Photography as Visual Activism and Visual Disobedience

Abstract

African women photographers subvert cis-heterosexism, systemic erasure, and redefine identities authentic to their existence through visual activism and disobedience. Through the work of Zanele Muholi, LGBTQ+ communities are rightfully humanised. Through the work of Zubeida Vallie, a humanist perspective of the Anti-Apartheid struggle is documented; her work also creates visibility of the lives of women in Cape Town, South Africa, which demonstrate Black and women of colour as people, not as ‘othered' subjects. Thus, this chapter examines Muholi and Vallie's roles in 1) Actualising revolutionary political and social change, and 2) Rectifying the de-womanisation of African women. The study is a multimodal ethnography consisting of prerecorded interviews of Zanele Muholi, and an interrogation of Zubeida Vallie's work through her Master's Dissertation. Through their own testimonies and analysis, the socio-political uses of photography, the legacies of protest cultures, and the development of visual disobedience in Southern Africa are discussed.