Toyin Falola
Photo courtesy Boydell & Brewer
Indigenous knowledge, African languages, queer rights and Afrofuturism are some of the issues discussed in the new book.
A Nairobi protest against homophobic statements made by a government minister.
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Kenya’s LGBTI community continues to face the deadly consequences of homophobia, transphobia and biphobia.
An activist leaves Kenya’s high court after a 2019 ruling refused to scrap laws criminalising homosexuality.
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LGBTI refugees from other countries expect Kenya to be safer but are quickly disillusioned.
A still from Rafiki, a film by Wanuri Kahiu, Kenya (2018)
Rafiki/Big World Cinema
Discussions about the films on social media and online forums show that African queer lives are complex and don’t tell a single story.
Detail from the cover of Lagoon, a novel by Nnedi Okorafor.
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Aliens arrive in Lagos in Nnedi Okorafor’s celebrated sci-fi novel Lagoon – and with them they bring a future free of restrictive gender norms.
Bianca De Marchi/Sydney Festival
A celebration of life, love and resilience, The Rise and Fall of Saint George is a restorative experience.
Big World Cinema/Afrobubblegum
It wasn’t just the film Rafiki - a joyful lesbian love story - but also the experience of going to watch it after it was unbanned that created a new kind of freedom.
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Despite same-sex relations being criminal, social media is a space to come out and speak back to homophobia for the Nigerian tweeters in the study.
Slave memorial in Zanzibar.
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Black Lives Matter brings the slavery story into the present in America – but it leaves Africa stuck in the past.
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The artist’s body of work, through its very public focus on queer masculinity, offers alternative ways of thinking about what being a man is.
Author Akwaeke Emezi.
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Despite Nigeria’s draconian laws against homosexuality, authors like the award-winning Akwaekwe Emezi are important new voices that add complexity to the question of identity.
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Desmond Tutu is by far the most high-profile African, if not global, religious leader to support lesbian and gay rights, and he has done so since the 1970s.
Activists celebrate outside the High Court in Gaborone, Botswana on June 11, 2019. Botswana became the latest country to decriminalize gay sex.
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The recent ruling to decriminalize same sex behaviour in Botswana may have a positive impact on the rest of southern Africa.
A Kenyan LGBT activist campaigning for a change to the country’s Penal Code.
EPA-EFE/Dai Kurokawa
The High Court’s ruling goes against the trend of greater liberalisation in a number of African countries.
Homosexuality is criminalised in Morocco, and LGBTI people struggle to imagine a life of visibility and freedom.
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Morocco’s law combines with a strongly conservative society to create a real sense of danger among LGBTIQ people.
A sign at a march in Soweto, South Africa, shows just how important social support is for lesbians.
Reuters/Siphiwe Sibeko
Family support, being valued in their own homes and enjoying strong support from their social structures helped instill lesbians in a conservative South African province with a strong sense of self.
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Personal freedoms and self-expression have come under attack.
Nana Akufo-Addo with the Sword of Authority as he is sworn in as Ghana’s 5th president in Accra.
EPA/Christian Thompson
Until African political systems become less majoritarian and do a better job of protecting the rights of minorities, the true benefits of a democratic government are unlikely to be realised.
Education and awareness about gender identity and sexual orientation are crucial.
EPA/Kim Ludbrook
Many people use religion and culture as explanations for their homophobic attitudes.
Teachers need support and education so they can discuss and promote sexuality equality.
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Sexual equality should not be mere letters and words in laws. Rather, people - in this case student teachers - must understand sexual equality as a lived reality.