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COLORS x EDITORIAL | NIGERIA
“Love conquers all”: The prohibition of love through the eyes of Nigeria’s queer community
Speaking to various members of Nigeria’s LGBTQIA+ community, writer Tami Makinde meditates on the prohibition of love, intimacy, and closeness in the country.
When you ask young Nigerians for their definition of love, you can get a range of different answers:
“Love is essentially freedom in both romantic and platonic relationships. It means acceptance, freedom, stress-free.”
“Love is way more than what a lot of people know it to be. It is all about compromise and sacrifice for your partner or whoever.”
“Love is boundlessness. It means the reality of the existence of something or someone that exceeds all expectations.”
“I imagined love to be a never ending feeling of warmth and reception. I believe that now if I was to define love, it means sacrifice, acceptance, remembrance, and memories.”
“It is very calm, understanding, safe, and honest. It is the kind of safeness that affords you peace.”
“[Love] is mostly peace and comfort, a safe space and mostly safety and peace in someone.”
“Love means caring for someone unconditionally without judgment and without any form of inhibition. Love conquers all and is the greatest human feeling.”
“Love means intentional care and that involves honesty and intentionality reality. Making an effort to make life easier for yourself and other people.”
“The full awareness came to me that I cannot love who I love in this country.”
One thing that unites all of these responses, however, is that none of them bears any negative connotations. With this in mind, it’s hard to imagine how anyone could object to acts motivated by this emotion. However, this is the case in many places around the world.
For LGBTQ+ people in Africa, the dangers of being out and visible is instilled from a young age. Same-sex attraction is widely considered morally unacceptable and many grow up with a warped sense of love, having to unlearn the language of hate and bigotry passed down to them by earlier generations at a later date.
In Nigeria, one of Africa’s most populous and developed countries, anti-gay laws continue to threaten lives. Since 2014, the country’s LGBTQ+ community has been reeling from the harmful effects of the Same-Sex Marriage Prohibition Act 2013 (SSMPA), which makes it illegal for men and women of the same sex to get married.
Passed into law by the country’s then President Johnathan, the Act has become an insidious tool to mete out violence against queer people. It criminalises a significant portion of queer existence, including any advocacy of LGBTQ+ rights. In Northern Nigeria, under the Sharia Law, these offenses can lead to capital punishment. In Southern Nigeria, they can lead to a 14-year prison sentence. As such, life for queer Nigerians has become divided in two: before and after the SSMPA.
Creative director and model, Nosa* always knew that queer love was prohibited. “[Since childhood] I always knew that this was something I just couldn’t talk about because it wasn’t allowed in social settings,” he shares with COLORS. When the SSMPA was debated and passed into law, “the full awareness came to me that I cannot love who I love in this country.”
His story is similar to that of many young LGBTQIA+ Nigerians today. Derin*, a makeup artist, first heard about homosexuality in church. “I would hear things like ‘if any spirit of homosexuality comes to you, cast and bind it.’ I was told it was the devil,” they share. “At the time, I just questioned why there was so much hate and why people were taking out a valuable time to commune with God to cast out homosexuality.”
Trans Nigerians in particular face harm from their country’s police unit and wider society at large. Chidera*, a vocal trans activist in the community tells COLORS that her identity is not recognised in her home country. “They see me as a problem, as a virus and an abomination. They do not recognise us or our gender identity,” she recounts over the phone in deep pain. Seen as an alien in her own home, Chidera* had to learn strong survival skills to navigate Nigeria’s tough social climate. “It is exhausting because you are constantly looking over your shoulder,” she says. “No matter how tough it is, I will keep being visible and keep defying everything that seeks to bring down my humanity or make me cease from existing.”
Currently, lawmakers are debating a bill that could ban “engaging in cross dressing,” with offenders likely to spend six months in prison or to pay a fines of N500,000. Although the bill seems to directly threaten members of the LGBTQ+ community, it also targets anyone wearing clothing associated with the opposite sex. Many young Nigerians find the proposed legislation alarming considering the country’s surfeit of human rights abuses and corruption of power. “It is times like this that I am really grateful for people like Matthew Blaise who very vocal about the issues we face,” Marcus* a queer model shares. Blaise, a non-binary activist, bravely called for the inclusion of queer lives in 2020’s EndSARS protests.
“No matter how tough it is, I will keep being visible and keep defying everything that seeks to bring down my humanity.”
Despite the continued violence many LGBTQ Nigerians face, many are finding ways to be intimate and commune with their loved ones away from the prying eyes of authorities. For non-binary content creator Nifemi*, they do this by spending quality time with queer friends. “I refer to [my friends] as my queer siblings because they are my chosen family. We all draw strength from each other and are always there for each other. It’s so amazing to share queer joy,” they share.
This spirit of intimacy and community is fostered all across the country’s LGBTQ+ community. Derin* and her friends regularly host queer get-togethers and parties that pull together people from widely different backgrounds. She shares that her inner circle consists of “people from everywhere, irrespective of where you come from: Christians, Muslims…”
“By choosing to exist in truth, you are giving other people permission to do so and saying fuck you to these laws.”
These new pockets of queer communities in Nigeria usher in a new wave of hope for the current generation. Against a backdrop of hate and vitriol, queer Nigerians continue to fashion their own kind of intimacy, choosing those who value and recognise their humanity. Their community is founded on love. Their shared language is one of activism. As Sandy* echoes, “the fact that you exist as yourself, despite all the odds, I think that is activism in itself. By choosing to exist in truth, you are giving other people permission to do so and saying fuck you to these laws.”
*Names in this article were changed to protect the safety of our sources
This article was written as part of COLORS’ editorial coverage in line with a recent production period in Lagos, Nigeria in Spring 2022. Head over to our YouTube channel to watch the shows we produced with Nigerian artists, or to our editorial platform to read more articles about fashion designer Bubu Ogisi, legendary Adire and Batik artist Mama Nike, the Lagos skate scene, or Nigerian highlife band The Cavemen.
Text: Tami Makinde
Photography: Felix Glasmeyer
Producer: Dawa Suya
Stylist: Vize Oboh
Makeup Artist: Ayopo Abiri
Production Assistant: Tega Akintola
Postproduction: Julia Lückhardt @ The Postoffice Berlin
SUBMIT A RESPONSE TO THIS ARTICLE
I can’t put in words how much this article means…your fight, our fight, their fight. We need more brave and selfless people who are willing to shout it out to the whole world that love has no boundaries.
Reading this article made me sad but also made me hopeful.
Luah - Brazil
this was so beautiful. thank you for this. i just wish love could flourish in all it’s beauty.
mercy - gaborone
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