“I have competition”: The realities of older sex workers in Kenya sent
This week, we start in Nigeria, where a hidden ballroom scene provides a safe space for queer expression. Then, we visit Kenya, where older sex workers discuss their income challenges due to ageism and technology. Finally, we head to Tunisia, where police are accused of leaving migrants and asylum seekers stranded in the desert.
But first, in Uganda, the Magistrate Court at Buganda Road has once again refused bail for human rights activist Ronald Agaba.
Agaba was arrested on March 14, 2024, at the Parliamentary Avenue in Kampala following a peaceful protest against corruption and the targeting of the queer community by Annet Anita Among, the Speaker of Uganda’s Parliament. He faces charges of inciting violence and has spent the past 57 days in police custody.
A bail application was made on April 3, 2024, but was denied by the court. Instead, the magistrate ordered Agaba’s return to Luzira prison until April 22, 2024. Unfortunately, his bail was rejected on that date due to the absence of prosecutors, extending his detention until May 8, 2024.
On Wednesday, May 8, Agaba’s hearing resumed before Magistrate Owomugisha Siena with high hopes of his bail being granted, especially given his time in detention. However, to the surprise of many, the state attorney revealed that they hadn’t received the case file from the police. This means that the attorney doesn’t have access to essential information and documents regarding Agaba’s case.
As a result, Agaba will be remanded in prison for another week until May 15, 2024, marking 62 days in custody for peacefully protesting. Unfortunately, Agaba’s situation reflects that of several activists currently in Ugandan prisons suffering from an abuse of power.
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From our site
The glitter and the grit: Inside Nigeria’s queer ballroom subculture
In Nigeria where same-sex marriage is criminalised and the larger part of society is openly discriminatory and violent to queer folk, the underground ballroom scene provides a community for queer Nigerians to discreetly gather to express themselves through dance, fashion and language.
When Countess Sasha Seduction, a Nigerian non-binary drag queen, got to attend their first ballroom experience, a 2022 Halloween ball in Lagos, Nigeria, it felt like a
dream. This year, they got to attend two and were excited about how amazing the underground community was and the warmth that the space provided.
“As a drag queen, it gives me somewhere to be, to inspire people, to perform. As a queer person, it gives me a family and a safe space. We’re almost forced to live in fear all the time and the ballroom is just a fantasy island where everything doesn’t matter but the people you are with, who are [also] queer! [This] is important because we don’t have that in Nigeria.”
The global ballroom scene can be traced back to the 1960s in the United States. It was a form of refuge for African American and Latino drag queens, and trans-women who were often ostracized from mainstream society due to their gender identity and sexuality.
“I have competition”: The realities of older sex workers in Kenya
“I’ve even resorted to skin bleaching and other treatments to appear younger, but I still can’t earn as much as I did in my earlier years,” Nancy says, reflecting the disposition of many older Kenyan sex workers.
Grace Nyarangi* decided to enter the sex work industry when she was just over 18 years old. In her early years, she managed to support her children, put food on the table, and provide for all their necessities solely through her earnings.
Despite facing significant backlash and stigma from her family and community upon learning about her choice of profession, Nyarangi remained resolute.
“After giving birth and being abandoned by my partner, I struggled to secure employment with no success,” she shares. “That’s when I turned to this line of work.”
However, as she grew older, her income from sex work began to decline. Nyarangi, who today also works at the Africa Sex Workers Alliance (ASWA) based in Kisumu, says that in Kenya, older sex workers are confronting two formidable challenges: technology and ageism. Formed in 2009 in South Africa by members drawn from 35+ countries, the alliance works towards promoting destigmatisation and decriminalisation of sex work.
“Men like younger women or simply younger-looking women. My looks still afford me clients because compared to my agemates, I look younger. But it’s nothing compared to when I was young, I had clients willing to pay
Stories from around the world
DW
Iraqi LGBTQ+ community loses social media safe space
It was always double-edged, but in Iraq, social media was often a comparatively safe place where the local queer community could meet. New Iraqi laws are changing all that.
Social media has always been one of the only places where members of the LGBTQ+ community in Iraq could meet and be more open about their sexual identity.
“Before Instagram, members of the community created fake Facebook accounts and joined secret groups to get to know one another,” Khalid, a 22-year-old student in the central Iraqi province of Babylon, told DW. He couldn’t give his full name, because doing so would expose him to danger. “Then with Instagram’s ‘close friends’ story feature [launched in 2018], it became even easier for people to connect, and even to find love.”
The country’s conservative culture means most queer locals have always hidden their sexuality. Surveys of attitudes toward homosexuality in Middle Eastern countries indicate that usually less than 10% of local populations “approve” of homosexuality.
The New Humanitarian
Tunisia accused of ‘mass desert dumping’ of migrants
Tunisian police rounded up hundreds of migrants and asylum seekers and left the men, women, and children stranded at the Algerian border, according to the Refugees in Libya NGO, which called it a “mass desert dumping” in a 3 May post on X (formerly known as Twitter.)
The raid, which happened around 3am on Friday morning, saw police scoop up people from several makeshift camps in the capital, Tunis – two of them outside the offices of the UN’s refugee (UNHCR) and migration (IOM) agencies, according to the NGO. The asylum seekers and migrants were reportedly put on municipal buses and driven to the border, where Refugees in Libya said they were left near the town of Jendouba with no food or water.
Encampments, where the migrants and refugees had been protesting against increasing levels of xenophobic violence in Tunisia and demanding urgent relocation to safer countries, were also reportedly bulldosed during the crackdown.
Tunisian President Kais Saied has also disclosed the expulsion of approximately 400 migrants and asylum seekers from the country’s eastern border.
GAYTIMES
It’s not queerness that is alien to Ugandan culture – it’s queerphobia
Ater lobbying from the US evangelical Christian movement, the Anti-Homosexuality Act (AHA) was enacted in Uganda in May 2023. Although same-sex activity was already illegal, from then on LGBTQIA+ life in Uganda has been subject to even harsher restrictions. These include punitive prison sentences – twenty years for the ‘promotion’ of homosexuality and life imprisonment for homosexual acts – as well as the death penalty for instances of so-called ‘aggravated homosexuality’.
The new law has led to several arrests, with some individuals facing capital charges. Additionally, the committee of the Convening for Equality (CFE) released a report in September arguing that the bill, and the political rhetoric surrounding it, has radicalised the public against LGBTQIA+ individuals. In early January, the prominent activist Steven Kabuye was stabbed after receiving death threats. Despite these troubling developments, in April Uganda’s Constitutional Court rejected a petition by activists to overturn the law.
From its inception, the bill has proved controversial with the international community and was denounced by the UN and European parliament. The response from President Yoweri Museveni has, however, been defiant – suggesting that calls to repeal the law as a western imposition. “Western countries should stop wasting the time of humanity by trying to impose their practices on other people,” he said in parliament. But is it really true to say that queer tolerance is a western practice, while homophobia is a Ugandan one?
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CNN
Breaking taboos: How Ife Agoro’s DANG is changing the game for women in Nigeria
In the bustling world of social media, where everyone strives to be heard, few voices rise above the noise to truly make an impact. One such voice is that of Ifedayo Agoro, the founder of Diary of a Naija Girl (DANG), a platform that started as a simple Instagram page and has since grown into a thriving community of nearly one million followers across social media sites.
The journey for the Nigerian former oil and gas executive began with a simple idea in 2006 – to share her stories and opinions authentically and without fear or shame.
“I realized the culture of shame had grown so much and I thought to myself, ‘This is not how I grew up… I’m gonna tell my story, the good, the bad, and the ugly, and I will not be ashamed,’” Agoro recalled.
Through candid conversations and shared narratives, members of the DANG community confront taboo topics such as gender-based violence, discrimination, body image, mental health, and reproductive rights.