Between Ancestors and the State

A Lesbian Sangoma Challenges Colonial Gender

Abstract

In a Soweto clinic, just before the 1976 student uprisings, a baby girl was born— minutes after her twin brother was delivered stillborn. Her birth was not celebrated but shrouded in superstition. In traditional Zulu belief, twins are considered a bad omen. “Twins die in the Nkabinde family,” her mother was warned. But this baby survived. She grew into a sangoma—a traditional healer—and later publicly declared herself a lesbian. Her name is Nkunzi Zandile Nkabinde, and her life reveals a truth too often erased from African history: queerness has always existed, even when colonial systems tried to deny it.