Identity as a quest for freedom

read time| 3 minutes

who | Gogo Isolezwe (they/them) gender anarchist and pawerent queering life, unhinged, I’m funny as sh!t dawg, philosopher | capturing with Songo Mogotlane (she/they/he), sangoma

The year is 2011 and post-soccer World Cup euphoria hosting reverberates through the patriotic rivers and lakes temporary nation-building gets us through.

With the extension of festivities ebbing the transition to the 10th grade and the possibility of choice meets eager 16-year-old them, me. There are various moments that remain a blur, for reasons I choose to forget, but one that remains still, clear,  is getting my first ID. I say first because the likelihood of it being a casualty of theft remains high in those same rivers and lakes that inhabitants of South Africa. First, because the F in my pass, like many other’d, has become redundant. In South Africa, you’re likely to have encountered passive and active violence. Because what is the gender marker for nonbinary, transition without medical hormonal intervention? Which identity are we proving? Aligning identity documents with one's affirmed gender in a stringent cis-tem can be debilitating.

Anyway, in my day the school informed us to put on our uniforms best because soon it would be ID day. Department of Home Affairs Officials set up in an environment I’m accustomed to, relative safety, a school hall I've frequented many a time.  With time carved out of school hours, we walk in single file toward some kind of adulthood. 

I then started to wonder, which red tape I would need to tussle through to change my gender marker. Which stairs of shame and or ridicule would I need to trudge and climb against? I hadn't even left my room but my safety had been compromised. Abort mission and assimilate to gendered emissions, I remind myself. 

When identity is so deeply personal. At the time non-binary hadn't stapled itself in popular vocabulary. 

Now, the end of 2023, the last stretch of voter registration campaigning squeezes itself past currency manipulation, and concurrent running genocides. Just before the notorious ke Dezemba boss energy rummages through the festive season, the struggle for agency in identity survives still. 

Songo chuckles softly, in cheeky defeat interjects – “This is not what Sarafina fought for.

“Getting my ID was a cold and hard experience. Most documents have 2 options, one that is assigned to – so I choose whatever thats more acceptable, or raises fewer eyebrows. What relevance do my gender markers have to anything? There are so many things you can prove my identity without needing my gender/ sex.” 

The requirement to pass either as F/M is such intimate violence imposed by the state. What confidence do I have in this tool as a site for violence?

Sarafina, the iconic South African political musical highlights the importance of rebellion in sight of identity-personal identity-unowned of identity-self defined. The cyclical strike, deaths, grief(s) and fatigue are carried through and with generations – those birthed and those only left to be studied. Sarafina reminds us that children are not just affected by the world. Children have an effect on the world that grown folk are often too busy, tired, and disengaged to listen to. 

I mean, if this is the rainbow nation Nelson fought for, “[W]hy can’t I be a star? What does a start do? Nothing. Look at the camera, flash! Smile at the camera, flash! Look at everybody, big eyes! Say nothing. Stars don’t do, stars just be.”

Creating environments, systems, and knowledge-sharing practices that implore and explore children's agencies is a surefire way to build thriving communities. Knowing that children have an effect on the evolution and revolutions that we each devote ourselves towards the various freedoms we need should be enough to urge us towards investment in their agency. Thoughtful consideration towards self-determination is one of the equity pieces that encourage creative expression and exploration towards innovation. Surely this is what Madiba would have wanted. 

Questions to ponder

1. What impact do young people (non-adults) have in shaping history and ultimately the future?

2. Why would someone need to prove their identity?

3. How do create classrooms that nurture student identities rather than question them?