BLESSED BODY: The Secret Lives of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Nigerians

“This Nigerian collection of testimonies and autobiographical vignettes should be compulsory reading for Nigerian Government officials who drafted the “Jail the Gays” Bill in 2014 and, for that matter, any African citizen who still believes that homosexuality is unAfrican, an illness to be cured, or a moral aberration harking back to Sodom and Gomorrah. These stories span the arduous lives of contemporary LGBT Nigerians at home and in diaspora, both men and women, all courageous narrators who attempt to put a name on their attraction, consulting dictionaries, Internet sites, social media networks, and to place their outing moment in all-girl schools, Universities, Churches, nighttime trading haunts. While the stories boldly sketch the kama sutra of same-sex desire and love in West Africa, lined with the dark specter of AIDS and prostitution, they also draw us into a web of online friendships while a beneficent God amiably eavesdrops on his dissident flock.”