Breaking Boundaries: Looking at black sensuality

26 April 2016 - 02:28 By Rea Khoabane

For the last 10 years curator Lerato Bereng has been collecting information related to sex, starting with President Jacob Zuma's rape trial in 2006. She says the aim of her exhibition, Sex, is to allow the public to look at sex as a subject that can be addressed without the limitations of culture, gender and societal expectation.Sex includes commentary on events like Mapona Vol 1 - the first all-black South African pornography film released in 2010.Artists including Simon Gush, Themba Siwela, Zanele Muholi, Steven Cohen and Dineo Seshee Bopape are in the show.I was struck by Lineo Segoete's interpretation of the theme, because as a Sotho woman I could relate to her views.She explores the topic in a book, Basotho Women Love Sex Too.In it, she gives a brief history of Basotho culture, a culture in which sex is not openly discussed.The majority of Basotho are Christian, which frowns on masturbation and considers frank and open talk about sex taboo.On masturbation, she says; ''Many women go through life thinking the clitoris is as useless an organ as nipples are on a man's body."The book also looks at various Basotho sex rituals...

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