BIG ISSUE

Cameroon: where the LGBTQ+ community lives in fear

The recent jailing of prominent trans celebrity Shakiro for “attempted homosexuality” didn’t just highlight the plight of LGBT+ people in Cameroon, but the challenges and threats to life that the community’s straight allies and human rights advocates also face defending them, writes Cameroonian entrepreneur and LGBT+ activist Bandy Kiki

In Cameroon, a national conversation around the LGBT+ community has erupted following the five-year jail sentences imposed on trans celebrity Shakiro, and her friend Patricia, for “attempted homosexuality”.

Their sentencing, on 11 May, following their arrest in February, is nothing but a homophobic government lashing out at members of the LGBT+ community. Shakiro happens to be the most well-known victim of this repression, a consequence of her popularity on social media, and her sentence is the state’s response to the increasing visibility of Cameroonians like her.

Since this miscarriage of justice, many Cameroonians have sided with the government on social media platforms. Sadly, this support has mutated into attacks on the LGBT+ community. Activists who have dared to speak out in protest have also received threats.

The Global Campaign for Peace & Justice in Cameroon has expressed concern regarding death threats received by barrister Alice

Nkom, and renowned human-rights defender, Maximilienne Ngo Mbe, both of whom have worked to protect LGBT+ rights. That these threats continue speaks to the Cameroon government’s shameless scapegoating of LGBT+ members, and a cruel complicity between a

repressive regime and a homophobic society.

According to the Thomson Reuters Foundation, 2017 saw more than 600 attacks on members of Cameroon’s LGBT+ community. The Foundation adds that one in five lesbians and one in ten gay men have been raped, in an effort to “cure” them of their sexuality. I should know. When I decided to live my truth as a lesbian, a well-known Cameroonian filmmaker, Agbor Gilbert Ebot, promised to “correct” my sexuality with rape. Others accused me of spreading HIV.

It is within this noxious environment that Alice Nkom, one of Shakiro and Patricia’s lawyers, is fighting to appeal their conviction.

“Any laws against homosexuality are a violation of treaties and international conventions,” she told France24.com on 17 May 2021, the International Day against Homophobia.

As one of Cameroon’s first female lawyers, Nkom has advocated LGBT+ rights since 2003, when she founded the Association for the Defence of Homosexuals (ADEFHO). She has represented more than 50 LGBT+ defendants, many of whom call her “Mum”. Regarding the death threats she’s received, Nkom said, “I’m 76 years old, so I cannot be afraid of the cemetery,” adding, “it’s useless for someone to threaten me because I will continue to fight for LGBT+ rights — which are human rights.”

Nkom is but one of few battling statesanctioned homophobia in Cameroon — one of 31 African nations with colonial-era anti-LGBT+ laws. She works with the United Nations and other organisations to help LGBT+ Cameroonians — yet there is still much to do.

Many queer Cameroonians are living in underfunded slum “safe houses” and those with HIV are refused healthcare. Discrimination also affects their employment prospects and financial viability, limiting their ability to buy medication. Some have died alone after being abandoned by family members, while others, such as Thierry Essamba, a track and field athlete, have been barred from participating in meets organised by the Cameroon Athletic Federation.

Many have been murdered, and gay women are no strangers to this barbarity. A lot of them have been forced into abusive marriages by their families, raped by human monsters, and defined as “witches” by their communities.

A collective effort, then, is required by all. We must care for LGBT+ members in need; we must give our time and money to groups dedicated to their wellbeing; and we must confront hate in all its forms. There is no nobler cause.

“One in five lesbians and one in ten gay men have been raped in an effort to ‘cure’ them”

Bandy Kiki is the founder of Kikum Consulting, a marketing consultancy; a Rainbow Migration trustee, a Black Beetle Health trustee and Living Free UK director