Initiated by LIGHT PLACE, the eThekwini Queer Archive (EQA) is a community-led initiative that documents and preserves the histories of Durban’s diverse queer communities from 1990 to 2000. Despite South Africa's progressive constitution protecting LGBTQIA+ rights, national archives largely overlook queer histories, particularly those beyond Johannesburg. This project addresses this gap by gathering oral histories, mapping queer experiences, and creating space for collective reflections on the intersections of queerness, race, class, and public spaces in post-apartheid Durban, South Africa.

In this project, LIGHT PLACE invites LGBTQI+ organisations and communities to develop a repository of stories in a co-developed queer archive. EQA explores imaginative archive formats that capture political, social and spatial histories of queer gathering (e.g. cruising) and organising (e.g. activism). The project is envisioned as a platform for reflecting on and imagining possibilities for queer visibility in South Africa on queer terms.