28 May 2008 – Gender

On Sakhisizwe we spoke to Colleen Higgs from Modjaji Books which is a new publisher for women in South Africa. They are inviting submissions for their upcoming short story anthology and are looking for innovative stories that characterize the world from a woman’s perspective. The topic for the anthology is “BED”. The stories must be in English and consist of 3000 to 5000 words. Stories should be unpublished and should somehow involve the theme of BED. All entrants must be women and citizens of a Southern African country (countries include: Angola, Botswana, Lesotho, Malawi, Moçambique, Namibia, South Africa, Swaziland, Zambia, and Zimbabwe) Entries should be sent by e-mail to modjaj@gmail.com. If you need anymore information feel free to send them an e-mail or visit their website modjaji.book.co.za.


We were also joined by Melanie Judge from OUT. About two weeks ago, OUT celebrated the International Day Against Homophobia by highlighting many gains achieved for the legal recognition of lesbian and gay people in South Africa. The International Lesbian and Gay Association chose the 17 May as a special date to launch a yearly report on State homophobia around the world.The report illustrates the extent of State-sponsored homophobia in the world. Melanie shared with us how widespread the attacks of homophobia are in South Africa. Currently we are fighting against another phobia in this country – Xenophobia. Hate-driven crimes seem to be on the rise in this country of my skull. For more information about OUT please contact (012) 344 5108 or visit www.out.org.za. And let’s all stand together to fight discrimination in OUR COUTRY!