Mourning and Haunting in Remembering, Resistance, and a Reimagining of South African Queer Black Life

This article explores how haunting and mourning in creative productions – states signifying “sitting with” rather than moving on – create queer potentialities of being in the face of homophobic violence and Black death. The enduring legacies of racial and sexual violence, alongside calls for decolonisation, shape the work of queer Black artists in South Africa. Although religion plays a significant role in shaping attitudes to race and sexuality, its presence in creative works by queer Black artists remains relatively underexplored. Through an analysis of South African producer, director and actor Enrico Hartzenberg’s film and theatre work, I explore how engaging with the gothic through depictions of death, grief and revenge expands the sacred resources available in navigating queer Africanness. By challenging Christian-centric, reconciliation-focused narratives, Hartzenberg critiques the post-apartheid nation-state’s emphasis on reconciliation. His invitation to sit with queer grief and trauma reimagines queer Black futurity decoupled from colonial modernity’s notions of progress.