AIDA Nederland

Exhibition Portrait of Victor Mukasa
by Gabrielle Le Roux

Opening Thursday 25 February 2010
5.00 p.m. (open from 4.30 p.m.)

Amnesty International
Keizersgracht 177
1016 DR Amsterdam

Proudly African & Transgender
A cultural intervention for social justice: portraits and narratives of ten transgender Africans from seven countries in East and Southern Africa.

Speakers
Eduard Nazarski – director Amnesty International Dutch section
Victor Mukasa – by live video linkup – Ugandan Amnesty Frontline Human Rights Defender and Program Associate International Gay & Lesbian Human Rights Commission
Gabrielle Le Roux – artist and activist for social justice
Exhibition until 2 April 2010

‘As a transgender person, it is constantly demanded of me to explain and justify why I do not fit into other people’s ideas of what a woman or a man should be. We are now claiming language and claiming spaces. Transgender people have the potential to radically challenge discriminatory practices in a way that helps to free all people from sexism. We – the transgender community – have the right to tell our stories and have them heard, and to have our lives protected.’ Victor Mukasa, Ugandan Amnesty Frontline Human Rights Defender and Program. Associate International Gay & Lesbian Human Rights Commission About Gabrielle Le Roux Artist and activist for social justice Gabrielle Le Roux was invited by the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission to draw participants at a gathering of transgender Africans in Cape Town, December 2008. Each of the ten people who wanted to share their experience collaborated by writing onto the portrait. They came from Zimbabwe, Uganda, South Africa, Namibia, Kenya, Burundi and Botswana. ‘The exhibition honours brave transgender activists in Africa who put their lives on the line for the human rights of all people to be true to themselves and express their identity as they feel it.’