African Perspectives on Same-sex sexuality and gender diversity Theo Sandfort Fabienne Simenel Kevin Mwachiro Vasu Reddy BOLDLY QUEER African Perspectives on Same-sex sexuality and gender diversity Boldly Queer: African Perspectives on Same-sex Sexuality and Gender Diversity Theo Sandfort, Fabienne Simenel, Kevin Mwachiro, and Vasu Reddy, editors ISBN 978-90-70435-12-7 Boldly Queer is a Hivos publication and is published under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-ShareAlike License. For terms and conditions see: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/ The views expressed in this publication are those of the authors. They do not necessarily reflect the views or policies of Hivos or indicate that Hivos endorses the views of the authors. Lucill Ebong ONE STEP FORWARD AND SO MANY CONTENTS BACK: ACCESS TO HEALTH CARE FOR LGBTI UGANDANS 75 Chiedu Chike Ifekandu THE FALLOUT OF NIGERIA’S ANTI-GAY LAW AND OPPORTUNITIES FOR THE LIST OF CONTRIBUTORS VI FUTURE FOR LGBTI PERSONS AND COMMUNITIES 81 ACRONYMS IX Juliet Kushaba Monica Mbaru DOOMED IF THEY DO, DOOMED PREFACE X IF THEY DON’T: SEXUAL HEALTH IMPLICATIONS OF HOMOPHOBIA AMONG MARRIED LESBIANS IN Theo Sandfort, Njoki Ngumi, Fabienne UGANDA 89 Simenel, Kevin Mwachiro, and Vasu Reddy AFRICAN SAME-SEX SEXUALITY Kevin Mwachiro AND GENDER DIVERSITY: AN A LOST CHAPTER FOUND: INTERVIEW INTRODUCTION 1 WITH BINYAVANGA WAINAINA 97 Mark Gevisser HOMOSEXUALITY AND THE GLOBAL Kehinde Okanlawon CULTURE WARS 9 RESISTING THE HYPOCRITICAL WESTERN NARRATIVE OF VICTIMHOOD AND CELEBRATING THE RESISTANCE Irene Fubara-Manuel AGAINST HOMOPHOBIA IN NIGERIA AT HOME BUT HOMELESS: QUEER 103 AFRICAN MIGRANTS CRITICALLY REFLECT ON ‘HOME’ 25 Ato Malinda with photographs by Daniel Jack Lyons Godfrey Dalitso Kangaude KENYAN QUEER IDENTIFICATION AS A ‘COMING OUT’ OF A STRAIGHT GLOBALISED ENDEAVOUR 117 MAN: REFLECTIONS ON A PERSONAL JOURNEY TOWARD SELF-ACCEPTANCE Stella Nyanzi 33 KNOWLEDGE IS REQUISITE POWER: MAKING A CASE FOR QUEER AFRICAN John McAllister SCHOLARSHIP 125 LGBT ACTIVISM AND ‘TRADITIONAL VALUES’: PROMOTING DIALOGUE Daniel Jack Lyons THROUGH INDIGENOUS CULTURAL WHO CAN TELL 137 VALUES IN BOTSWANA 41 ABSTRACTS OF CONFERENCE PRESENTATIONS 145 Daniel Jack Lyons and Theo Sandfort SUBALTERN SPEAK: A PHOTOVOICE APPENDIX: CONFERENCE PROJECT WITH PARTICIPANTS FROM ORGANISATION 169 THE CONFERENCE ON AFRICAN SAME-SEX SEXUALITIES AND GENDER DIVERSITY 49 LIST OF CONTRIBUTORS Lucill Ebong is a community health worker at Health & Rights Initiatives, Uganda. Her research focuses on access to health care by LGBT people, including HIV/AIDS care and treatment, sexual reproductive health and laws that deter them. She continues to sensitise health professionals and other service providers in the creation of a friendly environment at health facilities that encourages LGBT persons to benefit from health rights. Irene Fubara-Manuel is a prolific researcher originally from Nigeria, with interests in migration, race, sexuality, gender and media. She graduated with a BA (Double Honours) in Gender Studies and Psychology from the University of Manitoba in Canada. Following her addition to the hosts of university’s feminist radio show (The F Word) in 2012, she successfully curated two art exhibitions featuring black student artists. In collaboration with her mentors – professors from the University of Manitoba – she works on a wide range of projects, including a multimedia project documenting the experiences of LGBTQ newcomers in Winnipeg, Manitoba. Irene is currently enrolled in a Master’s programme at the University of Sussex. Mark Gevisser is a South African author and journalist. From 2012-2014 he was an Open Society Fellow, looking at The Global Sexuality Frontier; he is now writing a book on the subject. His previous books include the award-winning A Legacy of Liberation: Thabo Mbeki and the South African Dream, and Lost and Found in Johannesburg: A Memoir. With Judge Edwin Cameron he was the editor of Defiant Desire: Gay and Lesbian Lives in South Africa, the first collection of essays about LGBT lives and issues in South Africa, which was published in 1994. Chiedu Chike Ifekandu is a Health-communications researcher. He currently works at the Population Council Nigeria Ofce in Abuja. His research focus is on the use of social networking sites by adolescents and young people as well as key populations. He has made oral presentations at various international fora including the IAS Conference 2014 in Melbourne. Godfrey Kangaude, a philosopher and lawyer is a 2013 UCLA – Sonke Health and Human Rights Fellow, and currently works with Sonke Gender Justice, and is co-founder of Nyale Institute for Sexual and Reproductive Health Governance in Malawi. His area of expertise is sexuality, gender and human rights. His current interest is in working with adolescents to transform gender inequitable attitudes and practices through educational institutions. vi Juliet Kushaba is an ardent feminist scholar and aspiring researcher who was born and raised in western Uganda. She holds a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Education from Makerere University, Uganda and is currently pursuing a Master’s Degree in Women and Gender Studies at the same institution. Juliet lives in Kampala with her 7 year-old daughter. Daniel Jack Lyons is an American born photographer. With an MPH from Columbia University, he is also a trained researcher in the fields of Public Health and Human Rights. He specialises in a community-based participatory research methodology known as photovoice, and has conducted photovoice research with populations such as MSM Dominican immigrants in Northern Manhattan, Survivors of gender based violence in Liberia, and asylum seekers in New York City. John McAllister is a senior lecturer in the Department of English at the University of Botswana. He is broadly interested in the interfaces between Western and African cultures and has published a number of articles on colonial and post-colonial travel writing and memoirs in addition to his work on LGBT identities and activism. Along with teaching and research, he has worked extensively as a strategic communications consultant with African human rights organisations and is currently engaged in a study of homophobic and transphobic bullying in Botswana schools for Gay and Lesbian Memory in Action (GALA) and UNESCO. Ato Malinda was born in 1981 and grew up in the Netherlands, Kenya and the USA. She lives in Nairobi, Kenya. She studied Art History and Molecular Biology at the University of Texas in Austin, and has a Masters of Fine Art from Transart Institute, New York. She has exhibited at Neue Gesellschaft für Bildende Kunst in Berlin (2011), Townhouse Gallery in Cairo (2011), Salon Urbain de Douala in Cameroon (2010) and the Karen Blixen Museum in Copenhagen (2010). Monica Mbaru, a Kenyan lawyer and human rights activist, is since 2012 a judge in the Kenyan Industrial Court. Mbaru has been a vehement advocate for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people and sex workers in Africa. She has worked with organisations such as the Centre for Legal Empowerment (Kituo cha Sheria), the Humanist Institute for Development Cooperation (Hivos), the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission, and the Gay and Lesbian Coalition of Kenya (GALCK). Kevin Mwachiro is the Communications Ofcer with the Hivos’ East Africa ofce in Nairobi. A journalist by profession, Kevin is passionate about LGBT issues. He recently launched his book, Invisible, which is a collection of stories from Kenya’s LGBT community. Kevin was one of the organisers of the second African Same-sex Sexualities and Gender Diversity Conference. Njoki Ngumi is a gypsy doctor in general practice. She is also the Outreach Coordinator at the NEST, home of Nairobi’s alternative art thinkers. Her favourite way to interact with audiences is through forum theatre events, in which she facilitates spectator dialogue around difcult social issues, midwifes the birth of conflict around new ideas, and serves lots of cake at the end. Say hello to her on Twitter at @njokingumi. vii Stella Nyanzi is a medical anthropologist working as a Research Fellow at the Makerere Institute of Social Research in Kampala, Uganda. She studies everyday social-cultural meanings of human sexualities as well as the politics of negotiating power within and among diverse gender identities and sexual orientations. She is interested in understanding how the body and bodily processes are sexed, gendered, healed and diseased through everyday practices. She also delights in social protest! Kehinde Okanlawon, MA, is a Nigerian LGBT rights activist and social worker who has worked and volunteered in diferent capacities for various LGBT-rights organisations and groups in Nigeria over the past five years. He coordinated the Human Rights Education and Counselling Project of the House of Rainbow. He is committed to promoting the sexual health and employment rights of Nigerian LGBT persons. Vasu Reddy is Executive Director at the Human Sciences Research Council (HSRC) of South Africa and Honorary Professor of Gender Studies at the University of KwaZulu- Natal, Durban. His research focus is on non-normative sexualities, feminisms and gender, including HIV and the humanities. He has conducted research among men who have sex with men (MSM) and women who have sex with women (WSW) in sub- Saharan Africa. Together with Theo Sandfort, Paul Jansen and Monica Mbaru he took the initiative for the organisation of the first African Same-sex Sexualities and Gender Diversity conference, and co-organised the second. Theo Sandfort is a research scientist at New York State Psychiatric Institute and Professor of Sociomedical Sciences (in Psychiatry) at Columbia University, New York. His research focus is on sexual orientation and health, including HIV risk. He conducted studies among men who have sex with men and women who have sex with women in sub- Saharan Africa. Together with Vasu Reddy, Paul Jansen and Monica Mbaru, he took the initiative for the organisation of the first African Same-sex Sexualities and Gender Diversity conference, and co-organised the second.