LGBTQ African Friendship
mowunna posted a photo:
In Image: Sizwe: Queer Burundian [IG: @sizwe__ ] (left) , Kim: Trans Burundian [IG: @blacksupremacist] (right)
By: Mikael Owunna
This week on #LimitlessAfricans, we will be doing something a bit different and exploring photographically what LGBTQ African community means and the importance of having that support network.
For me personally, I grew up feeling like I was totally alone and that I was the only LGBTQ African person out there. Now- after doing this work for 3 years now – that seems ridiculous, but as a teenage queer nigerian kid in Pittsburgh, PA- how was I to know better? And I didn’t know how much it hurt feeling like I was the only one until I saw how relieved I felt when I met other people like me and built that community (first virtually and then in person – s/o to @odera my first queer african friend <3). Meeting other LGBTQ Africans validated my identity as a queer African person in such a powerful way, in the face of a world that told me that I could not and should not exist. That I was “un-African,” deficient for not being white, femme and inherently invaluable as such and more.
Finding and building that community of LGBTQ Africans is part of the reason that I started #LimitlessAfricans, and it’s been incredible – to say the least – going from knowing ZERO other LGBTQ Africans in my early teens to now knowing dozens. <3. And getting to share all of these amazing people’s stories on www.limitlessafricans.com so that other people who might feel like they’re the only ones (like I did) realize that we’re not alone
It was such a pleasure to photograph Sizwe – Queer Burundian Person- and Kim – Trans Burundian Woman – both separately and together this summer and explore what LGBTQ African Friendship and Community looks like and the impact it has on our lives. Will be sharing their group photos over the course of the week, and you can check out their full individual interviews below as well:
Read Kim’s Full Interview: www.mikaelowunna.com/mikael-s-blog/limit-less-project-kim
Read Sizwe’s Full Interview: www.mikaelowunna.com/mikael-s-blog/limit-less-project-sizwe
Donate to support the project: HERE
About Limit(less)
Limit(less) is a photography project by Mikael Owunna (@owning-my-truth) documenting the fashion and style of LGBTQ African Immigrants (1st and 2nd generation) in diaspora. As LGBTQ Africans, we are constantly told that being LGBTQ is somehow “un-African,” and this rhetoric is a regular part of homophobic and transphobic discourse in African communities. This line of thinking, however, is patently false and exists an artifact of colonization of the African continent. Identities which would now be categorized as “LGBTQ” have always existed, and being LGBTQ does not make us “less” African.
Limit(less) explores how LGBTQ African immigrants navigate their identities and find ways to overcome the supposed “tension” between their LGBTQ and African identities through their fashion and style. The project seeks to visually deconstruct the colonial binary that has been set up between LGBTQ and African identities, which erases the lives and experiences of LGBTQ Africans. #LimitlessAfricans
Donate to support the project: HERE
Website:
limitlessafricans.com/
Facebook Page:
facebook.com/limitlessafricans
Tumblr:
limitlessafricans.tumblr.com
