The world right now is too polarized, too divided than we have ever been in the history of mankind. Mostly because we aren’t seeing things through the eyes of each other. People prefer to see things only from their own preconception of things and mostly subjectively. Humans have become less flexible and objective; when confronted with something new, we go through an array of reactions that for most, unfortunately, end in irrational withdrawal, discrimination and hatred. A video is currently circulating online of two men being burnt alive because they were caught having sex in their room.
People in the LGBT community have been demonized, discriminated, brutalized for something they don’t have the power to change. And some have tried… painfully so.
About 42 men were charged with the “crime of homosexuality” in Nigeria because they were “having knowledge of themselves against the order of nature.” I’ve both laughed and felt sad whenever I remember this statement and all I want to do is shout and tell the world that they are wrong about this (like many other things). I want to tell the world that I’m gay and yes it’s natural, it’s me to be gay, to remove the “gay” from me is to actually remove me. I want to tell the world that I am just like the rest of them, that I am human and because I love a little bit different from the way the rest of the world choose to look at love doesn’t make me demonic or damned; it only adds multiple colors to the beautiful shades of being human.
Someone asked me how I feel comfortable loving my fellow man and I asked him how he felt comfortable being an African. He said he wasn’t African by choice and he could never change being African in spite of the many international indignities that come with being from this part of the world. “There’s your answer”, I replied with a smile.
Some people might not understand the concept of being gay or bisexual and like typical humans, we tend to mystify, spiritualize, demonize and or criminalize a concept especially when we don’t have an ordinary and justifiable answer to those concepts. The reason for this misunderstanding is because people look at us from their own eyes and not through our own eyes. They can never understand us from their own angle of view; they have to understand us from our own point of view. And who else to show them that angle if not us.
IperfectAfrica is trying to change the mentality of Africans towards how they see LGBTQ and to make every man in Africa one day see ourselves as just different branches of one perfect tree. #IperfectAfrica campaign is going to attain that. We believe that people in the community need to tell the world about the sweet and natural experiences of being gay. They need to show the world how natural and normal it is to be LGBTQ. If the world, especially AFRICANS can see that the feelings, emotions and the harmlessness of same sex love are just the same as opposite sex love and that the only difference are the restrictions, then we believe we would be on our way to a more dignified Africa.
Make a video, saying how good and natural it is to be gay. Tell your sweet experiences, make it feel like you are trying to convince someone to become gay. Make it feel like you standing in front of a court that’s about to condemn you to death for being gay and the only way out is to tell them what you love about being gay. Be sure to mention #IperfectAfrica in the video. Those who aren’t ready to come out can hide their faces through the video; it’s allowed for this campaign. It’s the experiences that count. Winning videos would receive cash gifts. The video should be 2:20 mins or below. When you are done, follow @IperfectAfrica on Twitter if you haven’t and then DM the video to @IperfectAfrica or email to iperfectafrica@gmail.com. To show solidarity, anyone from outside Africa can send videos but only Africans (mustn’t be resident in Africa) are possible to emerge winners.
See poster for more details and you can also go to @IperfectAfrica handle for more details enquirers and clarifications.
