GALA Queer Archive

GALA — the Gay and Lesbian Memory in Action archive — was founded in 1997 to fight a specific erasure: South Africa's public institutions had simply not kept queer history. Independent and donor-funded, housed at Wits University (offices in Braamfontein, collections in the Historical Papers vault of the William Cullen Library), it has grown into the continent's foremost queer archive. Its 200-plus collections include the papers of Simon Nkoli, records of the organisations that carried the constitutional fight, letters, diaries, photographs and oral histories from across southern Africa — the documentary spine of the region's queer past. GALA also programs actively, including the Hillbrow queer heritage walking tour run with Dlala Nje, which is the recommended way to visit Simon Nkoli Corner. Visiting: by appointment (office hours Monday-Friday 9am-3pm) — email ahead via gala.co.za. A specialist stop, but for anyone serious about African queer history, this is where it is kept.