Three courageous African musicians recently spoke to NoStrings about their personal struggles and their use of music to combat homophobia in Africa, despite strong oppositions and death threats. The three musicians who spoke to NoStrings are Mista Majah P, an African-American reggae artist from Jamaica; Grammo Suspect, a lesbian rapper from Kenya; and Chisom Iheangwaram, … Continue reading
Tag Archives: No Strings podcast
Nigeria: Coming out is valuable, but I wish I hadn’t
Seun Idris, a Nigerian University undergraduate, spoke to the LGBTIQ podcast NoStrings about his coming out as gay on Facebook, and what happened then. Please tell us about yourself as a gay man living in Nigeria. I am a nervous gay man in Nigeria, and I have grown to be. It has been that I … Continue reading
‘My journey as a transgender Nigerian’
Rizi Timane, a Nigerian-born transgender life coach, singer/songwriter and author, now naturalized in the United States, speaks about his life and struggles as a transgender person. Rizi Timane was assigned female at birth, but at age 8 he came to realize that what he felt inside did not match how he looked on the outside. … Continue reading
Truth, homosexuality, Christianity: a talk with Stephen Lovatt
Merely putting the words homosexuality and Christianity together creates controversy. Many people claim that homosexuality equals filth, sin, immorality, and that one can never be a Christian homosexual. Clearly, certain texts in the Christian scriptures have over the years been used to condemn homosexuality and, with a large percentage of the world’s population being Christian, … Continue reading
Art Attack: Why we shot ‘Same Love’ video in Kenya
Kenya is one of the many African countries that — out of ignorance and denial — regard homosexuality as un-African, immoral, and unnatural. The country largely considers homosexuality to be taboo and repugnant to its cultural values and morality. Such homophobia should not go unchallenged, so the Kenyan music group Art Attack recorded an appeal … Continue reading
How I almost got killed for being gay in Abuja, Nigeria
Nigerian journalist and activist Mike Daemon describes how a gay student in Abuja was trapped through an online site and was forced to hand over his mobile phone and all his money. It’s the type of crime that is frequent in Nigeria, where criminals find such abuses easy to commit because of Nigeria’s homophobia and … Continue reading
Bisexuals in Nigeria: ‘We are not cheats!’
Do bisexuals think that they are better than gay and lesbian people? That’s one of the questions tackled in the latest episode of No Strings, the Nigerian LGBTIQ podcast. Other questions addressed there are: Are bisexuals confused? Are there bisexuals in Nigeria, really? Are bisexuals by default cheats? Do people have a chance to start … Continue reading
2 failures: Priest, witch doctor try to ‘cure’ gay man
By Mike Daemon In Nigeria, many parents and families are still ignorant about the subject of homosexuality and still hold strongly to the belief that homosexuality is unnatural, an illness, a choice or a sin and thus something that should — and can — be cured. Our conversation with a gay 21-year-old Nigerian graduate, who … Continue reading
To hell (and back!) with a gay Nigerian student
By Mike Daemon Growing up in a homophobic and conservative religious country like Nigeria wasn’t easy for “Victor,” a gay Nigerian university student in Lagos. He struggled for many years with his sexual orientation. Then, when his family discovered that he was gay, life at home became hell for him. Eventually, though, he found what … Continue reading
Gay man trapped, beaten in Nigeria, where it’s too common
By Mike Daemon In Nigeria today, hatred of LGBTIQ people is so bad that young people are organizing groups to trap suspected homosexuals, then strip them, beat them, extort money from them, and sometimes turn them over to police. Many cases like these go on, unreported in the Nigerian mainstream media. I witnessed just such … Continue reading
