Homo History: Simon Tseko Nkoli

It’s around this time that the government eased its restrictions on university enrollment. Black students could finally get the education they deserved. Coming together on college campuses, many radicalized youth began rebelling against the National Party. Students would play a key role in the aftermath of the Soweto massacre on June 16th, 1976.

In a protest against the pass laws, thousands of blacks staged a protest in Soweto, the township in which Nkoli spent his first years. Unprepared for such a large turnout, the state police opened fire on the crowd, killing two school children. The nation soon found itself engulfed by riots, during which hundreds, including Nkoli, were arrested.

Rather than stand down, however, Nkoli only became more determined to fight for his rights. He soon joined the Congress of South African Students. It wasn’t long until his homosexuality became public knowledge. After much debate, Nkoli’s peers decided to keep him aboard. Emboldened by his relative acceptance, Nkoli began to become more involved in gay rights and joined the Gay Association of South Africa in 1983. The primarily white group stayed out of the apartheid struggle, forcing Nkoli to find solace elsewhere. Thus, in 1984, Nkoli founded the Saturday Group, the nation’s first gay black activist group.

Nkoli never forgot his apartheid activism, of course, and joined up with the United Democratic Front, which sympathized with the banned African National Congress. The young rabble-rousers activities later landed him in jail, where he and 21 allies languished for week. It wasn’t long until Nkoli’s sexuality became public knowledge, which many of the movement’s leaders – including Popo Molege and Patrick “Terror” Lekota – to open their arms to the gay movement. The men wouldn’t be released until 1988, by which point Nkoli had found out he had HIV.

It soon became evident that apartheid wouldn’t last long. The government had overextended itself and the resistance proved too strong. As the repression crumbled, Nkoli founded another gay rights organization, Gay and Lesbian Organization of Witwatersrand. He and his allies went on to stage the nation’s first gay pride marches.

While Nkoli coalesced his team, Nelson Mandela and other ANC leaders were negotiating with the National Party. Already active in the ANC, Nkoli worked with Mandela and company to stake a gay claim in the post-apartheid world. In fact, Nkoli’s credited with pushing for a gay-inclusive constitution. Gay and black rights weren’t Nkoli’s only platforms, of course. Already well aware of his HIV status, Nkoli came out publicly and urged his countrymen to do the same. Following the new government’s formation, Nkoli founded South Africa’s first AIDS advocacy groups, Township AIDS Project and the Gay Men’s Health Forum.

Nkoli remained an active gay and AIDS activist until his death on November 30, 1998 – four days after his 41st birthday. Upon hearing word of his death, Lekota, who’s now South Africa’s minister of defense, highlighted Nkoli’s contribution to the new constitution:

How could we say that men and women like Simon who had put their shoulders to the wheel to end apartheid, how could we say that they should now be discriminated against?

It’s Nkoli’s activism that made South Africa the most inclusive nation in the world. And it’s his spirit and determination that should encourage gays the world over to push for their own rights.