The GALA – Queer Archive (previously known as the Gay and Lesbian Memory in Action), also known by its acronym, GALA, is an organization that documents social and legal history of LGBTIQA+ individuals and organizations in

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. Its Provinces of South Africa, nine provinces are bounded to the south by of coastline that stretches along the Atlantic O ...

and attempts to correct prevailing

stereotypes In social psychology, a stereotype is a generalization, generalized belief about a particular category of people. It is an expectation that people might have about every person of a particular group. The type of expectation can vary; it can ...

and misperceptions about same-sex relationships in Africa.

The organization

GALA was formed in 1997 as an offshoot of the South African History Archives, it was fashioned after Homodok in Netherlands and the

Lesbian Herstory Archives The Lesbian Herstory Archives (LHA) is a New York City-based archive, community center, and museum dedicated to preserving history of lesbianism, lesbian history, located in Park Slope, Brooklyn. The Archives contain the world's largest collection ...

in U.S. The name of the organization was previously known as The Gay and Lesbian Archives of South Africa from where it got the acronym GALA. In 2007, the name was changed to its present form. The archives of GALA is located at the Historical Papers department of the William Cullen Library at

University of the Witwatersrand The University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg (), commonly known as Wits University or Wits, is a multi-campus Public university, public research university situated in the northern areas of central Johannesburg, South Africa. The universit ...

. The archives contains social, political and constitutional aspects of LGBTIQA+ lives in South Africa. Documents in the archives include legal notes, oral history of LGBT in South Africa, records of South African LGBT organizations, intimate documents submitted by individuals and photographs.

Projects A project is a type of assignment, typically involving research or design, that is carefully planned to achieve a specific objective. An alternative view sees a project managerially as a sequence of events: a "set of interrelated tasks to be ...

GALA organizes and participates in educational programs and training that encourages equality in South Africa. In the late 1990s, it developed an

oral history Oral history is the collection and study of historical information from people, families, important events, or everyday life using audiotapes, videotapes, or transcriptions of planned interviews. These interviews are conducted with people who pa ...

project partly to improve the stories of lesbians in its archives. Another project, African Women's Oral History was initiated in 2003 to include Southern and Eastern African countries. In May 2015, it coordinated a workshop to promote equality in the workplace and raise awareness about homophobia in the workplace. GALA also publishes writing by and about LGBT people under the imprint MaThoko's Books. Founded in 2011, the imprint has published a number of books, including ''Queer Africa: New and Collected Fiction'' which won the 2014

Lambda Literary Award Lambda Literary Awards, also known as the "Lammys", are awarded yearly by Lambda Literary Foundation, Lambda Literary to recognize the crucial role LGBTQ+ writers play in shaping the world. The Lammys celebrate the very best in LGBTQ+ literatur ...

for an LGBT anthology. MaThoko's Books is named for a South African woman who ran an illegal tavern in

KwaThema KwaThema is a township south-west of Springs in the district of Ekurhuleni, Gauteng, South Africa. It was established in 1951 when Africans were forcibly removed from Payneville because it was considered by the apartheid government to be too clos ...

in the 1980s and 1990s. The tavern became noteworthy as the headquarters of the Gay and Lesbian Organization of the Witwatersrand, an LGBT activism organisation founded by South African activists

Simon Nkoli Simon Tseko Nkoli (also spelled Simon Nkodi; 26 November 1957 – 30 November 1998) was an Internal resistance to South African apartheid, anti-apartheid, gay rights, and HIV/AIDS activism, AIDS activist in South Africa. Active in the Congress ...

, Beverly Ditsie and Linda Ngcobo.

References

External links

* {{official website, https://www.gala.co.za/ LGBTQ culture in South Africa LGBTQ organisations based in South Africa Anti-bullying campaigns LGBTQ and suicide