#area scatter

[queerasfact]

We came across this interesting account of gender fluidity in Igbo culture while researching a podcast on the transfeminine Nigerian performer Area Scatter. Ejike Omowo Anthony Eze, interviewed by the academic Nwando Achebe in 1998, describes how they simultaneously fulfill both a male and a female role within their community. This was just one of many examples we found of the way that Igbo culture makes space for gender fluidity and diversity!

Check out our podcast on Area Scatter if you'd like to learn more

(Quote from Nwando Achebe's “Igbo Goddesses and the Priests and Male Priestesses who Serve Them”)

[queerafricans]

“Area Scatter: Africa’s first transgender musician?”

[ukpuru]

"[...] we headed off into the forests to the hut of an infamous 'witch doctor," or shaman, called Area Scatter. His home was filled with bones and skulls and paintings of the power of good and evil. A muscular, humorous man, he explained how, after living through the civil war, he had gone into the wilderness for seven months and seven days and had reappeared transformed into a woman. The day we visited him he headed off, dressed in white smock, polka-dot skirt and a shamanist bone necklace, to the residence of his Royal Highness Eonunnoke to play for the local king and queen. [...] Area Scatter was a highly accomplished performer on his thumb piano which was decorated with a distinctive skull and crossbones. When the king and his wife ceremonially entered and seated themselves on their thrones, Area Scatter bowed deeply and started to sing in a soft, rich voice. [...]

Jeremy Marre (1985). Beats of the Heart. p. 99. 

[queerasfact]

This clip from the 1979 doco Beats of the Heart: Konkombe features Area Scatter, a transfeminine performer who was hugely popular in 1970s Nigeria. She performed around eastern Nigeria, and even appeared on TV.

Check out our podcast if you'd like to learn more about her!

[queerasfact]

New podcast episode: Area Scatter

Today we’re talking about the Nigerian performer Area Scatter. Learn about her successful career as a trans performer in 1970s Nigeria, gender diversity in Igbo culture, and how we approach research when academic sources are limited.

Listen here

Check out our website, where you can find our sources, as well as everything there is to know about Queer as Fact.

If you enjoy our content, consider supporting us on Patreon, checking out our merch, and following us on Instagram, Tumblr and Bluesky.

(Image credit: Still from Jeremy Marre's Beats of the Heart: Konkombe (1979))

[queerafricans]

Genderqueer and African

Logan February (Nigeria)

Lolo Arziki (Cape Verde)

Area Scatter (Nigeria)

Dreamer Isioma (Nigeria)

Tylan Grant (Zambia)

Olive Gray (Zambia)

Khookha McQueer (Tunisia)

Kirvan Fortuin (South Africa)

[queerafricans]

The Gender-nonconforming Spirit - adda

The Gender-nonconforming Spirit - adda

[naijadiary]

Watch Video Of Nigeria’s First Cross Dresser ‘Area Scatter’

An old video of a crossdresser from Imo state, Nigeria in the 1970s is currently trending on social media platforms.

According to reports, the crossdresser identified as Area Scatter is one of the few crossdressers who made it into the mainstream media.

He was a musician who played melodic music with his ornamental thumb piano, singing in a rich voice and moving his body in an unusual yet that…

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