Queer Nigerians are under attack from their government, but in the shadows, their vibrant existence – once ignored by the powers that be – lives on.
When Goodluck Jonathan, the former president of Nigeria, passed a bill into law that criminalised any active part of gayness in January 2014, he was lauded by many in the country for being a custodian of Nigerian culture. By others, namely international human rights activists, he was criticised, his actions were seen as a destructive ploy to garner votes by appealing himself to the conservative majority in Nigeria.
Under the new laws,"A person who registers, operates or participates in gay clubs, societies or organizations, or directly or indirectly makes public show of same-sex amorous relationship in Nigeria commits an offense and is liable on conviction to a term of 10 years." But for queer people who lived in Nigeria in the years before the SSMPA, club nights, parties and mixers were how they chiefly met new and old connections in the community.
Nigeria’s drag scene also thrived here, a space for trans Nigerians to exist without having their existence prodded. It was where they could don brightly-coloured wigs and dance to Afrobeats to the early hours of the morning. To protect themselves, knowledge of these parties and clubs -- timings, locations -- were not made public. To gain entry, potential attendees needed to have someone who could vouch for them.
Ade*, a 40-year-old gay man and businessman who lives in Lagos, lived through the years preceding the SSMPA. He met his late partner, who he cohabited with throughout the 2000s, at a party. “I met my partner in 2002, a few months after I came back to Nigeria,” says Ade, who went to school in London. “Parties... were how you could meet people and hang around. We started dating not long after that and started living together about a year or so into our relationship.
While homosexuality was not accepted, neighbours often choose to leave suspected queer couples alone -- due to both a lack of evidence to support their suspicions and the lack of a law that explicitly criminalised homosexuality. Ade describes it as an era of “Don’t kiss and tell, mind your business and pretend you don’t know what is going on”.
Being lowkey has always been a huge part of queer culture in Nigeria throughout the years, but when the SSMPA effectively criminalised queer associations, people were forced to think even further outside the box to keep LGBT+ nightlife alive. Nightlife in Nigeria today is still largely modelled on what it was like in the early 00s and late 90s -- but technology plays a crucial role to keep things below the radar.
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