By day, he is a portly fifty-something hotel owner. But every Saturday night for nearly twenty years in the South African semi-desert, Jacques Rabie becomes the Karoo diva, Leyla Lamborghini.
Pastel eyeshadow and rhinestone strap sandals, her transformation takes place in front of a dressing table lit by Hollywood-style bulbs.
This feathered and glittery bubble nestles in an ordinary old hotel in the arid Little Karoo, a region usually known as the kingdom of ostrich herders and a bastion of agricultural, white South Africa.
Only one small town nearby, Steytlerville, connected by a long road, in an endless horizon of short bushes and succulents. Cape Town is over 650 kilometers away.
"At first it was difficult," says Jacques Rabie, 58, waving a makeup brush in his face. But "after a while more people like us, more gays like us moved in and it became more acceptable in town," he continues, pulling up his fake bust before slipping into a floaty white dress.
In a few minutes, he will go on stage in front of twenty guests seated for a three-course dinner. In a subdued decor, red velvet tablecloths and chandeliers, the transformist performs the standards of great voice singers such as Diana Ross, Shirley Bassey and Céline Dion.
Throughout a retro and burlesque stage play, with his friend on the piano and companion in life Marks Hinds, alias Freddy Ferrari, the interpreter raises his leg and strikes poses that trigger laughter. With each issue, a new costume that he makes himself.
The room is "full to bursting every Saturday evening, throughout the year", assures the gay couple. South Africa, with some of the most progressive laws in the world, was the first country on the continent to legalize same-sex marriage in 2006.
Spectators come to see "something they've heard of but never seen," said 65-year-old Mark Hinds.
"I had never been to a drag queen show in my life, I didn't know what to expect," says Lara Engelbrecht-Wilbraham, 44, the head of a solar energy equipment company .
"It's just classy and beautiful," she says in awe after the show.
09/06/2023 11:36:46 - Steytlerville (Afrique du Sud) (AFP) - © 2023 AFP
