Zanele Muholi's queer South Africa: 'I do not dare shoot at night. It is not safe'

The non-binary photographer chronicles the harsh realities of life for LGBTQ+ people in a hostile country. Ahead of a major Tate show, the artist reveals why just existing is political'

Amid the plethora of essays in the catalogue for Zanele Muholi's forthcoming retrospective at Tate Modern, there is a moving testimony by Lungile Dladla, a South African lesbian. Entitled I Am Not a Victim but a Victor, it recounts how, on an evening in February 2010, she and a friend were accosted by an armed stranger, who ushered them into a field and ordered them to lie face down with their hands behind their backs.

We did as told," she writes, because we feared for our lives as he had a gun in his hand and threatened to use it if we did not do as he said. He undressed us and said, Today ngizoni khipha ubutabane.'" (Today I will rid you of this gayness.")