This TED Talk features performance artist and activist Ketlego-Koloniani Kisupili, recorded live at TED Global 2017.

You don't belong here almost always means we can't find a functional role for you.

You don't belong here sometimes means you're too queer to handle. You don't belong here sometimes means you're too queer to handle.

You don't belong here.

Very rarely means there's no way for you to exist and be happy here.

I went to university in Johannesburg, South Africa,

and I remember the first time a white friend of mine heard me speaking to Zizwana,

the national language of Botswana.

I was on the phone with my mother,

and the intrigue which painted itself across her face

was absolutely priceless.

As soon as I hung up, she comes to me and says,

I don't know you could do that.

After all these years of knowing you, how did don't know you could do that. After all these years of knowing you,

how did I not know you could do that? What she was referring to was the fact that I could switch

off the twang and slip into a native tongue. And so I chose to let her in on a few other things,

which locate me as a Moldzana, not just by virtue of the fact that I speak a language

or I have family there,

but that a rural child lives within this shiny visage of fabulosity.

I invited the Moldana public into the story, my story,

as a transgender person years ago, in English, of course,

because Sitswana is a gender-neutral language,

...