News of an Engagement

Why you've got to love the way the South African tabloid newspaper Daily Sun reported Caster Semenya's marriage to her girlfriend

Image: John Connell, via Flickr Creative Commons Licensed.

Despite its much lauded, progressive marriage equality laws, South Africa can be a shit place for gay people, especially black lesbians living in poor neighborhoods, but then this also happens there: Olympian Caster Semenya has announced that she wants to spend the rest of her life with her girlfriend. The news of the engagement (and her new relationship) seemed to have been ignored by other media outlets that got fat off of speculating about Semenya’s sexuality, levels of hormones, and general degradation at the hands of Olympic “gender testers.” But this happy news was reported by the tabloid Daily Sun, a local paper which is mostly often socially conservative and prone to sensationalism. This is the Daily Sun story’s first line: “Olympic silver medallist Caster Semenya has started the boldest race of her life! The golden girl of Mzansi has chosen her life partner–and paid lobola [bride price] for athlete Violet Raseboya.”

What follows is a sweet story about how Caster’s dad went to pay the bride price and neighbors and friends talking about Caster and Violet’s devotion to each other. Here’s a sample: “Caster’s dad, Ntate Jacob Semenya, was accompanied by other family members to negotiate lobola. Caster had made her intentions clear that she wanted to take Violet as her other half.” And: “Both families were happy to negotiate lobola and Caster’s family paid R25 000 to have Violet as their makoti.”’

There wasn’t even a to-do about the Exotic African Tribal Custom of lobola-payment, or a wink-wink about why it was Caster who was paying. What I loved most about the article was the matter of fact reporting by The Daily Sun, a paper not known for its progressive politics. But really, I should not be surprised. As my friend Herman Wasserman–who wrote a book on the explosion of tabloid media in postapartheid South Africa–reminded me: while The Daily Sun is socially conservative, it also tells stories you will never find in any other paper, and about people you won’t ever see in those papers. All this could be spoiled once the News24 commenters get hold of the story (if they have not already), but as a South African, I am really proud right now.

  • Update: Via reader Mabel Thandi: In that grand tradition of tabloid news, Caster now denies the engagement. Still a nice story though.

Further Reading

Energy for whom?

Behind the fanfare of the Africa Climate Summit, the East African Crude Oil Pipeline shows how neocolonial extraction still drives Africa’s energy future.

The sound of revolt

On his third album, Afro-Portuguese artist Scúru Fitchádu fuses ancestral wisdom with urban revolt, turning memory and militancy into a soundtrack for resistance.

O som da revolta

No seu terceiro álbum, o artista afro-português Scúru Fitchádu funde a sabedoria ancestral com a revolta urbana, transformando memória e militância em uma trilha sonora para a resistência.

Biya forever

As Cameroon nears its presidential elections, a disintegrated opposition paves the way for the world’s oldest leader to claim a fresh mandate.

From Cornell to conscience

Hounded out of the United States for his pro-Palestine activism, Momodou Taal insists that the struggle is global, drawing strength from Malcolm X, faith, and solidarity across borders.

After the uprising

Following two years of mass protest, Kenya stands at a crossroads. A new generation of organizers is confronting an old question: how do you turn revolt into lasting change? Sungu Oyoo joins the AIAC podcast to discuss the vision of Kenya’s radical left.

Redrawing liberation

From Gaza to Africa, colonial cartography has turned land into property and people into populations to be managed. True liberation means dismantling this order, not redrawing its lines.

Who deserves the city?

Colonial urbanism cast African neighborhoods as chaotic, unplanned, and undesirable. In postcolonial Dar es Salaam, that legacy still shapes who builds, who belongs, and what the middle class fears the city becoming.