Koleka Putuma and Landa Mabenge.

Every June is Pride Month: that time of the year when queer people celebrate their very existence in a way that heterosexual people do not because nobody is harassing and murdering heterosexual people on the streets. The Cheeky Natives, the South African literary podcast that has become a major go-to space for authors in the country, is celebrating this year’s Pride Month by sharing videos on Twitter of South African queer writers reading from their books exploring queerness. The Cheeky Natives, which marked its second anniversary in May, is run by Letlhogonolo Mokgoroane and Alma-Nalisha Cele.

The first video is of Landa Mabenge, whose Becoming Him: A Trans Memoir of Triumph, the inspirational story of his struggle and success as the first transgender man to make a medical aid pay for his surgeries, was recently covered by us.

The second video is of Koleka Putuma, whose Collective Amnesia recently won the 2018/19 Glenna Luschei Prize for African Poetry.

The third video is of Chike Frankie Edozien, author of the Lambda Award-winning memoir Lives of Great Men.

The fourth video is of Siya Khumalo, author of You Have to Be Gay to Know God.

We will be updating this post. The series can be followed on this thread HERE.