The banning of Inxeba sets a dangerous precedent

AS A COLOURED gay man I was deeply disturbed that the film Inxeba (The Wound) was reclassified to a rating of X18 for strong “pornographic” content as well as “perceived cultural insensitivity and distortion of the Xhosa circumcision tradition (Ulwaluko)”. There are several problems with this line of argument.

Labelling something as pornographic is tantamount to calling it “obscene”, “crude” or even “lewd”. Watching the film, I see no scenes that depict such obscenity. Every scene in which intercourse occurs is only suggested and never fully exposed. To suggest that two males having discreet intercourse on screen is obscene sets a dangerous precedent in a country whose constitution prevents discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation.

In addition, labelling the movie pornographic is a direct insult to the LGBTQ community of South Africa, whose stories, like everyone else’s, need to be told. I find it quite ironic that films like Fifty Shades of Grey – a film bordering on the pornographic depicting white people having BDSM sex – are able to pass the censorship board, but when writers and directors want to tell LGBTQ South African stories, then this is relegated to the obscene.

The lack of consistency and the blatant support of a heteronormative society is (in all honesty) deeply offensive.

From the beginning of the film it appears that the Xhosa initiation rite is an integral, male-grooming cultural process where caregivers bring up young initiates into their manhood – a similar male-grooming, cultural process that can be observed in many great civilisations like the ancient Greeks, for example.

I do feel that the film pays attention to that sense of brotherhood, while still attempting to make a clear distinction between the initiation rite itself and a queer man’s experience of that initiation rite.

It is in this distinction between individual experience and tradition that the film begins to move towards arguing for a broader conception of African masculinity.

In my personal capacity, the film has enlightened me on the vital cultural processes that the Xhosa culture has in place in order to bring boys up as men. Moreover – as a cultural artefact – the film calls viewers to engage in a dialogue with it that is important for South African communities.

Notions of masculinity within traditional structures of culture need to be discussed and critiqued in South Africa if cultures are to be reinvigorated and renewed to include LGBTQ identities.

To exclude these identities on the basis of their being “unAfrican” is an old and tired argument that plays into the hands of European Christian colonisers who came to Christianise the African continent. What I mean by this is that the notion of queer identity as “unAfrican” is a myth: there have been countless instances of queer life in Africa before colonialism, and I urge those who are interested in the topic to do the research themselves.

Culture and tradition are important structures that ground and guide society, but we must be mindful of oppressive patriarchal ideologies. In a country like South Africa where women are raped, abused and oppressed excessively (and where men have died or been seriously hurt during these initiation rites), it must be the task of cultural artefacts like Inxeba to question traditional notions of masculinity.

The Wound is much more than a film depicting a Xhosa initiation ceremony. In the interactions of Xolani and Vija, we as viewers see two men who have been warped under the expectations that traditional ideas of masculinity have heaped upon them. Inxeba is – therefore – about men attempting to help heal each other from a deeper, more substantial wound: the wound of what society dictates a man should be.

The banning of this film sets a dangerous precedent for LGBTQ stories in Africa as well as cultural artefacts that critique and interrogate tradition and culture. I emphatically beseech the tribunal to reconsider their decision and unban Inxeba (The Wound).

The film calls viewers to engage in a dialogue with it

Johannesburg