Simon Nkoli Corner

Simon Nkoli refused to divide himself. A Delmas Treason Trial defendant who came out to his fellow anti-apartheid accused from inside prison, he forced South Africa's liberation movement to reckon with gay rights as part of freedom — then founded GLOW, and with Beverley Ditsie planned Africa's first Pride march (Johannesburg, 1990) from the gay haunts of Hillbrow. He died of AIDS-related illness in 1998, having helped write sexual orientation into the constitutional equality clause. A year after his death, the corner of Pretoria and Twist Streets — beside the Skyline Bar, South Africa's longest-running gay bar — was ceremonially named Simon Nkoli Corner at the 1999 ILGA conference. Honesty requires saying no permanent plaque is confirmed to survive at the corner today; the memory is kept alive chiefly by the queer heritage walking tours that stop here. Visiting: Hillbrow demands street-smarts — visit with the GALA/Dlala Nje queer history walking tour rather than alone. The corner, the Skyline's story and the 1990 Pride route make it the most consequential queer street corner on the continent.