Rooted in colonial-era platitudes, a recent rise in anti-LGBTQ+ legislation in Africa is obstructing progress for queer minorities. So why are these laws being heralded as upholding African tradition?
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Senegal, Burkina Faso, Uganda and Ghana have over the past few years brought in or are considering introducing stringent laws criminalising allies and members of the LGBTQ+ community.
“Motivations for this vary from currying political favour with people and institutions, to meddling western entities outside the continent,” says Morgan Ofori, Guardian journalist and a writer of the Long Wave newsletter.
He spoke to awo dufie fofie, an intersex trans woman from Ghana, documents queerness throughout west Africa and has suffered housing discrimination and violence.
She and Amanda Odoi – a plaintiff in a case against Ghana’s executive – said rethinking gender in the African context was the best long-term way to combat this repression.
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