By CHR and HOLAAfrica
It is Pride Month 2025 in South Africa and the country is still fraught with the intersecting issues of homophobic sexual violence and the broader issue of gender based violence. Historically, South Africa’s human rights constitutional framework is lauded as hopeful and inspiring. South Africa is arguably the birthplace for the liberation of African sexual and gender minorities and a beacon of queer African hope and joy, if there ever was. However, over the decades South Africa has recorded alarming recurrences of hate-based brutality towards queer persons, especially through sexual violence. And sex has been repeatedly weaponised to curb the liberation, human rights and dignity of queer persons. Regardless of what any culture or philosophy says, the human body should never be seen as a site of domination, and the use of sex as a tool for correction/rehabilitation, or as a weapon of violence, is unlawful, unAfrican and dehumanising .
This idea of sex resonates with all of us. Whether we are having it or not, the presence, or lack, of sex hums constantly in the background of society. There are so many ways we police bodies, where society says that you can or cannot do certain things, depending on your sex, gender presentation, race or even culture. Who says that good girls are not kinky, that masc lesbians cannot wear delicious lingerie or that straight men can’t engage in a little pegging? Sex positivity 101 is all about understanding that there is no one way to engage with your sexuality, your desires and fantasies, and wrapping all of that in constant communication. There is a cornucopia of sexual experiences waiting at the buffet of sexual possibilities. As long as consent by all parties is at the core then it's going to be good sex. And these realities should be protected because in South Africa we have come too far for them not to be.
Consent and bodily autonomy, expressed as agency and choice in sexual engagement and expression, is an integral part of one’s humanity. In South Africa, of all places, this should be clear. Unfortunately, South Africa is still a place where black lesbian women are targeted, raped, brutalised and killed. Neither physical nor virtual spaces are safe. Gay men and trans persons in South Africa are regularly victims of abduction, torture and molestation, especially in their search for companionship and intimacy. So many communities are yet to cross the bridge on whether or not to embrace the humanity of their queer locals. In addition, migrant queer persons may face the intersecting oppressions of sexual violence, and social, economic and institutional exclusion and xenophobia. Against the history of an exclusionary legal, cultural, political and social system, with a dire economic outlook and an increasing class divide, it has never been more proper to call for a reimagination of how we engage with each other and how we navigate each other’s bodily integrity, humanity and human rights.
In Pride Month, as we celebrate South Africa’s ground breaking and Constitutionally-informed queer inclusivity (noting the above caveats), we reach to the broader South African community to increasingly reimagine all human bodies as sites of respect, protection and celebration. Sexually violent, bad and oppressive sex targeted at queer persons constitutes a betrayal of the liberation that we promise each other daily, both as a country and as an exemplar to the rest of the African continent.
We are making the argument that as opposed to bad or oppressive sex targeted at queer persons, conversations on good sex should be centred and receive the same amount of attention. But ‘good sex’ is contextual, psychological and jurisprudential, and potentially a problematic term. ‘Good sex’ may not necessarily be a human right, but it suggests a lacuna in national and international human rights standards which invoke state obligations to protect, promote and fulfil the human rights of all its citizens, and speaks to the role of citizens to comply. To complement the constitutional and institutional protections that exist for queer persons within the South African legal system, the African Human Rights system provides for the queer person’s right to dignity in Article 6 of the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights:
Every individual shall have the right to liberty and to the security of person. No one may be arbitrarily arrested or detained.
And also in African Commission Resolution 275:
The African Commission condemns the increasing incidence of violence and other human rights violation, including murder, rape, assault, arbitrary imprisonment and other forms of persecution of persons on the basis of their imputed or real sexual orientation or gender identity.
In as much as Good sex, through the right to dignity and bodily integrity, is broadly preserved, it requires a deep understanding of oneself, and one’s traumas, desires, history, hang ups and everything in between. Figuring out what good sex is takes time, it's a sprint not a marathon. This includes swinging from the chandeliers, down to slow and steady missionary on a Sunday. Amazing sex focuses on listening to yourself, your wants, needs and boundaries and moving from a place of knowing thyself and learning about others. And with others and yourself, ‘Agree’ on the scope; be grounded in your ‘Body’ in the way that most honours and dignifies you and whomever you are sharing sex with; ‘Communicate’ clearly by speaking, listening, understanding and ensure that you’re understood, from when it is considered to when to when it is concluded; and respectfully navigate the boundlessness ‘Diversity’ of expressions, desires, identities and experiences.
While there is a risk that the term ‘good sex’ can lead to value judgements - by self or others - we believe that it can inspire us to think more critically and openly about the meaning and value of sex. And should encourage us to think about sex as liberation, as freedom, as a form of transcendence.
As we celebrate our diversity in Pride Month, let us increasingly reimagine a South Africa where sex is less seen as a tool for force, violence and correction and more as a site of respect, liberation, autonomy, excitement, pleasure and dignity.
Centre for Human Rights is an academic department and non-governmental organisation based at the Faculty of Law, University of Pretoria. A leader in human rights education in Africa. For more engagement with the CHR’s work please visit: www.chr.up.ac.za
HOLAAfrica! (HOLAA!) is a Pan-Africanist digital platform that focuses sex and sexuality on the continent through archiving stories and knowledge production.
HOLAAfrica resources:
- HOLAAfrica Linktree - all the HOLAAfrica resources.
- Kivuli & Nuru: The Afrodisiacs Collection - a collection of audio erotica
- Touch Me Properly: A manual on all things sex, gender & sexuality
- HOLAAfrica! sensual sounds - a Spotify playlist
