Negotiating Heteronormativity: Transgender Women Navigating through Ulwaluko: The Rite of Passage to KwaXhosa Manhood

Anthony Brown

doi:10.25159/2412-8457/16051

Authors

Anthony Brown Stellenbosch University https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5803-5634

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.25159/2412-8457/16051

Keywords:

transgender, heteronormativity, Xhosa masculinities, ulwaluko KwaXhosa

Abstract

This qualitative study explores how five transgender Xhosa women navigate identity negotiations and cultural belonging within the profoundly gender-regulating ritual of ulwaluko KwaXhosa, male initiation to manhood. Data generation employed semi-structured interviews and thematic analysis. Despite acute violence enforcing masculine heteronormativity, findings reveal remarkable resilience as participants subtly expand gender pluralisms during the ritual through quiet defiance and feminine self-expression. Their profound liminality reveals fluidity within the ritual space. Analysing lived negotiations at the crossing lines of cisheteropatriarchy complicates Western gender theory and signals possibilities for radically inclusive African epistemologies recognising pre-colonial legacies of fluid gender diversity. Findings recommend that cultural gatekeepers foster compassionate pluralism and collective courage to transform exclusionary rituals towards radical inclusion.

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