“Christina Engela is a South African editor and author of horror, fantasy and science fiction novels. Her books are never short of suspense, adventure and humor, while her colorful characters and thought-provoking settings take readers into another world, making her one of the most gifted and creative storytellers. A firm supporter of the LGBT community, Christina believes that Sexual and Gender Minority characters aren’t reflected enough by authors due to a number of reasons. As such, Christina’s writing isn’t stereotypical, and her characters aren’t stereotypes, regardless of their sexuality or gender.” – Booksradar.com, June 21, 2021.
- Summary
- Early Life & Childhood
- Parents
- School Life
- Early Employment
- Adult & Working Life
- Conscription
- A Military Career
- Gender Transition
- LGBT Activism
- A Brief Political Career
- Academic Activism For Religious Freedom
- Committee & Board Memberships/Directorships
- Writing Career
- Blogs & Columns
- Mentions In The Press
- Bibliography
- Accolades
- Criticism
- Other Interests
Summary
Christina Engela, author, academic and human rights activist, was born an only child on February 01, 1973 at Sanford Maternity Hospital in Port Elizabeth, South Africa. It was a Thursday. Assigned male at birth, Christina was raised as a boy but struggled with her identity throughout her entire childhood. Like many transgender people, she kept her struggle a secret for most of that time due to a perceived lack of empathy or understanding from those around her, as well as for reasons she attributed to confusion caused by her then Christian beliefs that homosexuality and transsexuality were evil. After too many years of resulting confusion and unhappiness, she desperately sought professional help to begin her transition, which she undertook in 1999 and completed in 2006. Her gender transition is viewed as a rarity because she transitioned while in active military service with the SA Army, and hers was the first known voluntary gender transition conducted as such within the post-Apartheid SANDF.
She later parted ways with Christianity anyway, and her disillusionment with Christianity set her on a journey to make sense of religion and its effect on the human mindset and perception of reality – a fascination that ran almost parallel to her drive to pursue equality and justice for persecuted minorities, and to also write on a wide variety of subjects, including fiction.
Although she has been with no less than four (traditional) small presses, Christina prefers to maintain total creative independence and is again currently, and proudly indie. She has gained a lot of experience in her lifetime, having been a soldier, an LGBT+ human rights advocate, an activist for freedom of/from religion, political activist, a columnist, a teacher and facilitator, an artist and photographer, a D.I.Y.er, an academic – and first and foremost, a writer and creator. As a writer, Christina has published more than 40 titles in science fiction and nonfiction, 4 series of novels, and her works are available via Amazon in eBook, paperback and audiobook formats.
In the pursuit of her passions, Christina co-founded or helped establish numerous LGBT-focused civil rights organizations in South Africa, including SA GLAAD, ECGLA, PICSA, PFLAG Port Elizabeth Chapter, and advocated for the LGBT+ community in various matters, for example, the Equality Court case of Jon Qwelane, discrimination by the SA National Blood Service against male gay blood donors, the Moreletta Park NG church discrimination scandal, various instances of homophobic or transphobic discrimination involving businesses, churches and the Department of Home Affairs, and the like. She also fostered the development of relations between the local LGBT+ community organizations (e.g. PE Bears, WithOUT Prejudice, PE Lesbians, Eloquor Knights) and mainstream social-work organizations like LifeLine PE.
In May 2009, Christina joined the local branch of the Democratic Alliance (DA) and almost immediately found herself appointed by Councillor for Ward 5, Jeremy Davis, as the chairperson for the ward committee, a position she held for the next two years. Contemporaneously, she also ended up becoming secretary for the DA’s Executive Committee for the Western Suburbs of the city. During that time she participated dutifully in party activities, during which time she attended dozens of meetings, training sessions and the party Congress in 2009, and was supposedly groomed to succeed Davis upon his retirement at the 2010 municipal elections – after which she discovered first-hand just how two-faced politicians and political parties can be. After a thorough scrubbing, she moved on from politics, grateful for such a cheap lesson.
Having moved from Christianity to Wicca in 2010, as her personal religious identity shifted and evolved, she engaged with diverse groups of people and expanded her knowledge and experience in Neo-Paganism as well as other occult religions and subcultures. In 2012, Christina – an affirmed non-theist, was invited to join the executive committee of the South African Pagan Rights Alliance (SAPRA) by Damon Leff, a position she maintained until a falling out between them occurred in 2018. As an advocate for human rights and freedom of (and from) religion, Christina helped establish a think tank called the Alternative Religions Forum (ARF) which became the means by which she was able to conduct more research on occult religions, which culminated in her first academic paper, “Satanism: The Acid Test” in 2013.
As a result of this work’s effect on the scholarly and mainstream understanding of the relationship between occult and mainstream religions, in February 2024 she was invited to apply for recognition of prior learning to enroll as a PhD candidate in Religion and Theology/Comparative Religion at an accredited South African university (a process which is still underway and causing her untold amounts of stress waiting for an answer that will only come in July!)
On March 10, 2018, Christina and Wendy K. Gloss, a poet and artist from Mpumalanga she’d met during her interactions with the Pagan community in 2010, were married at a simple Pagan ceremony attended by close friends and family. She continues to live in Port Elizabeth.
Early Life & Childhood
Parents
Christina’s parents were Theo Engela (1930–1985) and Yvonne Lorraine van der Westhuizen (1934–2013) and married in July 1955. Both her parents were originally native Afrikaans-speakers who had adopted English as their primary language, and were talented writers in their own right, but of the two however, only her father Theo had achieved any success in publishing his work.
Theo was unemployed for much of his adult life. A former policeman who is believed to have suffered from un-diagnosed PTSD and alcoholism, much of his writing revolved around characters who drank heavily and coped with their alcoholism in various ways. He completed three novels, none of which were published in his lifetime, and a collection of short stories which were published in the local SA Police magazine during the 1950s and dramatized for Springbok Radio during the 1960s and 70s.
Throughout Christina’s childhood, her dad struggled with alcoholism and in spite of frequent successes in their local AA chapter, never straightened out for long. In 1977, Yvonne divorced him on account of the financial burden of supporting a husband and raising a child. Despite their separation, Theo remained a firm part of their lives, and neither ever remarried.
![](https://christinaengela.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/Clevedon-Court-2-scaled-e1669119144331-538x195.jpg)
Theo’s dream of writing his ‘best-seller’ sustained him with the hope of eventual success that never materialized. His last completed novel “Shakandazu Valley” was finished in 1984, wherafter he embarked on two new projects – a play (“Mr. Veil”) and another novel (“Cigarettes & Ivory”) soon after, but would never finish them. Theo died on August 16, 1985 at the age of 55 years at the Provincial Hospital, Port Elizabeth.
Yvonne was a hard worker who hid a talent for writing poetry in English and Afrikaans. Unlike Theo, she quickly gave up on publishing her work, but supported his dreams to become a successful novelist, and fostered the talent she perceived in Christina. From a young age, as a direct result of her parents’ influence, Christina pursued a desire to become a writer and to tell stories before she even learned to write.
Yvonne worked as a home typist for a transcription company contracted to the South African Department of Justice from 1973 until even after her retirement and shortly before her death. Then in 1983, she also took a second job at the Department itself, joining the typing pool at the Port Elizabeth Magistrate’s Court building in North End. In 1990, she successfully applied for the position of Chief Typist and was transferred to the newly opened Supreme Court building in Bird Street, Central where she worked until her retirement in August of 2000. Yvonne continued to work for the transcription company after retirement until her death on October 24, 2013 at the age of 79 years, one months, 29 days. She died at St. George’s Hospital, Port Elizabeth. Yvonne’s death affected Christina enormously. She described her mother as her best friend and support system.
School Life
Christina’s school career was if anything, ordinary and lackluster, being essentially described as an ‘underachiever’. Although she participated in some sporting activities (tennis, cricket, athletics, chess) she loathed being coaxed into doing anything she wasn’t interested in doing. During her entire school career, she received just one certificate for “achievement” in 1983, and a book prize in 1985 and rarely excelled at anything in the conventional sense.
She began her school career at Greenwood Primary School in Park Drive, Port Elizabeth in January 1979. She struggled immensely with the stress of adapting to the school routine, and as her parents had heeded the ‘advice’ of her uncle Tom (Thomas) Engela who was then a teacher at Grey High School, and later the Headmaster of the prestigious Paarl Boy’s High in Cape Town, she had been prevented from learning to read or write by her parents until she started primary school in January 1979. Thus, she arrived at school able to draw, but unable to read or write, or do ‘rithmetic – and was expected to compete with children who had already learned these basics at home and in what was then called ‘pre-primary’ school. [LEFT: Christina’s first day of school, 1979].
She did not enjoy rigid new routines and timetables and had a tendency to get distracted easily. Oddly enough at the time, although her mother took her to see several doctors, she never received a formal diagnosis of ADHD or any association with autism at all. But – it was the 1970s, after all. Despite this incongruity, she was then put on Ritalin, which essentially caused her to sleep through the first six months of school, resulting in a collection of alarmed notes from concerned teachers.
In her first year, she frequently disappeared from class while going to the toilet, or between classes, ending up playing with the younger kids in the pre-primary class, and not understanding fully that she was supposed to be somewhere else. Her teachers would frequently find her there playing ‘house’ with the girls. It was perhaps around that time that Christina became aware that she was not like other children. At that young age, she became keenly aware that ‘boys’ who ‘acted like’ girls were not looked upon favorably by anyone – school, Sunday school, some of her classmates, relatives – or her parents. She kept her feelings to herself, for practical reasons.
She developed special interests that held her focus, like keeping up with the latest scientific knowledge and technological development, devoured sci-fi stories and shows like Star Trek, Buck Rogers and Battlestar Galactica and read related sci-fi comics and books. She was a voracious reader and rapidly accumulated an enviable collection of children’s and adult encyclopedias. She became fascinated with dinosaurs and evolutionary science and was very knowledgeable for her age. Her first ever nickname at school was ‘the Professor’, and after a while, she began to experience bullying.
She progressed relatively uneventfully from sub-A to sub-B, and then in 1981 encountered difficulty with math at the start of Standard 1. Christina was referred to the local University of Port Elizabeth (UPE) to undergo EEG testing, which found that although she was in all respects healthy and had a very high intellectual capacity, there appeared to be an anomaly in her brain structure and function which they could not identify at that time, but which was then speculated to be a precursor of epilepsy. This proved to be false however, but, accepting the recommendation of the professor in charge of that particular unit at UPE, her mother enrolled her at Cape Recife School, based in Summerstrand, in Port Elizabeth, which was a specialist school that provided a dedicated and caring environment for children with above-average IQs, and special needs. Christina left her classmates at her old school behind, and competed Standard 1 at Cape Recife in 1981.
During this period, Christina began to learn new skills. While her father, who was a pianist and odd-jobbed as a tuner, taught her to read sheet music and play the piano, her mother taught her how to type on her manual typewriter. In 1979, she typed a short opening paragraph to a story she amusingly called “The Friendly Vampire” (Below Right). By 1981, she’d been enrolled at a registered music school and steadily progressed up to Grade 3 pianoforte through the Trinity College of Music. Although she never progressed beyond that level in music, Christina has always been an avid music lover – just preferring to listen to and enjoy it rather than having to play it on a keyboard.
A voracious young reader at that time, she also began to experiment with writing her own stories, but at that level could only manage a few lines, not yet being mature enough to construct a coherent plot or understanding the writing process required for success. That didn’t stop her from trying and growing by degrees however, and during her tenure at Cape Recife, one of her class teachers would often compliment her and occasionally read her attempts at writing stories aloud to the whole class during short breaks. She remained at Cape Recife the next two years, through to the end of Standard 3, before returning to Greenwood in 1984, where she completed the last two years of primary school.
Since she was an avid Asterix fan, having been introduced to the series in 1980 by her dad, who approved of the English translation’s good grammar, she became interested in writing stories set in Roman times. Her very first attempt at writing an actual novel dates from 1985, entitled “Ostrogoth Roundabout”, which she later re-titled “The Roman Eagle in Gaul”. This story was short and immature, but it had a beginning and a middle, and might’ve shown some promise eventually if it had an end and was developed, but she never finished it.
It was in standard 4 that the road became rocky for her again. Although Christina succeeded academically, she encountered prejudice and bullying from at least one teacher and one of her former friends and a sidekick, who viewed her as being ‘inferior’ and ‘mentally retarded’ solely based on the fact that she had attended Cape Recife School. This experience continued into 1985, but once Christina’s mother learned of it when she suffered yet another breakdown at home, there was hell to pay at Greenwood, and the offending staff member received a stern warning and reprimand from the principal – which was then passed down to the offending girls somewhat unfairly, by the very same teacher who had encouraged them in their bullying and had actively participated in same. In 1985, Christina was briefly appointed as a candidate prefect, but ultimately wasn’t selected, which was most likely due to the atmosphere of favoritism at the school which pandered to the children whose parents sponsored various school activities or fund raisers etc.
1985 was an even more traumatic year for Christina. Not only did she endure the aforementioned bullying from her peers and even staff at school, but the inappropriate and abusive behavior of one teacher left emotional scars on her, and probably other children as well. Not only was he known to be ill-tempered, bombastic, loud and even prone to violent outbursts in which he would rage so loudly that the window frames of the classroom would ring in time with his voice, but he would also often throw objects like chalk or wooden blackboard dusters at children in his class. She lived in utter terror of him, and once had a nervous breakdown because she’d cried while her parents were arguing one Sunday night, and a tear landed on her homework project and made the ink smear. This was exactly the sort of thing that would set him off, and today Christina attributes the terrible state of her handwriting to that teacher’s abusive influence, and has said that it was the only thing she’d ever learned from him. She also uses him as a prime example of why some people should never be allowed to work with children.
In addition to that, her father Theo, also became gravely ill by July 1985. He received treatment as an outpatient at Provincial Hospital before finally being admitted in August. At that particular time, she was busy growing up and she and her dad experienced a difficult time, often butting heads. Consequently, while she accompanied her mother to make daily visits to see Theo in hospital, she ignored him and went to sit aside, reading a book she took along. This was something she would regret, as these were the last moments she would be able to speak with him – he died unexpectedly and suddenly on 16 August, with both Yvonne and Christina standing at his side, having been called to the hospital at 4 that morning. But he was unconscious and never spoke again. Christina was immensely disturbed by Theo’s death, and didn’t grieve for him until she eventually broke down and wept the following year. In any case, the tension and guilt complex that troubled Christina affected the rest of her time at Greenwood. Nevertheless, Christina finished standard 5 at the end of 1985.
In January 1986, at 12 years of age, Christina started high school at Pearson High School, turning 13 in standard 6 (grade 8). One reason for this choice of school was that her mother and two uncles had attended that school many years before, and she wanted to follow in their footsteps. A second reason for this choice was that math was mandatory right through to matric at Victoria Park High – the preferred option of the majority of her classmates from Greenwood, while this was not the case at Pearson.
Christina was clearly not algebraically inclined – her direction was most definitely linguistic – but although she struggled with algebra and more advanced high school mathematics at that age, she still passed math as a subject up until the end of standard 7 (grade 9), when the school allowed students to drop math in favor of other subjects. This also unfortunately limited her in terms of future career choices, including most sciences she was interested in at the time. Even so, she was fascinated by so many different fields, and found it difficult to choose! [RIGHT: Christina’s standard 6 (grade 8) school photo in 1986].
In her time at Pearson, Christina became part of a new circle of friends and grew as a person, but all was not sunshine and happiness as she was quite feminine in behavior and appearance. As a result, she got bullied by homophobic kids who assumed she was gay. The atmosphere in South African society was very homophobic at that time, and being gay was a criminal offense. Information available on gender identity and sexual orientation before the internet arrived in South Africa in 1996, was at best anecdotal and mostly took the form of sensational articles relegated to the “kink” back-page section of tabloid newspapers and magazines. As a result, Christina herself remained misinformed and largely ignorant of what she really was for her entire childhood and young adulthood.
In standard 8 (grade 10) [image to the left] Christina had had enough of the bullying and took it upon herself to toughen herself up physically in order to blend in and also to fight back against the bullies. She copied the walks and mannerisms of male classmates and integrated these into her own. The bullying soon stopped, but she wasn’t happy. In fact, she was even more miserable and confused than previously.
Christina’s writing skill became more prominent during that time, showcasing it in essays and compositions, and her English and Afrikaans teachers began to remark at her talent. In standard 9 (grade 11) she wrote several compositions in English and Afrikaans, and some poetry, which appeared in the school newsletter and later, the year book. By 1991 when Christina entered matric or standard 10 (grade 12), she’d already written early drafts of “Blachart“, “Demonspawn” and had begun working on “Galaxy”, the sci-fi story that would eventually give it’s name to the entire Galaxii Series – and in turn, the Quantum Series, which would also set the backdrop for Panic! Horror In Space and Threaders.
Early Employment
During 1990, while in standard 9 (grade 11), Christina worked for a small business – a convenience store located near her home, called “The Hill Cafe & Supermarket”, (“Aljo’s” by 2008 in the picture, right) where she then (in male mode) acted as a till-packer, shelf and fridge packer, cleaning help and security for the lady operating the check-outs solo at night. Her first pay was only R18 an hour, which didn’t seem commensurate with the amount of work or hours – besides, she was still 16 and still attending school, and although she enjoyed earning a little money on her own, she didn’t enjoy sacrificing her little free time on weekends or between 3and 11pm weekdays.
A little while later, she was hired as a casual worker at the now defunct KFC branch in Rink Street, where she worked as a cleaner, packer and burger-flipper, for which she earned the princely sum of R20 an hour. On the whole, she enjoyed the atmosphere at KFC with her colleagues – it being the first time she actually got to work alongside people of other races (the Manager was Asian and the kitchen staff were African). It’s there where her personal experiences working alongside diverse people first began to erode the rigid indoctrination she’d undergone from South African society up to that point. Unfortunately, mounting study pressure for her matric exams during 1991 prevented her from fully exploiting this option. Less than two years later, that branch closed down and she lost touch with all her contacts there. Besides, retail was never really her interest anyway.
Adult & Working Life
Conscription
By the close of 1991, shortly before finishing high school, young Christina faced a very uncertain future. At the final, failing years of the Apartheid regime, South Africa had then entered a tumultuous, highly charged period filled with unrest, violence, racism, accusations of racism, and drama. Employment opportunities were also scarce in general at the time due to economic sanctions against South Africa, and especially for white South African males, most especially school-leavers – and it wasn’t long after that when “affirmative action” or “BEE” closed the corporate employment market to white South Africans almost entirely for the next three decades in a breathtaking display of hypocrisy – and yet more racism. In the midst of this environment, Christina attempted to understand herself and to stay afloat.
Mainly, those who wished to avoid military conscription, would need to go through a process of deferment for very good reasons, such as pursuing studies after finishing high school. Although Christina would’ve loved to have studied after high school, alas, her mother was too poor and although she’d engaged a study policy for her studies at the time of her birth, this had been rendered worthless for that purpose by inflation by the time she graduated high school in 1991. The sum of R2000 was instead spent on restoring the family’s antique piano, and Christina tried to pick a future career. The only viable means of avoiding military service open to her at the time, was to apply to join the South African Police and make a career there – which at the time suited her. Her father had been a policeman for a time, and she fancied herself making a career as a detective after her initial period of service with the South African Police (SAP) and to carry on a partial Engela family legacy.
During 1991, Christina applied as planned, and much to everyone’s surprise, she was met with initial success. In that period, together with other applicants, she took several aptitude tests and exams, and passed them all with flying colors. The recruiting Warrant Officer handling her application confided in her that she would make an ideal detective and remarked that after her initial training, she would be ear-marked for the detective branch. Christina was overjoyed. Unfortunately, there was still one obstacle in her path. After passing numerous evaluations, the medical examiner diagnosed her with dormant exertion asthma, which disqualified her from acceptance into the police training program. She was however encouraged to re-apply after completing her compulsory military service, which she attempted in 1993, but was informed of a moratorium on new appointments. Although she attempted to apply again in 1994, the employment benefits of the SAPS at the time were fewer than those of the SANDF, which discouraged her from following that career path in future.
A Military Career
As an 18 year old, Christina faced the harsh reality of conscription into the military. As the only viable means of avoiding military service open to her at the time, was to apply to join the South African Police and make a career there – had been unsuccessful, she felt cornered. Conscription was then still compulsory for males after leaving high school – even for those only assigned male! Christina obviously did not want to go to the army, but she was at the time also deeply closeted and braced the doors of the closet from within to avoid the burden of hurting her mother or causing embarrassment to her family, as that had been how she was raised. Besides, even if she wanted exemption from national service, she couldn’t just not show up to meet the Army bus – or the military police would search for and arrest her. She would have to report anyway and then expose herself to the medical officers examining new recruits in Kimberley, and this seemed to make sense at the time – but simultaneously Christina was also aware that she was a financial burden to her mother, who could not afford to keep an adult unemployed child the same way she’d kept an adult unemployed husband! Her entry into army life then, was rooted in resignation, guilt and family obligation. Her mother, who was still in denial about her soft-spoken effeminate handsome son, also hoped the army would ‘make a man’ out of Christina.
Regardless of motivations on all other sides, Christina decided to go, in the hopes that this would – temporarily at least – provide a very modest income, and since she would be absent from home, save her mother some expenses.
Christina reported for 1 year of compulsory national service on January 10, 1992 at Eastern Province Command Head Quarters in Port Elizabeth, thereafter being transported to 1 Maintenance Unit at Diskobolos in Kimberley to commence basic training in the OSC (Ordnance Services Corps). After 2 weeks of orientation, she volunteered to NCO/officer training, passed the initial selection for the Junior Leaders course and was sent to the Logistics School or Ordnance Services School in Wynberg, Cape Town.
It was during this period that Christina found herself isolated from all acquaintances and family, and felt more freely able to express herself as transgender, but this limited freedom did not come without consequences. Once exposed to her immediate peers in basic training, she was treated like an outcast and became isolated and lonely. She hated every minute of basic training and contemplated suicide on numerous occasions during the first three months. At the end of basic training, she was rejected for advancement to Junior Leader training and transferred to Upington, with the parting words “we don’t want any queer officers” ringing in her ears. Simultaneously, and paradoxically, she was not offered a discharge for the same reason. Her fleeting, perhaps unrealistic hopes of making a future in the military dashed, Christina pinned her hopes on getting discharged if she revealed her gender dysphoric feelings to sympathetic medical personnel, which she did. She was offered a discharge, but after careful consideration did not want that negative discharge on her record and decided to stick it out for the remainder of the year. A transfer to Eastern Province Command Maintenance Unit in her home town of Port Elizabeth instead of distant Upington, was arranged.
After starting fresh at her new unit as a private, Christina rapidly established her good work ethic and was promoted to Lance Corporal in August of the same year. Due to the economic decline of South Africa in the 1990s, Christina felt she had no prospects in the job market and opted to apply for a short term employment contract with the SADF after the completion of her national service. In this she was successful, and she continued to work for the SA Army on short to medium term contracts until her demilitarization in March 2009. In 1993, the SADF rebranded to become the South African National Defence Force (SANDF) and began the arduous process of merging all previous statutory and non-statutory South African armed forces. She was again promoted to Corporal in 1994 and applied to be transferred to a neighboring unit (Eastern Province Command Signal Unit), where she spent the majority of her employment thereafter.
In the political upheaval of the mid-1990s, she was assigned to the “National Peace Keeping Force” – a special body responsible for maintaining order during the upcoming national elections which would operate alongside the UN peacekeeping force present for the coming national elections. However, on the eve of Christina’s departure to report to the NPKF, the group experienced catastrophe and disaster as members had been drawn from various bitterly opposed military forces, perhaps predictably, and completely fell apart before it could even launch properly, and her assignment was cancelled!
During the violent and unpredictable period before the grand elections of 1994, Christina participated in night patrol duties in the city of Port Elizabeth, which were conducted in lightly-armored anti-riot vehicles called “fish tanks”. At the time, police and military vehicles were regularly being fired upon, but Christina herself was never involved in any incidents. During her time in the army, Christina built up experience as a clerk, a vehicle convoy commander, and worked in every kind of store conceivable. In 1998 Christina completed the first of two promotional courses required for her next promotion to Sergeant, by 1999 she had already made up her mind to undergo her gender transition and this led to complications which prevented her from progressing further in terms of rank. Christina’s entire transition occurred between 2000 and 2006, while she was a serving member of the South African military. She was exempted from wearing uniform in June of 2000, for the duration of her medical transition.
In 2000, she qualified privately via CompTIA as an IT technician and was then transferred to the signal environment, where she worked first as a technician, and later interchangeably in management, training, IT, photography, call desk, customer care and numerous other environments, including as a multimedia specialist, graphic and web design. In 2008 she made the decision to demilitarize, applying for a civilian post, and demilitarized in March of 2009. Christina’s skills – be they IT or media related – were highly valued by her supervisors, to the extent that on more than one occasion she managed IT-related projects that had her supervising much higher-ranking colleagues. Whilst creating interesting multimedia items for her employer, Christina also sharpened her writing skills, which had been on hiatus for some time. Naturally, working in the military environment provided a wealth of knowledge, experience and writing material.
She received three medals during her military service: the General Service Medal (1992), the Unitas Medal (1995) and the Good Service Medal (bronze) in 2002.
Gender Transition
Christina Engela embarked on her gender transition in 1999. She underwent psychological assessment, HRT, and most of her treatments via her medical service. She endured three surgical procedures in 2004 and 2006 respectively, which were all paid for privately. Her South African identity number and sex description were corrected in 2006.
Perhaps the most unique aspect to Christina’s gender transition is the fact that she completed her transition while in military service, often in the face of prejudice and ignorance. When she began her transition in 1999, she wasn’t sure how to discuss it with her supervisors, or how it would affect her employment. She decided the best approach would be to just stop wearing her uniform and instead showed up for work dressed in women’s clothes, to see what would happen. On the same day she was summoned to her commanding officer’s office, certain she was about to be fired. The colonel who had called her in confronted her wanting to know what was going on with her. To her great surprise, the colonel took it very well, and didn’t fire her. He did, however, assign a female lieutenant to help her pick out clothing that would be more work appropriate.
Christina started living as female full-time in 2000. For the first time in her life, she felt close to being whole and was able to thrive. During the early part of her transition she reported encountering difficulties with some coworkers being ridiculed, and even receiving occasional threats of harm. While many transgender people encounter rejection and social ostracism attributed to their transition process, this was not so in Christina’s case. She developed new friendships and improved her situation by educating those around her about the realities faced by transgender people. During that period, she endured bullying, intimidation and prejudice at the hands of some colleagues, many of whom were influenced by religion and who had no idea what transgender even meant. By 2003 however, things began to change – in more ways than one, and people began to see Christina beyond what she had initially seemed to represent at face value. They began to see her strengths, and valued what skills she could contribute to the work environment, and occasionally as a private contractor providing IT support under the name “Ghost PCs”. It also helped that most began to perceive her as the woman she was always meant to be!
In terms of family dynamics, she found it confusing that her more elderly relatives graciously accepted her transition without any fuss, making a smooth transition to her name change and appropriate pronouns, while most of her cousins her own age severed contact with her as a result. Christina has since the passing of the last paternal aunt with whom she shared any kind of bond died in 2024, regarded herself as having no family.
In terms of writing influences, her transgender journey most certainly had a profound effect on her writing, both in terms of style and content – and later even, in purpose. In 2005, electronic self-publishing first became accessible to Christina, and wearied by her attempts to find a ‘traditional publisher’ for her growing number of early works, she first registered with Lulu.com. Within the year, she completed and published the first editions of ‘Blachart‘, ‘Demonspawn‘, ‘Black Sunrise‘, ‘The Time Saving Agency‘ and ‘Dead Man’s Hammer‘ to the Lulu platform. At that stage, selling on Amazon was still not available, but she still met with some initial sales. ‘The Time Saving Agency‘ quickly overtook the other titles as her most popular title at the time. In January 2006, after three surgeries and years of hormone replacement therapy (HRT) – at long last, Christina completed her transition – and wrote a short story called “I, Mac” during her convalescence.
Christina soon became side-tracked from writing fiction however, in 2008, when she became drawn into advocacy for LGBT rights in South Africa.
LGBT Activism
Christina’s eventual public coming out in 1999 exposed her – somewhat inevitably, to people’s ignorance, prejudice and often, outright hate. Being so obviously transgender, at least at first, this thrust her into the front line as far as the fight for LGBT rights was concerned – and she found keeping quiet in the face of injustice, prejudice and persecution not just hard, but impossible! She began her activist journey first by educating those around her, her family, friends, and co-workers.
At first, Christina became embroiled in online activism, leading to her involvement in the Jon Qwelane issue in June 2008. This homophobic columnist with high political connections in South Africa published an incendiary article equating marriage equality with bestiality and pedophilia and encouraging the removal of LGBT equality from SA’s constitution. Qwelane stated that he would never be made to apologize for his offensive remarks. It was this event that caused Christina to become embroiled in activism, which led to the founding of SA GLAAD (“South African Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation”, logo at left designed by Christina) of which she was a founding member alongside Mixael De Kock, Louise Reardon, Sarel Ras, Cobus Fourie, and Neal McKenna. This controversy escalated to the point where SA GLAAD pushed the SA Human Rights Commission to lay charges of incitement against Qwelane in the Equality Court. As a result of his political connections, Qwelane was appointed by SA president Jacob Zuma, as South Africa’s ambassador to Uganda, accompanying him on a state visit to that country when he was supposed to be appearing in the Equality Court.
The SAHRC secured a conviction in absentia in the Equality Court in 2012 – only to have the conviction overturned again by Qwelane’s lawyers. The case dragged on until Qwelane’s death in December 2020, making his boast that he would never apologize for his statements, prophetic. He was given an official funeral by the ANC government and mourned as a hero. In 2021, the Constitutional Court of SA reaffirmed his conviction for hate speech, providing some closure to the community he antagonized.
In 2008, Christina was one of several LGBT activists invited to attend the first national conference of the then newly founded Congress of the People (COPE) party – which, in the face of apparent ANC apathy, was extremely vocal in its support of LGBT rights and equality. Although Christina never joined COPE, she certainly lent the party her support, and was one of several activists who presented input in the formulation of the party’s initial policies and wording of their stance on LGBT rights and equality, with particular emphasis on mention of the transgender component. Unfortunately, it appears that while COPE’s top structure understood and appreciated the concept and plight of those in South Africa experiencing persecution based on their sexual orientation, they did not understand what gender identity meant – and no mention of gender identity was made in the final draft.
In 2009, Christina was instrumental in exposing COPE’s first presidential candidate – a Methodist bishop, Mvume Dandala, as a homophobe who had been a co-leader of SACLA II, a group which had declared war on marriage equality in 2005. Dandala had also been stationed in Kampala (Uganda) during a period in which Christian rhetoric had been employed in the incitement to violence and genocide against Uganda’s LGBT population – and that there was no evidence to suggest that he had ever spoken out against this rising tide of homophobic Christian hate in spite of its prevalence. Her point that Dandala was an inappropriate choice for a presidential candidate, on account of his status as a religious minister and his hostility towards LGBT people was taken up by independent LGBT activists, and as a result COPE ultimately withdrew Dandala’s nomination, substituting party leader Mosiuoa Lekota as candidate for the upcoming elections.
Through SA GLAAD Christina assisted other groups in getting off the ground, including a PFLAG group in Port Elizabeth, and the Progressive Interfaith Coalition of South Africa (PICSA), which briefly set out to monitor and address the government’s apparent link-up with Jacob Zuma and Rhema’s ‘God-Squad’ a church body working to undermine constitutional protections for LGBT people in South Africa.
Christina started her activism blog “Sour Grapes: The Fruit of Ignorance” in early 2009, and wrote numerous articles over the following years, which were re-posted, shared and referenced by various international activist groups like Truth Wins Out, Sex Gender Body, and the UK’s National Secular Society. For a time she also had a column on Litnet where she shared some of her articles in Afrikaans.
After the apparent lack of progress in the Qwelane issue, most other board members of SA GLAAD’s interest waned and they drifted away, leaving the organization under the care of die-hard members like Christina, Cobus Fourie and Sarel Ras. Under Christina’s influence, SA GLAAD began to grow as an organization, with chapters being established around the country, the largest being Bloemfontein under Kobus van den Heever.
By February 2009, she joined the Eastern Cape Gay & Lesbian Association (ECGLA) originally founded by local sexologist Leandie Buys, quickly moving up the hierarchy to become its Vice President by June, and President by September of the same year. Thus, from the end of 2009, Christina Engela headed two South African LGBT civil rights groups concurrently until she stepped down from ECGLA (then as Director) in November 2011.
Through ECGLA, Christina fostered the building of relations between the pink community and local bodies such as the Red Cross, Lifeline PE – with whom ECGLA negotiated training courses for LGBT counselors for use by both Lifeline and ECGLA; the NMB Municipality, NMM University, the Democratic Alliance, OUT LGBT, HIVOS, St. Johns Methodist Church, and was also responsible for the hosting of the first ever pride march and festival in Port Elizabeth in 2011.
Christina campaigned consistently throughout her activism career against the discrimination by the SA National Blood Service against gay male donors. This discrimination finally ended in 2014 – essentially validating all the points (1,2,3,4,5,6,7) she had raised during her vocal and public opposition.
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In the run-up to the 2009 general elections in SA, the recently acquired legal right for same sex marriage became a rallying cry to pseudo-Christian political parties who sought to overturn this human rights gain. Christina was one of several LGBT activists who engaged supporters and representatives of the two largest South African right-wing Christian parties, the Christian Democratic Alliance (CDA) and the African Christian Democratic Party (ACDP) at that time, to confront them about their homophobic and transphobic stance. This resulted in an extremely lengthy transcript of a debate that went on for several weeks, which Christina published as “Bricks & Mortar: Talking Back to the Bigots”, which was over 500 pages long. She distributed this transcript publicly via social media and email to news media, churches, other political parties, as a warning to South African voters to understand the need for voters to become more aware and discerning about their parties of choice, and what their policies were. The unforeseen outcome for the CDA and ACDP was devastating, as hundreds of very vocal Christian moderates descended upon these parties social media groups to give them a piece of their minds, with many stating that they were withdrawing their support for these parties.
In so doing, Christina had publicly exposed these two largest South African right-wing Christian parties, the Christian Democratic Alliance (CDA) and the African Christian Democratic Party (ACDP) for their intentions of establishing a theocratic government should they win an election, and the depth of their hatefulness towards non-Christians and specifically LGBT people. The worst examples included party supporters who advocated for instituting the death penalty for homosexuality in South Africa – with the tacit support of party representatives. As a direct result, these parties closed their old public Facebook groups and opened new, closed groups, requiring members to provide their ID numbers and proof of party membership to join them – such was the level of paranoia and fear of being held accountable for their bigotry, or more likely, of hemorrhaging more members so soon before an election. More satisfying though, for Christina, was the ACDP’s loss of half their seats in Parliament in that election – a setback from which they still have seemingly never fully recovered. Similarly, the CDA, as a brand new alliance of even tinier Christo-fascist parties, seemingly suffered a catastrophic failure in that election, never really got off the ground, and crumbled.
She later compiled “The Pink Community – The Facts” a list of useful articles, information and links which come in handy whenever an activist engages with someone who is assuming the role of an ‘expert’ when trying to batter down the human rights or equality of a persecuted minority. Over the next few years Christina also used SA GLAAD to apply pressure on South Africa’s government to address various issues of concern to the Pink Community, such as the rising tide of religious homophobia in neighboring Uganda.
Among the highlights of Christina’s LGBT activism career, was NMB Pride, held in September 2011, and organized by ECGLA with her at the helm. By the end of that year, she had been attending several meetings per week and continuously active writing advocacy articles, and active as an online activist for four years without a break. She was tired, and decided it was time to pass on the torch as Director of ECGLA.
Christina stepped down at what she felt at the time was a high-point in her career with ECGLA, and handed over the reigns to the vice chair, David Hessey, who ran the organization after her departure until its eventual dissolution in 2016. Christina described her departure as ‘retirement’ from organized activism, hoping to revisit her writing again, as she’d neglected that aspect of her life for far too long as a sacrifice to activism, and with too little gratitude or reward. She also felt it was time for her to move on from SA GLAAD, but after failing to find anyone willing to take over the reigns of that organization, she at first continued with related activities until September 2018, when she finally closed down the organization’s websites and social media accounts.
Her departure from activism through advocacy bodies did not mark the end of her activism however. She continued to advocate on an individual basis.
Describing herself as ‘really not much of a public speaker’, Christina delivered several informational presentations on transgender and sexuality on invitation several times a year at NMM University between 2009 and 2014 to nursing psychology students and also on one occasion, to university staff.
![](https://christinaengela.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/20130226-Presentation-NMMU-Nursing-Dept-3-538x359.jpg)
She was also invited to address a public gathering as a guest speaker on transgender issues at a Heritage Day event at the NMMU in 2010, and again in 2014 for NMMU Pride. In 2012, she was invited to participate as a representative of the LGBT community at a meeting of the steering committee for the NMB World Aids Day event in 2012.
During 2013, Bruce Woolard, a homophobic science-denying ‘pastor’ at St. Marks, a local charismatic church, delivered a homophobic sermon entitled “Is Gay OK?”. Afterward, Christina and Woolard exchanged fire in a series of public letters (1,2,3) published in the Herald over several days.
Woolard had publicly invited the local LGBT community to attend what he’d billed as a ‘public debate’ and numerous LGBT people attended. Woolard’s ‘debate’ was extremely one-sided, and although it was billed as ‘a debate’, no debate was allowed at the event. Categorically none. Woolard had made some extraordinary and slanderous claims about LGBT people based on denial and misrepresentation of science as well as on pseudo-scientific ‘research’ by discredited former researcher Paul Cameron. His one and only ‘scientific expert’ was a member of his congregation who had seemingly been a university level science student once.
When subsequently challenged to an actual public debate on camera, on the topic of homosexuality arranged by renowned local atheist, performer and showman Mark Rose-Christie, Christina and a number of other interested activists, Mr. Woolard never made an appearance.
In 2014, together with renowned American human rights advocate Melanie Nathan, Christina organized and also participated in a public debate via the Herald, on the religious persecution of LGBT people in African countries, particularly Uganda, but also focusing on South Africa.
Together with other speakers – including journalists in subsequent articles about the event – the ruling party received a scathing reprimand for ignoring human rights abuses while providing support to governments which indulge in those abuses.
![](https://christinaengela.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/20140409-Eloquor-NMMU-277x208.jpg)
A Brief Political Career:
In 2009 Christina joined the Democratic Alliance (DA), and served as Chairperson for Ward 5 under Councilor Jeremy Davis. In 2010 she represented Ward 5 at the DA’s National Congress in Graaff Reinet. The picture below shows Christina posing with Helen Zille (then leader of the DA). The picture was taken by Athol Trollip (deputy leader of the DA and later briefly Mayor of the Port Elizabeth Metro). This was some eleven years before Zille outed herself as a TERF and transphobe.
On two separate occasions, Christina was a Party Agent at voting venues during municipal elections. Despite having been groomed over several years to take over as the DA’s councilor for Ward 5 (Central, Richmond Hill & Mount Croix) from Jeremy Davis, she was not selected to proceed as a candidate Ward Councilor during the 2010 municipal elections for her city. This ended her brief foray into politics.
For a time afterwards, Christina was consulted periodically by the DA with regard to the interests of LGBT voters in South Africa. She admonished the party to also show more of an interest in acknowledging the issues faced by religious minority groups in the country (such as Pagans and Satanists) which she feels are being almost completely ignored or even trampled by larger groups in spite of South Africa’s advanced secular constitution. The DA ignored these requests and also consistently ignored requests from the SA Pagan Rights Alliance (SAPRA) to engage on matters of discrimination, or to address the issue of witch-hunts in South Africa’s locations and rural areas, where people were regularly murdered and made into refugees annually as a result of religious persecution. This issue is also essentially ignored by the state.
Since 2015, Christina became increasingly critical of the DA’s failing ethos of impartiality or secularism, because the party appeared increasingly to be infiltrated by Christian dominionists (being led for a time by Mmusi Maimane, a former pastor at a homophobic Johannesburg church) and also increasingly racist, since it has voiced support for racist employment reservation policies (BEE) which contradict its earlier “Open Opportunity Society” policy.
In the early 2020s, former party leader Helen Zille made public statements supporting TERF ideology hostile to transwomen, and in spite of public outrage in particular from the local LGBT community, neither Zille nor the DA offered any form of apology – thus in her view, failing in its obligations to the LGBT community of South Africa. Christina holds the view that the party has been influenced by gradual infiltration by conservative elements frustrated by lack of growth or progress into leaving smaller, failing political parties and moving to the only party large enough to pose a realistic threat to the hegemony of the ANC. She is also of the opinion that the DA works to gentrify all areas under its control, hence it is a rich-person’s party, not a party for the common people.
Academic Activism For Religious Freedom
Throughout her adult life Christina has been a strong defender of freedom of religion, separation of religion and the state, and also the right to freedom from religion. She has repeatedly said that she finds the level of hatred directed by the mainstream religious infrastructure (despite South Africa being a constitutionally secular state) against non-Christian beliefs, religions, identities and spirituality, to be an affront to decency and human rights, and simply appalling.
After leaving Christianity in 2009, Christina began to explore her own spirituality, joined a local Wiccan coven in 2010 and participated in regular gatherings and social events. She became a member of the Executive Committee of the South African Pagan Rights Alliance (SAPRA) from 2012 to 2018 and organized Pagan Freedom Day celebrations for Port Elizabeth for 2012 and 2013. In 2013 there was a marked rise in SRA hysteria in South Africa, accompanied by hostile rhetoric from politicians and misrepresentations in the media aimed at occult religions and their practitioners. This followed an increase in so-called ‘occult-related crimes’, specifically the highly topical murder trial of teenager Kirsty Theologo. Concerned about the sharp corresponding increase in media and political hostility aimed at occultists, the SAPRA cooperated with a number of other community-based organizations to form a think tank called the Alternative Religions Forum (ARF), of which Christina was Chief Researcher.
The end product of her participation in the ARF was a 400 page advocacy document presented in academic format, titled “Satanism: The Acid Test“, also called “The STAT Document“. This document contained concise clarifications and disambiguation dispelling the myths propagated against occult religions and alternative subcultures based upon assumption and deliberate disinformation, and was widely disseminated by members of the ARF and SAPRA, to law enforcement organizations, media and government bodies around the world. This document received high praise and endorsement from such notable occult bodies as the Church of Satan, Ordo Luciferi, The South African Vampyre Alliance, The Atlanta Vampire Alliance, The Manchester Vampire Guild, The Canadian Collaborative Vampire & Otherkin Alliance, and The South African Gothic Society. It was also praised by secular entities like Ontario Consultants on Religious Tolerance (Religious Tolerance.org) [Ontario, Canada] and academics such as Dr. D.J. Williams, MSW, PhD, an Assistant Professor of Social Work, Sociology & Criminal Justice at Idaho State University; and John W. Morehead, MA in Intercultural Studies from Salt Lake Theological Seminary, Director of the Evangelical Chapter of the Foundation for Religious Diplomacy and Director of the Western Institute for Intercultural Studies.
In May 2013, she presented a slide show based on the “STAT document” and copies of the full document to the CRL Rights Commission, a government delegation then discussing actions to be taken against perceived “Satanism in South African schools” in Port Elizabeth, as a representative for SAPRA and the ARF.
![](https://christinaengela.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/SRA-Hysteria-Triangle-538x404.jpg)
The manner in which alleged ‘occult-related crimes’ were reported on in South African media abruptly changed to become more rational, objective and less hysterical – although a few biased media entities still persist in furthering false stereotypes. Although religious extremists have made efforts to win back the minds of the media with their propaganda, in general however, the effect of this document can be clearly measured by the drastic decrease in hysterical SRA media articles in South Africa.
Later in 2013, Christina took on Adele Neveling (Vrey), who had built a media reputation with the assistance of the SA Police Service’s Occult-Related Crimes unit, as an ‘expert witness’ and ‘survivor of satanism’, to demonstrate Neveling’s glaring lack of working knowledge of Satanist religion.
In 2016 Christina was awarded the “Blue Ribbon Award”/ “the Ribbon on the Witches Bouquet” by the SA Pagan Council for her activism.
In 2021 Christina was approached by the University of Kwa-Zulu Natal as the author of “Satanism: The Acid Test” to critique or peer review a thesis by one of their students. Based upon her critique, she was inspired to write three academic papers of her own tackling misunderstanding and misrepresentations of Satanism purveyed by predominantly Christian activists, intended to demonize occult religions and those who identify with them. The first of these was “Satanism vs Pseudo-satanism: Disambiguation And Argument Against Conflation From Within Religious Satanism“, followed by “A Date With The Devil – Occult & Satanic Calendars Debunked” and lastly, “Devil’s Advocate: The 666 Gangs – Why They Aren’t Satanists, How They Distorted South African Law Enforcement’s Perception Of Occult Religions, & The Consequences“.
Christina formally joined the newly formed South African Satanic Church (SASC) in 2021 as an act of solidarity with a persecuted much-maligned religious minority group. [SASC logo at left].
The organization underwent a rapid growth phase between 2020 and 2021, but abruptly fell silent in 2022, and then completely disappeared from sight without even a word of explanation to its membership.
On April 20, 2022, Christina delivered a lecture as a guest speaker to University of the Western Cape PhD students and staff for the Desmond Tutu Centre for Religion and Social Justice. The topic of the lecture was “Satanism: The Acid Test“. Due to the distance involved. the lecture was conducted remotely via GoogleMeets.
In 2023 she wrote about her experiences as a member of the SASC and analyzed what had led to the dissolution of the organization in a memoir titled “What Happened To The South African Satanic Church… And Other Questions“.
Also in 2023, Christina published another two papers to further clarify deliberate misrepresentation of Satanism and occult religions disseminated by Christian activists, namely “By Their Fruits You Shall Know Them: A Proposed Framework By Which To Understand & Categorize Self-proclaimed Christian ‘Occult Experts’” and “What is Satanism – Really? And What Isn’t? A Concise Definition Of Christianity-created Pseudo-satanism (CCPS)“.
Committee & Board Memberships/Directorships
Christina held the following positions in various NGO’s and activist organizations during her activist career. She presently holds no committee or board memberships.
- Director: SA Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (SA GLAAD) (2008 – 2018).
- Chairperson, Ward 5 Committee (Democratic Alliance) (2009 – 2010).
- Director: Eastern Cape Gay & Lesbian Association (ECGLA) (2009 – 2011).
- Executive Committee Member, South African Pagan Rights Alliance (SAPRA) (2012 – 2018).
- Committee Member, Tru Colors (2012).
- Chief Researcher: The Alternative Religions Forum (2013 – 2014).
- Board Member: OUT!ology (2017 – 2018).
Writing Career
Blogs & Columns
Christina started her blog website on Blogger (then Blogspot) in 2009 under the title “Sour Grapes: The Fruit Of Ignorance“. For the next few years, during the launch and growth of her activist career, she would post an article, sometimes more, per day. During her early advocacy days, these would be mostly LGBT related and would regularly be shared from that platform to various other activist platforms around the world, where they would be available for some time, for example Truth Wins Out, Box Turtle Bulletin, Gayspeak, Pink News, Pink Tongue, and others. Since then, the need to write so many advocacy articles has diminished, although she still posts there regularly.
During 2009-10 she also had a column on Litnet where she would share selected LGBT rights-related articles translated into Afrikaans. Later, she would expand to include religious discrimination into her field of subjects and also had a column on a local Pagan community newsletter run by Damon Leff called “Penton Pagan Magazine”. Some of her Pagan-related articles also appeared on “The Wild Hunt“.
Later, she also created a number of other specialist blog sites focusing on her areas of interest, including writing, D.I.Y. and paranormal investigation, but these didn’t stay up very long.
She started Innovation DIY (2020), to showcase all her own D.I.Y. projects for posterity and inspiration. Innovation DIY appeared as a weekly column in the Weekend Post, called “DIY On A Dime” during 2020 and 2021. In her articles, Christina described how she went about making, building or modifying various types of projects including car hacks and upgrades, electronics, woodwork and other household solutions, accompanied with photos and instructions. During the column’s run, 18 articles were published:
- 20201129 “Project of love brings battered old radiogram back to life“
- 20201206 “Recovered 100-year-old scrap transformed into tea trolley“
- 20210110 “Turning an unnecessary doorway into extra storage space“
- 20210117 “Put your feet up on this easy peasy ottoman“
- 20210131 “Spruce up that old mirror frame with a lick of paint“
- 20210307 “Transforming concrete backyard into tiny piece of paradise“
- 20210314 “Finding a use for old carpets when a car’s mats give up the ghost“
- 20210404 “Simple gadget ordered online gives Dolly new lease on life“
- 20210411 “New greenhouse adds extra space, protects garden from wind“
- 20210530 “Convert a mountain bike into an old-style motorcycle“
Mentions In The Press
Miscellaneous:
- 19960829 Herald “Savage Killed In Accident”
- 19960830 Weekend Post “Top Businessman Dies In Car Smash”
- 1998 Die Burger “Onder Die Vergrootglas” Uitenhage Beetle Show.
For Advocacy:
- 20081124 Pink News “South African Gays Picket Human Rights Commission Over ‘Hate Speech’ Article“
- 20090330 Mamabaonline “Anti-Gay Voter Drive Revealed“
- 20090623 Mambaonline “YOU Magazine Slated For Chaz Bono Article“
- 20090729 Mambaonline “Anger At Homophobic Letter“
- 20090905 The Herald “New gay, lesbian body makes hay“
- 20090907 Mambaonline “Anti Gay TV Kiss Facebook Group Grows“
- 20091210 The Herald “PE’s LifeLine looking for ‘pink counselors’“
- 20100105 The Herald “Gay rights group angry at blood service’s rule on donors“
- 20100100 The Pink Tongue “SA GLAAD asks government to condemn Uganda’s genocide bill“
- 20100112 Mambaonline “Lesbian Minister To Appeal Ruling“
- 20100119 Pink News “‘Homophobe’ Expected To Become South African Ambassador To Uganda“
- 20100125 News24 “No Coverage For Mr Gay SA“
- 20100217 Mambaonline “Shock As Ecclesia Loses Appeal“
- 20100328 Mambaonline “Army Gay ‘Cure’ Doctor Arrested“
- 20100330 Mambaonline “Greed, Morality & Murder“
- 20100405 Mambaonline “Zuma’s Slap In The Face“
- 20100420 Mambaonline “SA GLAAD Slams BCCSA Ruling“
- 20100606 Mambaonline “DA Slams Porn Ban Bill“
- 20100700 The Pink Tongue “We’re GLAAD“
- 20100800 The Pink Tongue “Bloemfontein – how pink are your roses?“
- 20101025 Mambaonline “Newspaper Fires Anti-Gay Employee“
- 20101122 Mambaonline “Warning About Ex-Gay Group“
- 20101129 Mambaonline “Campaign Against City’s Support Of MCQP“
- 20110323 The Herald “Gays still out in the cold”
- 20110317 Mambaonline “Was Gay Slur Headline Appropriate?“
- 20110321 Mambaonline “SHOULD WE CELEBRATE HUMAN RIGHTS DAY?“
- 20110327 Mambaonline “Suspicion About SA Resolution At UN“
- 20110500 The Pink Tongue “SA GLAAD praises government support of UN statement on human rights“
- 20110531 George Herald “Qwelane Guilty Ruling Welcomed”
- 20110531 Mail & Guardian “Govt – Hate Speech Ruling ‘a personal matter for Qwelane'”
- 20110531 Mambaonline “Qwelane Judgment Welcomed“
- 20110601 IOL “Qwelane Hate Speech Ruling Welcomed“
- 20110818 Mambaonline “Local Paper Refuses To Promote Pride“
- 20110901 News24 “Qwelane ‘Could Have Taken Leave For Trial'”
- 20110930 The Herald “Thanks for making event big success“
- 20120118 Mambaonline “SA GLAAD Supports TopTV Porn Bid“
- 20120522 Mambaonline “DA MP Criticized For Gay Protest Comments“
- 20130416 Mambaonline “Health4Men Gay Drug Use Ad Criticized“
- 20130418 Mambaonline “Health4Men Responds To Drug Ad Furore“
- 20130613 Mambaonline “PE Newspaper Apologizes For Religious Anti-gay Ad“
- 20130902 Mambaonline “Homophobic Flora Ad Generates Controversy“
- 20140127 Mambaonline “Growing LGBT Anger At Coke’s Hypocrisy“
- 20140225 Mambaonline “PE Gay Wedding Photo Sparks Hate Backlash“
- 20140410 Herald “Zuma slammed for stance on gay rights“
- 20140524 Die Burger “Klagtes na beampte glo nie gays wil trou”
- 20170510 Mambaonline “Afrikaans Celebrity Lay Preacher Slammed For Dangerous Views on Homosexuality“
- 20180704 Mambaonline “ACDP Councillor Slams PE’s LGBTQ Flag“
For Writing:
- 20150105 Author Interview – Christina Engela – Blachart – Part 1 of the Galaxii Series
- 20150223 The Herald “Authors Tackling Fascinating Topics“
- 20150215 C Is For Christina
- 20150712 Interview With Christina Engela, Author Of Demonspawn
- 20161027 Interview with GaySA Radio (audio) www.gaysaradio.co.za
- 20170213 Focus Mid-South Interview – Christina Engela
- 20180700 Awesome Gang Interview – Christina Engela
- 20200928 Simon Corn Interview – A Moment With Christina Engela
- 20210922 Brandon Mullins of Moon Books Publishing – That one time when I got to interview prolific science fiction author Christina Engela
- 20211016 Interview With Robb Wallace, Fantasy Author – Christina Engela
Publishing History
Christina has been published independently and also traditionally, through small presses like J. Ellington-Ashton Press (USA, from 2014-2016), and Moon Books Publishing (USA, from 2019-2022). As of 2022, her audiobooks are published through Peever Publishing (UK). Her bibliography currently stands at 46 published titles in fiction and nonfiction.
Christina started out self-publishing as an indie author in 2005, beginning on the Lulu platform. Via Lulu she published “African Assignment“, a collection of 15 of her late dad’s short stories, which she edited herself. She followed this with “Space Sux!“, “Blachart“, “Demonspawn“, “Black Sunrise“, “The Time Saving Agency” and “Dead Man’s Hammer” in 2006. “Loderunner” followed in 2007. Between 2009 and 2011, she also published a number of non-fiction LGBT activist works, again through Lulu. During that same period, her fiction writing stood still while she devoted her time and energy to her activism and the LGBT community, whom she described as “the Pink community”, coining the term sometime in 2009. It was only in 2012 that she again began to write non-activist material.
During 2014, Christina was approached to contribute poetry to an anthology being assembled for the Gauteng Department of Education. “Words of Wisdom” was published in February 2015 and her poem “Love Will Never Be The Same” was included in the volume.
Also in the same year, she completed and published “Dead Beckoning” – and a day later, she was offered a contract with J. Ellington-Ashton Press, a small press based in the USA. As a result of her being now signed with a traditional publisher, she was obliged to take down all her books from Lulu and waited for them to reappear via JEA.
“Blachart” reappeared through JEA later in 2014, followed by “Demonspawn” in 2015. “African Assignment” was re-released in early 2016. While “Dead Beckoning” was still in edits, JEA experienced an identity crisis and had a dramatic and very public meltdown, then abruptly decided it was a “purist horror” publisher and would no longer handle other genres! Multiple disgruntled and abandoned authors were sent signed releases for their works in March 2016, and Christina again found herself without a publisher – and worse, she had to start all over again! Rather than throw in the towel, she leapt right back into indie publishing, and after some editing and revision, she republished her books on Lulu.com. Between 2017 and 2019, she expanded her publishing and marketing platform.
In December 2019, Christina signed up with Moon Books Publishing, run by Brandon Mullins, an American friend of hers who had included some of her short stories in the Moon Books Horror Anthology series. Moon Books took on most of her titles, and while she maintained the right to self-publish the same books via other platforms, she withdrew from Amazon to allow Moon Books to sell via that platform in paperback and eBook formats. In February 2020, “Blachart” was the first of her books to go into production as an audiobook through Moon Books, narrated by Nigel Peever, who also narrated “Demonspawn“. Also released during 2020 were “Malice!“, narrated by Michelle Innes and “When Darkness Calls“, narrated by Miciah Dodge. In July 2021, “Black Sunrise” went into production in audiobook format, narrated by Darla Middlebrook, who also recorded the rest of the Quantum series and “Opsaal” during 2021 and early 2022. Sadly in January 2022, Brandon Mullins died unexpectedly, and Moon Books Publishing with him. So too, did her newfound reach and expectations for continuing future growth. Again, rather than throw in the towel, she doubled-down, reclaimed her author publishing rights and went indie once more. Peever Publishing took over all the audiobooks from Moon Books Publishing in November 2022.
In May 2023, Christina published books 7, 8 and 9 in the Quantum Series: “Underground Movement“, “Xanadu” and “The Last Hurrah” and a one-act play, “The Traitor Loyal“. In November of the same year, she published “Freedom Inc“, book 1 in a new series she called “Threaders“.
Accolades
- 2010: Christina won the Ebook Diva writing contest held on Facebook in 2010. Her short story “Homecoming” received the most votes as the winning short story.
- 2016: The SA Pagan Council (SAPC) awarded Christina the “Blue Ribbon Award”/ “Ribbon on the Witches Bouquet” prize for her advocacy work on behalf of the SA Pagan Community.
In addition, Christina has received a large amount of fan mail and compliments over the years, much of which has been made visible here.
Criticism
Although Christina never received any payment for her activism and her contributions were entirely voluntary, some within South African LGBT activist circles claimed she was a ‘shameless self-promoter’ who was ‘out to fleece the community’. As a spokesperson for SA GLAAD in challenging Jon Qwelane, she was described as “a loose canon” by activists within the “Joint Working Group” of long-established funded and salaried LGBT non-profit organizations who were caught off guard and shown up for doing basically nothing for the LGBT community after the court victory that won marriage equality in 2005.
In 2008, Zachie Achmat – a longtime HIV activist (Treatment Action Campaign, later in 2024 also an independent politician) labeled her “a fascist, a racist and a xenophobe” in a Facebook tirade, simply because she dared to criticize the ANC-led government for failing HIV+ people and LGBT rights.
Additionally, Christina has received a large amount of hate mail over the years, much of which has been made visible here for posterity.
Other Interests
Christina draws many of her own illustrations to illustrate her stories. She is also fond of painting. Her favored medium is acrylic on canvas, and she has completed a total of five paintings since 2017. You can visit her Art page to find out more.
Having worked as a multimedia specialist and graphic designer, Christina is also a keen photographer and has an interesting portfolio. You can visit her Photography page to view a sample.
Christina is extremely fond of music and created a number of digital tracks and concept albums which can be enjoyed on her Music page.
Christina has had a lifelong fascination with the VW Beetle, and as such has restored several Beetles of her own. She was a judge at the Uitenhage Beetle Show in 1997 and 1998. This interest ultimately culminated in her nonfiction work “Bugspray” (2006) which was later re-titled “Beetle Preserves” in 2023.