Before organizations had names. Before we had the words to call ourselves a movement. There was music. There was a place to breathe. There was DJ Rachael. In the late 1990s and early 2000s, Uganda’s queer community was scattered, hidden, and surviving however we could. There were almost no safe places to just exist. But […]
Diaspora
Look, I get it. You hear “2026 elections” and your immediate response is to check your savings account, stock up on airtime before the inevitable internet shutdown, and mentally prepare for another season of politicians competing for who can say the most unhinged things about gay people on NBS. Your survival instinct isn’t whispering “civic […]
Dubai sells itself as a city of dreams—a glittering paradise where fortunes are made and lives are transformed. But behind the neon skyline, a darker reality thrives in the shadows. At the centre of one of the most shocking recent revelations is Charles “Abbey” Mwesigwa, a Ugandan man once behind the wheel of a London […]
When Jude Dibia published Walking With Shadows in 2005, he did something extraordinary: he told the story of a gay Nigerian man as a human being, not a cautionary tale. For West African literature — and for queer readers — it was a rupture, a revelation, and, ultimately, a spark that still burns today. A Radical […]
KIGALI, Rwanda Against the backdrop of Rwanda’s rolling hills, hundreds of LGBTQ+ activists from across Africa gathered in late August for a conference: and a declaration of war against erasure. Africa Pride 2025, hosted by Feminist Action Development Ambition (FADA) from August 27-29, transformed Kigali’s conference halls into a nerve center of resistance, where rainbow […]
On September 2, 2025, Burkina Faso’s transitional parliament passed a sweeping reform to its Persons and Family Code, criminalizing homosexuality for the first time in the country’s history. Under the new law, acts deemed to “promote homosexual practices” carry sentences of two to five years in prison, steep fines, and even deportation for foreign nationals. […]
To listen to Chimano is to hear the story of countless queer Ugandans who cannot speak for themselves.
When Kenya’s High Court delivered its landmark ruling on August 26, 2025, ordering the government to legislate for transgender protections, it wasn’t just a legal victory—it was a profound cultural landmark. From Kampala, where LGBTQ+ life exists under the unyielding Anti-Homosexuality Act 2023 that casts long shadows over queer existence, this milestone in Nairobi resonates […]
Four young Muslim men in northern Cameroon have spent six months in detention without trial after being accused of watching gay-themed films, a case that has drawn widespread condemnation from human rights defenders across Africa. The men, identified by pseudonyms Sabir (24), Dom (23), Yabby (25), and Sol (23), were arrested in February following a […]
Leilah, who started out sleeping on a fellow artist’s couch has made quite the progress in art and has dared to go as far as to revolutionize sculpting. She is a member of two prestigious international galleries in the UK and the USA.