Why Don’t Africans Celebrate Pride Month?
The Untold Story of Pride Month in Africa
As pride month begins to come to an end, one thing that kept popping into my head was how pride month wasn’t celebrated in Africa. Of course, you would think that “Well it is because there are no LGBTQIA+ communities in Africa”.
Well for that you are wrong because you see there are these communities but they stay in the dark due to the fear of prosecution. I know this because as a Nigerian who has lived in three different countries across West Africa, when it comes to June there is simply no rainbow flag to be seen.
Most people from the West would want to believe that Africa might be getting more progressive with inclusivity but they would be so wrong. You see Africa is just like the UAE.
What I mean by this is “we would take everything you give us except this”.
There’s one country that comes to mind in terms of inclusivity and that country is South Africa.
Well, you see despite the bitter past of South Africa, its’ openness to inclusivity is what makes it stands out from the rest of the other countries. In South Africa, as I had already mentioned the community is quite strong and still growing.
Moving away from South Africa to the other sides of Africa, well you get a different story. For openly stating your sexuality, you can get arrested and locked up for it, or worst lose your life to people who are just seriously against it, and countries like Uganda that have passed “anti-gay laws” keep pushing this narrative further.
If you don’t believe me take a look at this news article.
To be honest, I don’t believe June would ever be celebrated as pride month in Africa, this is due to the deep-rooted traditions and values they hold and they believe in, they see the introduction of the LGBTQIA+ communities as a threat to decades of belief that same-sex relationships have no stay in their communities.
So as you celebrate this month, I would like you to have it at the back of your head that somewhere in Africa, millions of people might never come out of the closet. This article is not to shame Africa at all, rather am trying to shed more light on a problem that might never get solved despite several attempts from the West.
As an African, I would one day hope that nobody gets prosecuted for who they choose to love and who they choose to be with. But we can only hope that it all gets better soon but I don’t really see it happening because I have lived here all my life and after America had its first African American president Barack Obama there was this feeling that he was going to usher a new change but all attempts failed.
But hope is what keeps people going and we hope that time comes as soon as possible because people can’t keep losing their lives due to things they can’t change.
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