under one roof.”
She says of Kewpie’s secret life back then: “We were not very exposed to these things in those years. Parents were very conservative; we were not even allowed in grown-ups’ company. Kewpie never dressed like that at home. It was when he was out and about.”
Their father rejected Kewpie’s identity and the son increasingly sought his own life outside the family home.
“Our dad didn’t accept it at all,” says Hansby. “[Kewpie] reacted badly. I was at primary school and Kewpie often didn’t pitch at school. He was trying to find his own life and friends; that is where the hairdressing started. Mom was much more accepting. You know, mommies have a softer spot for their children.”
In 1963, the family moved to Bellville. Kewpie chose to stay in District Six. “He had found his friends,” says Hansby, “but later he came to work at a hairdresser near us. He would visit mom when we kids were at school and my dad was at work.”
Many years later, when their father passed away, Kewpie didn’t make it to the funeral.
“He went to visit some family that day and maybe he fell asleep or something,” says Hansby. “He didn’t pitch up and none of us ever asked him why.”
Hansby’s own acceptance of her brother unfolded gently over the years.
“At that time I wasn’t very impressed with his lifestyle. I was conservative, I suppose. Once we moved to Bellville, I was more at peace with it because we weren’t in the same house any more.”
Kewpie opened hair salons and employed friends, some of whom Hansby says abused his goodwill. “They sponged off him. Their lifestyle was such that they depended on each other, and he was always so accommodating. Mr Samuels gave him his own little premises and was so caring. But others took advantage. He was the caring person; there was always food for others and somewhere for them to live.”
Then, Kewpie became ill. Hansby by then was busy with her own life, working and raising children.
“He started taking ill but we were not aware of it,” she says. “He was dumped here by his friends. Once he got