lesbian visibility

By Victor Mkhize

September 30, 2004: In February 2004 the delegation from Nigeria attending the Johannesburg All Africa Symposium were unable to bring with them a female delegate, but work on lesbian visibility within SPIN has been fruitful since then and lesbians are beginning to make their mark on the Nigerian movement.

When lesbian women met in Namibia recently to strategise around the formation of CAL (Coalition of African Lesbians) two women from Nigeria attended. For the first time in the pan Africa lesbian and gay movement Nigerian women participated in finding ways to change African attitudes and hopefully African government's policies towards lesbian and gay people on the continent. SPIN sent a woman known as Queen, while reproductive health organisation Increse sent Helena who became one of the most popular and outspoken delegates at the conference.

SPIN say that they have been successful in integrating lesbians in Nigeria into the organisation but in most case the biggest obstacle was the closet. SPIN say this is a major objective that they are now including women in their group. With Queen travelling to Namibia SPIN says, Now the sky is the limit for WSW and MSM in Nigeria."

The relatively new organisation has also been busy with other activities involving youth lesbian and gay people in Nigeria. SPIN recently hosted a seminar on dating and relationships. The workshop was sponsored and coordinated by Kent Klindera of Advocacy for Youth (USA) and Youth Action Rangers of Nigeria. Over 50 members of SPIN attended the workshop. The focus of the workshop was on the techniques of dating and how to handle relationships and other issues that are relevant to the LGBT people relationships.

In another interpretation of the issue of lesbian visibility two female students of the Federal Polytechnic Oko of Anambra State in the South East on Nigeria were caught making love in the classroom. Edna and Ngozi were caught in the heat of the passion one evening; little did they know that people were gathering outside to watch them. They were subsequently rounded up by the anti-cult squad of the institution.

Edna is known to be the leader of lesbians in the Polytechnic. She told the anti-cult squad that whenever the spirit gets a hold of her she loses control of herself. Ngozi disclosed that they had been making love for the past two years. She blamed it on Edna saying she is the one who initiated the whole thing. But for Edna nobody but the devil introduced her to the act about three years ago. She blamed it on Ogbanje (Abiku) that is evil spirit as she puts it. "If it enters my body I get possessed and I don't even know what I'm doing. I only calm down after making love to any fellow girl that I can find." She said that she had tried to deliver herself from the evil spirit and is now claiming to be a born again Christian.

Reacting to the situation the public relations officer of the institution Mr Kanu Anene said that the institution is seriously wiping out cultism and other social vices from the school. Meanwhile SPIN has sent some of its members to the institution to help 24 girls who have been implicated to the scandal.