Queer, Limitless Africans
Homosexuality is illegal in more than 30 African countries and punishable by death in four. There is also the widespread belief that homosexuality is ‘un-African’. In his new book Limitless Africans, Nigerian photographer Mikael Owunna documents stories of LGBTQ immigrants, refugees and asylum-seekers.
The photos above depict (from the top):
Brian, Montreal, Canada
I am Rwandan by my parents, but I grew up in Tanzania, Niger, Kenya, Benin and the Central African Republic. I answer to him and her and I identify as queer. When I decided to embrace my LGBTQ identity, I pushed away my African identity. But I had already tried to push away my LGBTQ identity. It was complete denial. And then one day I thought to myself why not try embracing both identities, just for the sake of trying. I never felt so complete and comfortable in my skin.
Wiilo, Arlington, VA, US
Wiilo in Somali means ‘girl who dresses like boy’ … It’s something that comforted me when I was discovering my queerness and helped me to overcome the shame and the feeling of being pushed away from my Somali culture. Growing up, any deviation from the norm was stamped down. This has to do with living in a refugee community surrounded by whiteness, when holding on to your culture means defining it in very limiting ways.
Aru, Brussels, Belgium
My name is Aurélie. I am Congolese, Bandundu. I prefer to go by the pronouns of they and them. I am comfortable with identifying as queer or lesbian. People fear what they do not understand. And when someone doesn’t understand what it is to truly be themselves and love who they are, then I’m really not surprised that there is such resistance to having an open mind and understanding their history. To put Africans in a box of heteronormative western structures is to really deny their true history.
Yahya, Philadelphia, PA, US
I am half-Moroccan and half-American, born in Casablanca. I identify as a second generation radical queer, pansexual, and the gender identity that feels comfortable is ‘boi’. I aspire towards a queered masculinity, with tenderness and self-awareness. I like they and them pronouns. Race and ethnicity are complicated in Morocco. Many Moroccans feel both Arab and African, but Arab comes first, Moroccan comes before both of those, and Muslim comes before everything else. There is a rich and diverse history of non-binary gender expression in African cultures.
Lahya, Berlin, Germany
I’m originally from Namibia and now located in Berlin. My pronoun is she and I’m a queer, cis-femme person with polyamorous relationships and I’m pan. For me, as a disabled black and body non-conforming person, style is empowerment. I’m very influenced by my African heritage: I like big earrings, but also colours and I like to show my body as it is and to bring it out in the best way I can show it. As a black intersectional person, I always have to give myself a bit more love than other people in the world give me.
Jihan, Brussels, Belgium
I was born in France to Algerian parents. I’m a trans dude. My societal gender is masculine, but my psychic reality is two-spirit. I feel very strongly both female and male energies. I had a period of attraction to and aversion from the African community I’m originally from; all the way to a complete rejection. It’s a huge internal struggle, as we are educated in contradictions, tradition and modernity. In North African cultures there is honour and loyalty or guilt and shame. It’s a conditioning that is very difficult to escape.
