Speaking Back to the Walls: The Voices in the Room

What does it mean to enter a space and feel that you belong?

At Sibaningi, we invited participants to reflect on their experiences of the gathering: what they were taking away from the day, what they wanted to say to younger people watching from Johannesburg, Lesotho, Zimbabwe and elsewhere, and what they wished to share with Professor Zanele Muholi.

Their responses were personal, generous and grounded in lived experience.

Some spoke about the relief of entering a space where they could exist without having to explain or defend who they are. Others reflected on the importance of seeing themselves represented, finding community and knowing that they are not alone. Their messages to younger generations carried a shared sentiment: there is nothing wrong with who you are, and you deserve spaces in which you can live, grow and be recognised.

The gathering also held a particular significance because of where it took place. Returning to the place where Muholi began their artistic journey as a student brought twenty years of artistic practice and advocacy into the present. It offered an opportunity to reflect on how a practice rooted in documenting Black LGBTQIA+ lives has grown into something that reaches far beyond the photographic image.

What began as an insistence on visibility has helped create spaces for dialogue, recognition, exchange and belonging. The conversations captured in these interviews speak to the many ways in which artistic work can travel through generations, shape communities and make room for people to imagine different futures.

These are not simply reflections on a gathering. They are testimonies to the importance of being seen, heard and welcomed. They remind us that the significance of this work lives not only in the images produced, but also in the people who encounter them, carry their messages forward and make them their own.

Watch the interviews below and listen to the voices in the room.