LGBTQ+ Nigerians are living at the mercy of mob justice

This week, we start in Kenya, where female bikers are breaking stereotypes and creating change. Next, we travel to Nigeria, where homophobic mobs act freely with public support and no legal repercussions. Finally, we stop in Colombia, where lawmakers have banned child marriage after 17 years of advocacy.

But first, in Uganda, children born from sexual violence face not only cultural shame but also bureaucratic roadblocks that make it hard to get basic identification. This week, Minority Africa speaks with Jane Francis*, who shares her struggles with the stigma surrounding her birth, a lack of belonging and fears about her future.

Read the excerpt here👇🏽:

“My mother is a victim of rape…according to our culture it is shameful to have a child without a clan”

Editor’s note: This story contains references to sexual violence.

Jane Francis* never knew her father. At 15, she joined her mother for an exciting day in the city. While there, they encountered one of her mother’s friends, who exclaimed, “She really looks like you!”

“This is my sister,” her mother replied.

“My heart sank,” Francis remembers. “Later, my mom asked me to accept this because she couldn’t explain to people that I was her child.”

This left Francis in shock, but she did not press her mother for answers, as she was her only family. It wasn’t until she turned 17 that her mother revealed the truth about her conception: she had been raped in her hostel room. Francis’ mother suspected the perpetrator was the man who rented the room next door, but he always denied it. Francis’ mother was 18 at the time.

“My mother hopes that one day she will have him arrested and a DNA test done,” Francis narrates. “She still lives in denial.”

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As a 12-year-old altar boy in his local Catholic parish in Abuja, Nigeria, Chiboy Sidney recognised the ‘discomfort’ his effeminate nature caused others.

One Sunday, during mass, a visiting seminarian citing 1 Corinthians 6:9, a verse on sexual immorality and homosexuality, prohibited Sidney from serving mass and accused him of trying to seduce the priests.

Despite this, Sidney says his experiences in Abuja, where he grew up, were generally more accepting, but things took a harsh turn when he gained admission to the University of Nigeria Nsukka (UNN). The university proved to be a hostile environment, where people openly disapproved of Sidney’s effeminate nature. Public slander and derogatory comments became a regular occurrence.

“In Abuja, I could go out without any incident of hostility, but in the east, it was something I was always getting,” Sidney, now 26 years old, shares.

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LGBTQ+ Nigerians are living at the mercy of mob justice

Homophobic mobs typically operate without fear of legal repercussions, knowing that the public is on their side.

A video circulating online from Port-Harcourt, Nigeria, depicts the lynching of two gay men who were allegedly caught engaging in sexual intercourse.

The men were stripped down to their underwear and forced to hold hands while being paraded in the streets. They were covered in bruises and blood. Onlookers watched and recorded with their phones as the pair were beaten with sticks and fists and attackers hurled homophobic slurs at them.

An elderly man who witnessed the incident told LGBTQ Nation that mob attacks on queer people are common occurrences in Rumuewhara, a community in the city of Port Harcourt.