Sexual minorities in Nigeria use Twitter to contest the invisibility Nigerian society forces upon them. By examining the linguistic advocacy of ‘coming out’ and ‘reaching out’ on the social media platform, users can establish a sense of community while challenging heteronormative values by asserting individual and group sexual agency

Ayodele Onanuga, Paul

English

LSE Research Online

11/12/2020 Queer Nigerian Twitter can challenge homophobia and assert sexual agency | Africa at LSEhttps://blogs.lse.ac.uk/africaatlse/2020/10/29/queer-nigerian-twitter-social-media-challenge-homophobia-and-assert-sexual-agency/ 1/10Paul Ayodele Onanuga October 29th, 2020Queer Nigerian Twitter can challenge homophobiaand assert sexual agency0 comments | 2 sharesEstimated reading time: 5 minutesSexual minorities in Nigeria use Twitter to contest the invisibilityNigerian society forces upon them. By examining the linguisticadvocacy of ‘coming out’ and ‘reaching out’ on the social mediaplatform, users can establish a sense of community whilechallenging heteronormative values by asserting individual andgroup sexual agency.While the 2014 Same-Sex Marriage Prohibition Act in Nigeria is oftenrepresented as a reaction to Western ‘invasive’ tendencies, particularly inthe face of President Obama’s threats of sanctions in the face of the11/12/2020 Queer Nigerian Twitter can challenge homophobia and assert sexual agency | Africa at LSEhttps://blogs.lse.ac.uk/africaatlse/2020/10/29/queer-nigerian-twitter-social-media-challenge-homophobia-and-assert-sexual-agency/ 2/10opposition to the legalisation of homosexuality, the Act validates thecountry’s homophobic tenor. For many young Nigerians, especially males,queer sexuality is foreign and its visibility must be censored. Thus,heterosexuality is prescribed as normative while any form of sexualdeviance must be closeted.Unsurprisingly, the tropes used to deny and denigrate queer sexualitiesfind their roots in patriarchal constructs which harness moral, religiousand cultural values in the ‘othering’ of queer sexualities. Even more ironicalis the fact that much of these homophobic attitudes are offshoots ofcolonial moralisation while the legal codes hark back to British anti-homosexuality colonial laws.These legal impediments further serve as validation for homophobicattitudes. Such attitudes are unsurprisingly commonplace in Nigeria,indicative of the stifling public lived experiences of Nigerian queers. Theyalso serve as reinforcement of Claudia Böhme’s reference to thetypification of homosexual desires as ‘a sickness, a bewitchment, and partof an occult economy’.In my recent article I explore how the Nigerian queer community hasappropriated the digital space, via social networking platforms, as a pointof refuge from the performative inhibitions and limitations of the Nigerianphysical space. For most Nigerian queers, relocating or seeking asylumabroad has been (and continues to be) the major alternative to living alifestyle of pretence in line with Nigerian society’s heteronormativeexpectations. However, with Internet-enabled access to digital spaces,people of queer sexual orientation actually contest the negativerepresentations of their sexuality while also affirming their identities.I examine linguistic advocacy in coming out and reaching out narrativesby Nigeria queers on Twitter. By coming out, I engage how Nigerian11/12/2020 Queer Nigerian Twitter can challenge homophobia and assert sexual agency | Africa at LSEhttps://blogs.lse.ac.uk/africaatlse/2020/10/29/queer-nigerian-twitter-social-media-challenge-homophobia-and-assert-sexual-agency/ 3/10homosexual Twitter users can reveal their sexual identity and establish asense of community with other people of queer orientation. Reaching out,on the other hand, is explored by paying attention to how the queercommunity educates and engages with the larger society vis-a-vis issuessurrounding acceptance. To achieve the research aim, I collected tweetsby Nigerian Twitter users through keyword searches. I analyse thesetweets with corpus linguistic tools and critical discourse analysis.Why Twitter?Social networking platforms are increasingly popular acrossdemographics and national borders, providing users the opportunity toconnect and share experiences with other users. Twitter is one of suchvery active platforms used by Nigerians.On Twitter, Nigerians discuss different political and social issues, such ascalling out government actors, contributing to trends/issues of national orglobal importance and, of course, expressing their opinion on acontentious topic like queer sexuality. Eve Shapiro, for instance,acknowledges that online social networking media constitute domainswhere everyone, including the non-elite, can engage in socio-politicaladvocacies and activism, towards having real-world implications andchanging their social realities. Specifically within the context of amplifyingqueer voices, Kenyan scholar Evan Mwangi (2004) has argued thatcyberspace is increasingly deployed by users to represent homosexualityas an identity and cultural signifier. How then does the Nigerian self-identified queer male community signify coming out online? How do theywield language in their public advocacies?Contesting gender ideology and affirming queeragency11/12/2020 Queer Nigerian Twitter can challenge homophobia and assert sexual agency | Africa at LSEhttps://blogs.lse.ac.uk/africaatlse/2020/10/29/queer-nigerian-twitter-social-media-challenge-homophobia-and-assert-sexual-agency/ 4/10In the narratives I explored, there are obvious contestations of prevailinggender ideology – that which identifies and elevates heterosexuality asthe norm while denigrating queer sexualities. An interesting finding wasthat many of the commenters showed comfort in presenting themselvesas homosexuals. These were realised through clear statements, the useof positive queer-identifying names and the pride flag in their profiles, andmore.Because coming out has never been straightforward, experiences varyingbased on social context, time and place while predisposing people tostress, isolation and rejection, through these narratives Nigerian queerpeople humanise themselves in the discourse and represent themselvesas being like any other Nigerian. They further express the reality ofqueerness being present throughout Nigerian society. An instance is thetweet below:“@iam_modashe (2019, October 6): The bank executive in the boardmeeting The Playboy flirting with the ladies at the bar The quiet fuelattendant punching the numbers The security guard at the mall TheOAP at your favorite radio station, filling the airwaves The NURTWchairman of your area #WeAreMany”Coming out online constitutes self-acceptance and its public expression.In the message by @iam_modashe, while the tweet’s author comes out topublicly acknowledge their sexuality, the hashtag #WeAreMany is used asa marker providing the tweet visibility and aligning it with adiscussion/movement attesting to the many other people yet to publiclydivulge their sexuality. Through their online revelations, these commentersserve as energisers to embolden other queers to accept and enact theirsexual personalities. Other members of the community also reinforcethese decisions by providing textual acclamations and positive feedback.11/12/2020 Queer Nigerian Twitter can challenge homophobia and assert sexual agency | Africa at LSEhttps://blogs.lse.ac.uk/africaatlse/2020/10/29/queer-nigerian-twitter-social-media-challenge-homophobia-and-assert-sexual-agency/ 5/10In addition, there are advocacies which seek to draw the attention offamily and the non-queer community to the burden society places on theperformance of queer sexuality, as expressed below:“@kikimordi (2019, December 26). It’s almost 2020 & same sexmarriage is still illegal in Nigeria. Like two people (of the same sex)can love themselves and want to build a family for themselves just likeyou & I but can’t because it’s illegal for them.”This tweet puts into focus the discriminatory practices that make queerrelationships and unions legally impossible. By drawing attention to theirplight, these queer users and their allies attempt to co-opt and incorporatethe support of larger society into changing narratives and realities.Allied to these textual validations are the use of Twitter conventions likeretweets and hashtags. While retweeting involves relaying orrebroadcasting another user’s tweet, it also ‘contributes to aconversational ecology in which conversations are composed of publicinterplay of voices that give rise to an emotional sense of sharedconversational context’. Combined in these narratives, these Twitterconventions help to topicalise queer narratives, signal agreement with thequeer tweet authors, amplify or spread the tweets to a larger audience andshow support with the tweet writer.Through their linguistic representations and advocacies, the Nigerianqueer community online also rejects the perception that non-heterosexualorientations are ‘mere imitations of western gay life’. Instead theyaccentuate the naturalness of queer sexuality as sexual orientationswhich had always existed within many Nigerian societies. To reinforce thenormalisation of their sexual orientation, these commenters indicate thatNigerian society problematises the wrong issues.11/12/2020 Queer Nigerian Twitter can challenge homophobia and assert sexual agency | Africa at LSEhttps://blogs.lse.ac.uk/africaatlse/2020/10/29/queer-nigerian-twitter-social-media-challenge-homophobia-and-assert-sexual-agency/ 6/10“@OmogeDami (2019, December 28). Nigerians have bigger issues toattend to, but your government left those issues and made out time tocriminalize homosexuality. You people are ridiculous.”“@RachaelCapaldi (2019, December 29). It doesn’t even make anysense. Pedophiles in the north are allowed to roam free, politicians areallowed to loot our collective wealth but two consenting adults wouldbe put behind bars because they want to love eachoda. Btw this lawdoesn’t apply to the rich elites of Nigeria.”In the tweets above, the commenters validate the marginalisation of queersexuality and opine that the censorship of their sexualities is a clearindication of misplaced priorities. Nigeria certainly has genuine problemslike corruption, infrastructural decay and under-development which requireurgent attention. It is, however, not uncommon for politicians and religiousleaders to divert attention from their inadequacies by scapegoatingpeople of queer sexuality.Taking control through self-representationThe contestation of judgemental narratives by the queer community istargeted at public visibility and acceptance, as well as the liberalisation ofthe normative sexuality spectrum. These pro-queer commenters attemptto realise this first through taking control through self-representation, inwhich they control their coming-out narratives and make concertedattempts to confront the menace of homophobic cyberbullying.These acts are particularly interesting because more Nigerian queersseem to be at ease with ‘coming out’ online, especially on Twitter, withrespect to their sexuality and seem not to mind revealing their identities.Moreover, these identities are two-way: some users express their realidentities (sexual as well as physical details like locations) while others11/12/2020 Queer Nigerian Twitter can challenge homophobia and assert sexual agency | Africa at LSEhttps://blogs.lse.ac.uk/africaatlse/2020/10/29/queer-nigerian-twitter-social-media-challenge-homophobia-and-assert-sexual-agency/ 7/10only indicate their sexual identities. Both categories of users, however,display comfort with their personality and signal their readiness tonavigate homophobic tendencies evident on online platforms. In addition,these commenters channel efforts at reaching out to various segments ofthe larger society as a form of advocacy towards societal and institutionalacceptance. They appropriate digital conventions available on socialmedia platforms towards in-group affinity while also making legitimisingoutreaches targeted at the family and other non-queer people.Explorations of the representations of homosexuality are apposite withinthe African contemporary social space because they ‘fill in the gaps andsilences’ that have shrouded discourses around this topic. Through these,one identifies and humanises the lives and existence of marginalisedsubcultures. In their online engagements, the marginalised Nigerian queercommunity recognises and employs digital media as a ‘new public spacefor political discussion…[for] political underdogs’.In the narratives analysed, what stands out is the assertion of individualand group sexual agency. This agency is negotiated from complexpositions, and with knowledge that marginalised communities can onlyaccess power through resorting to resistant modes. I thus conclude thatthese Twitter-based engagements and representations contribute to andassert queer advocacies, in a bid to occasion ‘sexual affirmation andemancipation in African societies that are socialised in heterosexualvalues and which ridicule and shame the idea of difference andambiguity’.Photo by Benjamin Dada on Unsplash.About the author11/12/2020 Queer Nigerian Twitter can challenge homophobia and assert sexual agency | Africa at LSEhttps://blogs.lse.ac.uk/africaatlse/2020/10/29/queer-nigerian-twitter-social-media-challenge-homophobia-and-assert-sexual-agency/ 8/10Posted In: Recent | Society | TechnologyLeave a Reply Read NextSocial media and youth popular culture in Kenya can counterpolitical exploitationSeptember 3rd, 2020Related PostsEnter your comment here...Paul Ayodele Onanuga works in the Department of English andLiterary Studies, Federal University Oye-Ekiti, Nigeria and is currentlya postdoctoral fellow of the Alexander von Humboldt Fellowship atthe Technische Universitat Chemnitz, Germany. His researchinterests revolve around Nigerian Hip-Hop Studies, ComputerMediated Communication/Discourse Analysis, Political Discourseand Queer sexuality in Nigeria.Paul Ayodele OnanugaHuman Rights11/12/2020 Queer Nigerian Twitter can challenge homophobia and assert sexual agency | Africa at LSEhttps://blogs.lse.ac.uk/africaatlse/2020/10/29/queer-nigerian-twitter-social-media-challenge-homophobia-and-assert-sexual-agency/ 9/10#EndSARS to #EndSWAT: Nigeria needs real changeOCTOBER 16TH, 2020 2African ElectionsShould politicians in Nigeria give money to the poor?MAY 7TH, 2019DevelopmentFive years on: are Nigerians better or worse under PresidentBuhari?OCTOBER 1ST, 202011/12/2020 Queer Nigerian Twitter can challenge homophobia and assert sexual agency | Africa at LSEhttps://blogs.lse.ac.uk/africaatlse/2020/10/29/queer-nigerian-twitter-social-media-challenge-homophobia-and-assert-sexual-agency/ 10/10© LSE 2020Bad Behavior has blocked 2983 access attempts in the last 7 days.African ElectionsNigerian youths are too poor to run for political officeNOVEMBER 27TH, 2019 3

Queer Nigerian twitter can challenge homophobia and assert sexual agency

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Queer Nigerian twitter can challenge homophobia and assert sexual agency

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