Connect with us

Africa

Six queer Nigerians talk about what Pride means to them

Same-sex relationships remain criminalized in country

Published

on

Fola Francis (Photo via Instagram)

In a world that continually strives for progress and inclusivity, the rights and experiences of LGBTQ individuals remain a paramount measure of a society’s commitment to equality. This holds true for Africa, a continent that grapples with a complex tapestry of cultural, religious and legal challenges surrounding queerness. Specifically, Nigeria stands as a striking example, where the struggle for LGBTQ rights intertwines with deeply ingrained societal norms and the weight of colonial legacies.

Across Africa, the LGBTQ community faces a range of legal and social hurdles, often rooted in colonial-era laws and cultural conservatism. These struggles mirror a global pattern, where queerness intersects with historical prejudices, societal biases and a lack of understanding. While some African nations have taken significant steps toward recognizing and protecting LGBTQ rights, Nigeria remains ensnared in a deeply polarized landscape.

Nigeria’s legal landscape is marked by the introduction of anti-gay laws that have exacerbated the challenges faced by the queer community. The Same-Sex Marriage Prohibition Act, enacted in 2014, is one such legislation that has perpetuated discrimination and created an environment of fear and hostility for openly queer individuals. Under this law, same-sex relationships are criminalized, with penalties ranging from imprisonment to public ostracism.

Within this oppressive framework, queerness takes on a profound significance for individuals who dare to express their authentic selves. It becomes a powerful assertion of identity, a catalyst for change, and a pursuit of equality and freedom. The queer community in Nigeria embraces diverse identities, encompassing sexual orientation, gender identity, and gender expression, challenging conventional norms and redefining societal perceptions.

For many openly queer Nigerians, Pride month serves as a symbol of resilience, solidarity and hope. Despite the absence of large-scale public celebrations, queer individuals and their allies find ways to commemorate and uplift the community’s spirit. Pride month offers an opportunity to foster dialogue, raise awareness and amplify voices that have long been silenced.

At its core, queerness in Nigeria embodies a profound longing for acceptance, understanding and love. It calls for a society that recognizes and values the richness of human diversity, free from discrimination and prejudice. Queerness invites us to question the notion of what it means to be human, to challenge the confines of traditional gender roles, and to embrace love and relationships in all their diverse forms.

As we explore the experiences of openly queer individuals during Pride month in Nigeria, it is essential to recognize the ongoing struggle for equality. It is a struggle that demands our attention, empathy, and a collective commitment to dismantling the barriers that hinder progress. By amplifying the voices and stories of the queer community, we can begin to foster an environment of inclusivity, understanding, and acceptance in Nigeria and beyond. The Washington Blade spoke with seven queer Nigerian on what Pride month means to them, amid the country’s extremely strict anti-gay policies.

Justin Chidozie (Photo via LinkedIn)

Justin Chidozie (He/Him)

Justin Chidozie founded the Center for Health Education and Vulnerable Support in 2019. CHEVS prides itself as a people-centric society, which pushes for everyone to have equal access to health and human rights, irrespective of sexuality, gender and social status. 

“For me, it’s simple,” he tells the Blade. “It’s celebrating resilience, celebrating community, and also celebrating the ancestors of the LGBTQI+ advocacy movement. I do not just see it as the whole parade, but I [also] see it as a time of reflection of how far we have come. This year, Pride [was] extremely special to me because [we] have seen the rise of the anti-gender movement, and the christian evangelical movement in Africa, trying to support the parliament with all the funds at their disposal, trying to criminalize LGBTQI+ identities.”

Matthew Blaise (Photo via Instagram)

Matthew Blaise (They/Them)

Matthew Blaise has been one of the most vocal activists of queer rights in the conservative Nigeria. They’re the founder of Obodo Nigeria, a Nigeria-based non-profit organization that’s working to promote positive representation and humanization of queer people through educating, upholding, empowering, and promoting the rights and humanity of all Nigerians. 

“Pride month for me is honestly just like every other month,” they say. “I mean, it’s great that it’s been celebrated, but within Nigeria, it’s just like every other month; and I say this because I still have to deal with the struggles of being queer for everyday of my life. For me, it’s also a reminder of my own resilience and resistance within this largely homophobic and transphobic framework of a country. It’s really just a reminder for me to celebrate that power that I have, and the one that has kept me going. I see it as one of those times when I have to remind myself that I am deserving of love, care, and security.”

Chisom Peter Job (Photo via Instagram)

Chisom Peter Job (He/Him)

Chisom Peter Job is an openly queer journalist and the current managing editor of film and television media company, Statement Films, built for African creators. Job’s works, which have been featured in Washington Post, the New York Times, Al Jazeera, etc., really focuses on queer life, and how that interfaces with our screens. 

“Pride month for me is a month of happiness, a month to be very queer, and a month to celebrate queerness in a very different way,” he tells the Blade. “I mean, I celebrate my queerness every other day, but living in Nigeria, Pride month is just that month when there are a lot of things happening to queer people, and [we’re] just free to do whatever. It’s an  important celebration done in Nigeria because a lot of things happen that makes it easy for queer people here to enjoy what it’s all about. Pride balls happen in other places outside the country, and we’ve managed to create a space for it to easily happen here. Whilst the SSMPA (Same-Sex Marriage Prohibition Act) exists, the Pride tells them that ‘we are here, and we’re here with Pride.’”

Fola Francis (Photo via Instagram)

Fola Francis (She/Her)

Fola Francis is an openly transgender Nigerian woman, who is the founder of fashion brand, Fola Francis, and a nascent food (salad) blogger. Last year, she made “herstory” by being the first openly trans woman to walk on the runway at Lagos Fashion Week, one of the biggest fashion conventions in Africa. This year, she played host to the Ball Party of Pride in Lagos. 

“Celebrating Pride in a country like Nigeria where queer lives are criminalized is just, for me, pushing back against the shitty laws that exist to invalidate our sexual orientations and gender identities,” she says. “Ballroom Culture for example, is freedom at its peak. There’s just this level of freedom and no judgement, just community and over the top fun. It’s the most beautiful thing ever. The fact that we’re still celebrating and resisting amidst this chaotic climate for queer people, is what makes it surreal, and even more special. We’re damning the consequences and celebrating our beauty and uniqueness.”

Olaide Kayode Timileyin (Photo via Instagram)

Olaide Kayode Timileyin (He/They)

Olaide Kayode is an openly queer Nigerian activist who runs the queer-focuded organization and media, Queercity Media. Although first started as a podcast called Queercity Podcast, the center of Timileyin’s works premises on celebrating and telling the untold stories of LGBTQ Nigerians and across Africa. To that end, they’ve worked with platforms like HBO, Grindr, etc., and have been one of the leading organizers/founders of Pride in Lagos, an annual, and one of the most widely anticipated gatherings of queer Nigerians. 

“At the core of our work at Queercity is ‘queer joy,’ and that is not just about building resilience everyday or speaking against policies, but that we also carry queer joy. That is what Pride means to me,” they say.. “It is carrying those trauma, those shame, that fear, and every other negative thing into the dancehall, and celebrating the discarding of them. It’s proof that we still thrive, as we take the little we have, and create joys/smiles from it.”

Rex Okey Opara, Jr. (Photo via Instagram)

Rex Okey Opara Jr. (He/Him)

Popularly called Raldie, Rex Okey Opara, Jr., is an openly queer multidisciplinary musician and artist with an unconventional, creative and fluidity in his tone. His sounds are highly mysterious, and it takes a certain level of attention to grasp the undertone of the message. His songs mostly emerge from a place of personal experience, and are really just a nuanced atonement to life in general. He was one of the key performers at Pride in Lagos, and has had the chance to do a fellowship at Germany-based talent hub, Goethe Talents. 

“When I think of Pride month, I think of it as how everyday should be, which is loving life in confidence in who I am as a queer person. It’s really just another time to celebrate every facet and piece of me, without shame, worrying, or expectations,” he tells the Blade. “In Nigeria, there aren’t a lot of opportunities for our queerness to be acknowledged. A lot of times, society shapes itself in such a way that queer people are usually read as invisible and unworthy. I think it’s just as important a celebration as any, to say to ourselves that even if the world doesn’t see us, we see ourselves, and we love each other.”

Advertisement
FUND LGBTQ JOURNALISM
SIGN UP FOR E-BLAST

Africa

Report: Anti-LGBTQ discrimination has cost East African countries billions

Open for Business highlights Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, and Rwanda

Published

on

(Bigstock photo)

The economies of four East African countries are losing more than $5 billion a year because of discrimination against LGBTQ people.

The 80-page report that Open for Business, a coalition of leading global organizations that champion LGBTQ inclusion, released in late March focuses on Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, and Rwanda. It attributes the losses to anti-homosexuality laws, and predicts more economic costs if lawmakers implement other harsh anti-LGBTQ measures.

The report notes Uganda is losing $2.4 billion, or 5.2 percent of its GDP, annually because of the Anti-Homosexuality Act that took effect in 2023. Open for Business last October revealed the country had already lost $1.6 billion in foreign direct investment, donor aid, trade, tourism, public health and productivity after President Yoweri Museveni signed the law.

Kenya is losing $1.5 billion, or 1.38 percent of its GDP.

The report warns that enacting the pending Family Protection Bill would cost the country an additional $6.3 billion, or 5.8 percent of its GDP, annually. Opposition MP Peter Kaluma, who has introduced the measure, in January claimed the Biden-Harris administration had blocked it and vowed to have fellow MPs pass it after U.S. President Donald Trump’s inauguration.

Kaluma is a strong supporter of Trump and the Republican Party’s opposition to LGBTQ rights and other far-right conservative ideologies.

Tanzania is losing $1.1 billion, or 1.33 percent of its GDP, because of anti-LGBTQ discrimination. Rwanda is losing $45 million, or .32 percent of its GDP.

Homosexuality is not illegal in Rwanda unlike the other three countries, but consensual same-sex sexual relationships remain taboo. Queer Rwandans also face stigma, discrimination, social exclusion, and arbitrary detention.

“A series of private member bills in Uganda, Kenya, and Tanzania have threatened to pull the region back in terms of progress and human rights for LGBTQ+ people, and damage both the ease of doing business and their international reputation,” states the Open for Business CEO Dominic Arnall.

Arnall notes his organization’s extensive engagement with businesses across East Africa over the last five years has always linked harmful anti-LGBTQ laws to impacts on a country’s investment prospects.

“The finding lays bare an uncomfortable truth: That laws that harm the LGBTQ+ community are standing in the way of prosperity and growth for all citizens in the region,” he said.  

The report calls for LGBTQ inclusion as part of the region’s broader economic development agenda.

The Open for Business report notes anti-gay violence and discrimination in Tanzania has been on the rise since the late-President John Magufuli came to power in 2015. The country’s punitive anti-homosexuality law with a 30-year prison sentence for consensual same-sex sexual relations was already in place, but queer Tanzanians were generally not systematically targeted.

“Reporting of neighbors or community members for suspected homosexuality is frequent and law enforcement officers have been known to pose as members of the LGBTQ+ community to entrap and blackmail LGBTQ+ individuals,” states the report.  

It also notes the Tanzanian government’s crackdown on websites and social media accounts that promote LGBTQ rights and threatening the arrests of administrators who allow such content. The report concludes this suppression has caused queer people to live in fear and isolation.

Religious organizations, particularly Christian churches in Tanzania, also champion anti-LGBTQ rhetoric by encouraging their followers against tolerating homosexuality and transgender people. Politicians, meanwhile, use anti-LGBTQ narratives to gain support during campaigns.

While Rwanda stands out as the only East African country in which homosexuality is not criminalized and has foreign donors implementing programs that target the queer community, discussing LGBTQ rights in public is rare and same-sex relationships are not legally recognized. The Open for Business report notes this situation creates legal ambiguity and a fragile social environment for queer Rwandans.

“Several LGBTQ+ rights organizations have emerged in recent years, mostly in Kigali, although they do not always identify themselves as LGBTQ+ associations and are rarely formally registered, making it difficult for them to receive funding,” reads the report.

The Rwandan government has rejected calls to criminalize homosexuality, which it considers a “private matter.” It has also been adamant against efforts to protect queer people for fear of domestic opposition and a desire not to politicize the issue like in neighboring countries.

Kenya, like Rwanda, has for a long time been considered more receptive of queer people, “as long as LGBTQ members are not ‘too loud.’”

Anyone convicted under Kenya’s colonial-era sodomy law could face up to 14 years in prison. Efforts to enact a harsh anti-homosexuality law and anti-LGBTQ protests that religious leaders, politicians, and activists have organized have increased homophobia in the country.

“LGBTQ individuals report significant difficulties in securing formal employment, which pushes many of them into more precarious livelihoods in the informal sector,” states the report.

Continue Reading

Namibia

Namibia’s new president promises equality, ‘prosperity for all’

Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah is country’s first female head of state

Published

on

Namibian President Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah (Screen capture via Kenya Digital News/YouTube)

March 21 was a historic day for Namibia with the inauguration of Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah, the country’s first female president who resoundingly won last November’s presidential election.

Nandi-Ndaitwah in her inaugural speech vowed to uphold the rights of every Namibian by bringing shared prosperity for all, and pledged to enhance gender parity across the country.

“The task facing me, as the fifth president of the Republic of Namibia, is to preserve the gains of our independence on all fronts and to ensure that the unfinished agenda of economic and social advancement of our people is carried forward with vigor and determination to bring about shared, balanced prosperity for all,” she said. “I am optimistic that, as a nation, we can make a success of our country. We must work together as a united people with one heart and one mind.”

Nandi-Ndaitwah’s remarks come at a time when LGBTQ Namibians face the possibility of being criminalized.

MP Jerry Ekandjo in 2023 tabled the Marriage Amendment Private Members’ Bill and Spouse Bill, which would have made same-sex marriages illegal, regardless of whether they had been legally performed outside Namibia. Those who would have violated the proposed law would have faced up to six years in prison, a $5,000 fine, or both.

Former President Nangolo Mbumba earlier this month refused to sign the bills into law because a majority of MPs did not pass them, and they presented constitutional challenges. Former Home Affairs, Immigration, Safety, and Security Minister Albert Kawana last July tabled the marriage proposal in parliament, and labeled the two bills as redundant.

The Marriage Bill, which became law on Oct. 2, 2024, exactly four months after Kawana tabled it, repealed the Marriage Act of 1961 and all its subsequent amendments, including the Supreme Court decision which recognized same-sex marriages legally performed outside Namibia.

The Marriage Act of 2024 says a marriage or marital union between persons of the same sex wherever conducted, or a marriage or marital union conducted in a country other than Namibia which cannot be validly conducted in Namibia is illegal. Anyone who violates the law can face up to four years in prison, a $1,000 fine, or both.

“This law impacts all Namibians, from stricter marriage age requirements to mandatory public notification of intended unions,” said Equal Rights Namibia, a Namibian LGBTQ advocacy group. “Its effects extend beyond same-sex couples, complicating cross-national marriages and limiting personal freedoms. Equal Namibia calls for strategic litigation support and Namibians whose rights are violated by this unconstitutional law to join us in our fight.”

Consensual same-sex sexual relations remain decriminalized following last July’s landmark High Court ruling that struck down Namibia’s apartheid-era sodomy laws.

“The Namibia High Court’s decision to overturn these laws and decriminalize consensual same-sex sexual conduct is a victory for love, for equality and for human rights,” said Khanyo Farise, Amnesty International’s deputy regional director for East and Southern Africa. “This ruling is a step toward ending discrimination in equal access to health care and other social services and ensuring that all people in Namibia can choose their partners without fear of reprisals and live their lives in dignity.”

Continue Reading

Kenya

Outcome of transgender rights case in Kenya remains uncertain

Country’s attorney general has asked High Court to dismiss lawsuit

Published

on

(Image by Bigstock)

Transgender Kenyans’ efforts to receive birth certificates that reflect their gender identity now hang in the balance, despite several legal victories.

Attorney General Dorcus Oduor has asked the High Court to dismiss a pending case that three trans people have filed. Oduor argues a person is born either “a boy or a girl” and existing laws do not allow for anyone to change their sex in adulthood.

Oduor in her written submission to Justice Bahati Mwamuye also argues gender identity and the government’s issuance of a birth certificate are based on a person’s physical appearance. Her argument, however, exempts intersex people.

The government last month officially recognized intersex people in a Kenya Gazette notice that said they can receive birth certificates with an “I” gender marker. The country’s historic intersex rights law took effect in 2022.

“The existing laws of the land do not contemplate change of gender, and marks of transgender are not a basis for determining one’s gender as either male or female,” Oduor states.  

Oduor further maintains that a person’s feeling they are “unwillingly living in a wrong body” cannot justify changing their gender. Oduor maintains a person’s gender is based on fact — not feelings — and the plaintiffs at birth were registered and named based on their gender status.

Audrey Mbugua, Maurene Muia, and Arnest Thaiya are the three trans people suing Oduor, the Registrar of Births and Deaths, the National Registration Bureau, and Immigration Services Director General Evelyn Cheluget in order to receive amended birth certificates.

The plaintiffs argue the current discrepancy in crucial documents — birth certificates, national identification cards, and passports — has denied them opportunities and rights. They disagree with Oduor’s position on determining one’s sex, arguing the process is “not scientific, but subjective.”

“There are no identifiers of sex or definitions of the biological or psychological components of sex,” the plaintiffs argue. “In any event, such biological components cannot be limited to genitalia only, but also chromosomes, gonads, hormones, and the brain.” 

They further maintain that trans people cannot be forced to live with names of the wrong gender as adults. Oduor, however, maintains that only mistakes, such as spelling errors or parents in ID documents, can be changed and not a gender marker.  

Amka Africa Justice, Jinsiangu (“my gender”) Kenya, and the Kenya Human Rights Commission are among the advocacy groups that have joined the case.

Mbugua, a well-known trans activist, has been pushing for legal rights in the court for more than a decade.

She filed a lawsuit in which she demanded the government identify her as a woman and to be allowed to live as one, not as a male as she was registered at birth. A landmark ruling in 2014 ordered the Kenya National Examinations Council to change Mbugua’s name and replace the gender marker on her academic certificates. 

Mbugua also founded Transgender Education and Advocacy, a group with more than 100 members. A long court battle that ultimately proved successful allowed Transgender Education and Advocacy to become the first publicly-funded trans rights organization in Kenya.

Transgender Education and Advocacy’s initiatives include offering legal aid to trans people seeking to change their names, photos, and gender markers in documents, pushing for legal reforms to end discrimination based on gender identity and expression, and providing economic assistance to trans people who want to overcome poverty and sexual exploitation.

Jinsiangu Kenya, established in 2018, also champions equal access to health care and other basic services without discrimination based on gender identity and expression.

report that Jinsiangu Kenya released in July 2021 notes 63 percent of trans people surveyed did not have ID documents or records with gender markers that coincide with their gender identity. The report also notes 10 percent of trans people surveyed said officials denied them an ID card or passport, and they were unemployed because they did not have the proper documents.

Continue Reading
Advertisement
Advertisement

Sign Up for Weekly E-Blast

Follow Us @washblade

Advertisement

Popular