Zanele Muholi: The Visual Activist

Zanele Muholi (b. 1972, South Africa) describes themselves as a “Visual Activist.” Growing up in the aftermath of Apartheid, they saw how the Black LGBTQIA+ community was being erased from South African history through violence and neglect. Muholi dedicated their life to creating a “visual archive” of this community.

Their most famous project, Faces and Phases, is an ongoing series of hundreds of portraits of Black lesbians and trans individuals. In their self-portrait series, Somnyama Ngonyama (“Hail the Dark Lioness”), Muholi uses everyday objects—scouring pads, clothes pegs, and cables—as “costumes” to reference the history of Black labor and the domestic servant. They use high-contrast photography to darken their skin tone further, reclaiming “Blackness” as a site of profound beauty and defiance.

The Impact: Muholi’s impact is archival. They have ensured that the history of the Diaspora includes those who are often marginalised within their own communities. Their work has been celebrated globally, including major solo shows at the Tate Modern in the United Kingdom, proving that the “personal is political” on a global scale.