Beautiful gay & queer Somali Farahs/Xaliimo.

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Stunning Photos Debunk The Myth That Queerness Is 'Un-African'
Mikael Chukwuma Owunna created "a queer African home for myself and others where we can be LGBTQ, African and whole.
05/16/2017 10:04 EDT | Updated 05/18/2017 00:40 EDT

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MIKAEL OWUNNA
"4 Queer African Women," shot in the U.S.


As a kid, Nigerian-born photographer Mikael Chukwuma Owunna knew of no other LGBTQ Africans personally, and he saw none represented in popular culture or mainstream media. His family and community hardly spoke of people being queer, and when they did, the tone was nearly always one of disdain.


“Growing up being queer and Nigerian, I felt like I could not exist,” Owunna told HuffPost.

The artist was 15 years old, living in the United States, when he was outed as gay to his family, who blamed America and Western culture for his sexual identity. They proposed he return to Nigeria twice a year, hoping the culture would “cure” Owunna of his desire.


“They thought that since being gay was ‘un-African,’ re-exposing me to my culture would drive the gay out of me,” he said.

Three and a half years ago, Owunna decided to respond to this injurious claim ― that queerness and African-ness can not and do not overlap ― by capturing portraits of individuals who are proudly both African and queer, gay or transgender. “I’ve been fighting to reclaim these two parts of my identity for myself,” he explained. “To create a queer African home for myself and others where we can be LGBTQ, African and whole.”

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The series, called “Limit(less),” is part– anthropological study and part– street style shoot, aiming to capture, as Owunna put it, what LGBTQ African immigrants look like when they feel free. It features 34 portraits, mostly taken in North America, each accompanied by an interview that probes deeply into the life and personal style of the subject.


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MIKAEL OWUNNA
"Brian: Queer Rwandan," shot in Canada.
In part, the work is inspired by a photo series by South African photographer Zanele Muholi called “Faces & Phases,” which Owunna saw at the Carnegie Museum of Art in Pittsburgh. The images depict black lesbians based in South Africa, their faces boldly featured against plain walls or patterned backdrops. “Seeing that work, I was so incredibly moved,” Owunna said. “Especially coming from my own experience of feeling completely invisible and erased as a queer African person.”

With “Limit(less),” Owunna attempts to challenge the binary understanding that sets queerness at odds with the African identity. Yet it was important to him that the project not cast homophobia as something innately African. The ignorance and hatred many young, queer Africans now face, Owunna explained, stems from the legacy of European colonialism, which, he said, “has brainwashed us to believe that being LGBTQ is somehow against our indigenous cultural identities.”

Owunna cited Nzinga of Ndongo ― a 17th-century African leader who insisted that the male harem who served her dress in women’s clothing ― as an example of Africa’s early openness in regard to gender expression.

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MIKAEL OWUNNA
"Eniola: Queer Nigerian," shot in the U.S.
Since Owunna had only met two other LGBTQ Africans in his entire life, he located the majority of his subjects on social media. When a potential subject expressed interest, Owunna reached out for a phone or Skype conversation, during which he would explain the concept of his work in full.

Most importantly, he ensured the subjects were entirely comfortable participating in such a visible project, given the potential safety concerns that could arise as a result. “Even though we live in diaspora, there are still very real fears and dangers for us as LGBTQ African people both inside and outside of our communities,” he said.

The photographer then flew to visit each subject and spent the weekend in his, her or their home, spending a day getting to know each other before actually starting the shoot. The participants were also given interview questions beforehand regarding their personal style, their relationship with their families and what they might say to people who think being LGBTQ is “un-African”?

The subjects’ written responses are as compelling and moving as the images themselves.

Em, an agender Nigerian living in America, responded to the last question above with: “You’re un-African for believing that all Africans are this monolithic group of people, cis and heteronormative. We are dynamic, bold, and beautiful and queer. Our Africanness is only stronger with this identity because every day we breathe, especially for African trans folk, we are resisting and revolutionary. That’s pretty damn African to me.”

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MIKAEL OWUNNA
"Netsie: Queer Ethiopian Namibian," shot in the U.S.
While fashion is seen by some as frivolous or superficial, Owunna’s subjects and their thoughtful answers illuminate how clothing can not only express identity but inform it. Netsie, a queer Ethiopian-Namibian woman in America, described how her personal style rejects the roles often foisted upon women of color.

“From a young age, women are taught that they have no choice in who looks at them, and so often, we are held responsible for what other people perceive,” Netsie said. “We are taught to be presentable, not just for business meetings, but potential friends, mates and assaulters. At the same time, we are taught never to look threatening, or look back at the people looking at us. We are denied the verb, and forced into the noun. f*ck that. I’m a hard femme with an hourglass silhouette, a goodwill budget, and a firm grasp of anti-capitalist rhetoric. I wear whatever makes me feel comfortable and powerful and safe.”

Reactions to “Limit(less),” Owunna told HuffPost, have been overwhelmingly positive, especially from LGBTQ African immigrants themselves. “I feel like there is such a hunger for us to see ourselves and people like us,” the artist said. “And to especially see other LGBTQ African people in a space of empowerment, loving ourselves.”

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MIKAEL OWUNNA
"Em: Trans Nigerian," shot in the U.S.
Owunna’s contributions to visualizing a population that has for too long gone unrepresented are staggering, and he is not slowing down anytime soon. The artist is en route to creating the largest digital archive of LGBTQ African immigrant narratives in existence. Having worked primarily in North America so far, he’s headed to Europe ― home to over 6 million African immigrants.

The artist is currently raising funds on Kickstarter to finance his journeys to Belgium, France, Portugal, Sweden and the U.K., gathering more stories and images every stop of the way. To continue the project, he needs $10,000 by June 8 ― at time of publication, he has raised just over $5,000.

Owunna looks forward to growing his archive, finally providing visibility for the next generation growing up African and queer. “With each click of my camera,” he said, “I strive to capture my vision of what a free world can look like for black queer and trans people. And to show that this free world already exists inside each and every one of us.”
 
:drakewtf: Which one(s) are the xalimos in the first post?

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How do you know they're gay tho? They're probably just Swedish or some other urlu furlu hurlu snownikkas

That article has fuckall to do with Somalis
 


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"Kaamila: Queer Somali," shot in USA


Mikael Owunna
"Taib: Queer Ethiopian-Kenyan," shot in Canada


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"Wiilo: Queer Somali," shot in USA
 
Show proof.
http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/entry/photography-lgbtq-african-style_us_591a08c9e4b07d5f6ba5372d

https://mashable.com/2017/05/20/lgbtq-african-limitless-portraits/#Ug0Hxylt95qV
LGBTQ Africans celebrate identity and community in this powerful photo series
https%3A%2F%2Fblueprint-api-production.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fuploads%2Fcard%2Fimage%2F482656%2F427005a2-8ad2-44f7-9ab5-dafd2e0d5df8.jpg

IMAGE: MIKAEL OWUNNA
BY KATIE DUPEREMAY 20, 2017

An ongoing photo series tells the complex stories of LGBTQ Africans, encouraging the celebration of two identities too many believe are at odds with each other.

Queer Nigerian-American photographer Mikael Owunna created Limit(less) to debunk the myth that it's "un-African" to be LGBTQ. The photographs also highlight queer African style, an essential point of self-expression for the community, according to Owunna.

SEE ALSO: 6 ways allies still marginalize people of color — and what to do instead

For the past three years, Owunna has photographed 34 LGBTQ African immigrants for the project, most living in North America. The photos are paired with extensive interviews with each participant, exploring themes of homophobia, race, African identity, abuse, and healing.

"I focus specifically on the LGBTQ African diaspora because we can be visible in ways that many LGBTQ people currently living on the African continent cannot be," Owunna writes on the project's website.

https%3A%2F%2Fblueprint-api-production.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fuploads%2Fcard%2Fimage%2F482683%2Fb75f5640-b88e-44be-9157-8442e9fcc573.png



IMAGE: MIKAEL OWUNNA

Owunna says he started Limit(less) to create a space where LGBTQ African immigrants could celebrate their proud and complicated selves. He says being African and LGBTQ was something he struggled to reconcile when realizing his own queer identity, feeling tension between his sexuality and Nigerian heritage.

"These are two identities that are always framed as antithesis to each other."
Owunna was outed at 15 years old, and was told by family that being gay was "not of [his] culture." His family insisted queerness was a "white people" and "American" thing, not something organic to who Owunna was.

"My family started sending me back to Nigeria twice a year with the thought that by re-exposing me to Nigerian — and specifically Igbo — culture that this 'gay thing' would go away," he says. "It didn't, and eventually, I was put through a series of exorcisms in Nigeria at the age of 18."

https%3A%2F%2Fblueprint-api-production.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fuploads%2Fcard%2Fimage%2F482673%2F8fe43169-44d8-4abd-95b1-a945d1435143.png


IMAGE: MIKAEL OWUNNA

https%3A%2F%2Fblueprint-api-production.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fuploads%2Fcard%2Fimage%2F482675%2Fe48f246e-05e2-4bec-9459-4f32fd68cf0f.png


IMAGE: MIKAEL OWUNNA

Owunna says the exorcisms led to severe trauma that caused him to feel like he could not be both gay and African. That belief, he eventually realized, wasn't true. So he created Limit(less)not only to celebrate LGBTQ African identity, but also to reclaim and heal a part of himself in the process.

Over the past few years, Owunna has photographed and interviewed people like Wiilo Geedi for Limit(less). Geedi, who uses the pronouns they and them, was given the name "Wiilo" by Somalian elders when they were young. It means "girl who dresses like boy."

Though the name's meaning may seem offensive in an American context, Geedi says the initiative of their elders to name their experience has been crucial in understanding their identity.

https%3A%2F%2Fblueprint-api-production.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fuploads%2Fcard%2Fimage%2F482660%2Fb1e10a0b-25a5-4663-918a-0a9aaeb9035b.png



One of Wiilo Geedi's portraits for Limit(less).

IMAGE: MIKAEL OWUNNA

"It's something that has always comforted me when I was going through my process of discovering my queerness, and helped me to overcome the shame and the feeling of being pushed away from my culture," Geedi says in their Limit(less) interview.

"With every click of my camera, I work to envision what a free world can look like for black queer and trans people."
The portraits in Limit(less) are beautiful, vibrant depictions of the queer African diaspora. But Owunna has no formal photographic training — just a passion to document the complexity of his community.

One agender participant named Em, who uses the pronouns they and them, describes their experience participating in the portrait series as "liberating," giving them the ability to confirm who they really are.

"These are two identities that are extremely important, but they are always framed as antithesis to each other," Em says. "I get to be a living example with many others that they go together perfectly."


https%3A%2F%2Fblueprint-api-production.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fuploads%2Fcard%2Fimage%2F482679%2Fb134ecb1-31a5-4ac7-8d4e-7346b7953d59.png


IMAGE: MIKAEL OWUNNA

https%3A%2F%2Fblueprint-api-production.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fuploads%2Fcard%2Fimage%2F482681%2F635a2ded-b00b-4815-bd36-dfa50339b49a.png


IMAGE: MIKAEL OWUNNA

African countries and communities often have a reputation of fostering rampant homophobia. Many regions in Africa, for example, have laws that punish the "crime" of homosexuality with death. But seeing African people as inherently homophobic, Owunna explains, doesn't give enough attention to the full story.

"Homophobia is a recent import from European colonialism," he says. "Africans have historically always been at the forefront of understanding of gender and sexuality, and our pre-colonial Indigenous understandings are so rich."

https%3A%2F%2Fblueprint-api-production.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fuploads%2Fcard%2Fimage%2F482666%2Fb107d9d1-d94e-4c98-9c62-78817ae354d0.jpg



IMAGE: MIKAEL OWUNNA

One example of this history, Owunna says, is in the story of Nzinga of Ndongo and Matamba, a powerful and successful ruler in modern-day Angola in the 1600s. Nzinga's title "ngola" meant "king," and she dressed in men's clothing as she ruled. She also had a harem of young men who dressed as women, who were her "wives."

"So in 1600s Africa, you had a butch queen with a harem of drag queens leading a struggle against European colonialism. How badass is that?" he says. "But it proves this homophobia is what's new, and we can and will get back to these rich understandings of gender and sexuality."

https%3A%2F%2Fblueprint-api-production.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fuploads%2Fcard%2Fimage%2F482663%2F427e11e9-185d-4f78-a704-e31838c4fbfe.jpg



IMAGE: MIKAEL OWUNNA

Owunna is currently running a Kickstarter, raising $10,000 to take his project to Europe this fall, where he plans to photograph LGBTQ African immigrants in Belgium, France, Portugal, Sweden, and the UK. After this leg of the journey, he says, his almost four-year project to document the lives of LGBTQ Africans will be complete.

"The pictures are meant to be uplifting and emancipatory," he says. "With every click of my camera, I work to envision what a free world can look like for black queer and trans people. We exist, and have always existed in African communities."
 
upload_2018-2-10_7-29-14.png

"It's something that has always comforted me when I was going through my process of discovering my queerness, and helped me to overcome the shame and the feeling of being pushed away from my culture," Geedi says in their Limit(less) interview.
 

Basra

LOVE is a product of Doqoniimo mixed with lust
Let Them Eat Cake
VIP
The first lesbian sitting down was the funniest! lol
 

Gojo Satoru

Staff Member
http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/entry/photography-lgbtq-african-style_us_591a08c9e4b07d5f6ba5372d

https://mashable.com/2017/05/20/lgbtq-african-limitless-portraits/#Ug0Hxylt95qV
LGBTQ Africans celebrate identity and community in this powerful photo series
https%3A%2F%2Fblueprint-api-production.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fuploads%2Fcard%2Fimage%2F482656%2F427005a2-8ad2-44f7-9ab5-dafd2e0d5df8.jpg

IMAGE: MIKAEL OWUNNA
BY KATIE DUPEREMAY 20, 2017

An ongoing photo series tells the complex stories of LGBTQ Africans, encouraging the celebration of two identities too many believe are at odds with each other.

Queer Nigerian-American photographer Mikael Owunna created Limit(less) to debunk the myth that it's "un-African" to be LGBTQ. The photographs also highlight queer African style, an essential point of self-expression for the community, according to Owunna.

SEE ALSO: 6 ways allies still marginalize people of color — and what to do instead

For the past three years, Owunna has photographed 34 LGBTQ African immigrants for the project, most living in North America. The photos are paired with extensive interviews with each participant, exploring themes of homophobia, race, African identity, abuse, and healing.

"I focus specifically on the LGBTQ African diaspora because we can be visible in ways that many LGBTQ people currently living on the African continent cannot be," Owunna writes on the project's website.

https%3A%2F%2Fblueprint-api-production.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fuploads%2Fcard%2Fimage%2F482683%2Fb75f5640-b88e-44be-9157-8442e9fcc573.png



IMAGE: MIKAEL OWUNNA

Owunna says he started Limit(less) to create a space where LGBTQ African immigrants could celebrate their proud and complicated selves. He says being African and LGBTQ was something he struggled to reconcile when realizing his own queer identity, feeling tension between his sexuality and Nigerian heritage.

"These are two identities that are always framed as antithesis to each other."
Owunna was outed at 15 years old, and was told by family that being gay was "not of [his] culture." His family insisted queerness was a "white people" and "American" thing, not something organic to who Owunna was.

"My family started sending me back to Nigeria twice a year with the thought that by re-exposing me to Nigerian — and specifically Igbo — culture that this 'gay thing' would go away," he says. "It didn't, and eventually, I was put through a series of exorcisms in Nigeria at the age of 18."

https%3A%2F%2Fblueprint-api-production.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fuploads%2Fcard%2Fimage%2F482673%2F8fe43169-44d8-4abd-95b1-a945d1435143.png


IMAGE: MIKAEL OWUNNA

https%3A%2F%2Fblueprint-api-production.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fuploads%2Fcard%2Fimage%2F482675%2Fe48f246e-05e2-4bec-9459-4f32fd68cf0f.png


IMAGE: MIKAEL OWUNNA

Owunna says the exorcisms led to severe trauma that caused him to feel like he could not be both gay and African. That belief, he eventually realized, wasn't true. So he created Limit(less)not only to celebrate LGBTQ African identity, but also to reclaim and heal a part of himself in the process.

Over the past few years, Owunna has photographed and interviewed people like Wiilo Geedi for Limit(less). Geedi, who uses the pronouns they and them, was given the name "Wiilo" by Somalian elders when they were young. It means "girl who dresses like boy."

Though the name's meaning may seem offensive in an American context, Geedi says the initiative of their elders to name their experience has been crucial in understanding their identity.

https%3A%2F%2Fblueprint-api-production.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fuploads%2Fcard%2Fimage%2F482660%2Fb1e10a0b-25a5-4663-918a-0a9aaeb9035b.png



One of Wiilo Geedi's portraits for Limit(less).

IMAGE: MIKAEL OWUNNA

"It's something that has always comforted me when I was going through my process of discovering my queerness, and helped me to overcome the shame and the feeling of being pushed away from my culture," Geedi says in their Limit(less) interview.

"With every click of my camera, I work to envision what a free world can look like for black queer and trans people."
The portraits in Limit(less) are beautiful, vibrant depictions of the queer African diaspora. But Owunna has no formal photographic training — just a passion to document the complexity of his community.

One agender participant named Em, who uses the pronouns they and them, describes their experience participating in the portrait series as "liberating," giving them the ability to confirm who they really are.

"These are two identities that are extremely important, but they are always framed as antithesis to each other," Em says. "I get to be a living example with many others that they go together perfectly."


https%3A%2F%2Fblueprint-api-production.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fuploads%2Fcard%2Fimage%2F482679%2Fb134ecb1-31a5-4ac7-8d4e-7346b7953d59.png


IMAGE: MIKAEL OWUNNA

https%3A%2F%2Fblueprint-api-production.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fuploads%2Fcard%2Fimage%2F482681%2F635a2ded-b00b-4815-bd36-dfa50339b49a.png


IMAGE: MIKAEL OWUNNA

African countries and communities often have a reputation of fostering rampant homophobia. Many regions in Africa, for example, have laws that punish the "crime" of homosexuality with death. But seeing African people as inherently homophobic, Owunna explains, doesn't give enough attention to the full story.

"Homophobia is a recent import from European colonialism," he says. "Africans have historically always been at the forefront of understanding of gender and sexuality, and our pre-colonial Indigenous understandings are so rich."

https%3A%2F%2Fblueprint-api-production.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fuploads%2Fcard%2Fimage%2F482666%2Fb107d9d1-d94e-4c98-9c62-78817ae354d0.jpg



IMAGE: MIKAEL OWUNNA

One example of this history, Owunna says, is in the story of Nzinga of Ndongo and Matamba, a powerful and successful ruler in modern-day Angola in the 1600s. Nzinga's title "ngola" meant "king," and she dressed in men's clothing as she ruled. She also had a harem of young men who dressed as women, who were her "wives."

"So in 1600s Africa, you had a butch queen with a harem of drag queens leading a struggle against European colonialism. How badass is that?" he says. "But it proves this homophobia is what's new, and we can and will get back to these rich understandings of gender and sexuality."

https%3A%2F%2Fblueprint-api-production.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fuploads%2Fcard%2Fimage%2F482663%2F427e11e9-185d-4f78-a704-e31838c4fbfe.jpg



IMAGE: MIKAEL OWUNNA

Owunna is currently running a Kickstarter, raising $10,000 to take his project to Europe this fall, where he plans to photograph LGBTQ African immigrants in Belgium, France, Portugal, Sweden, and the UK. After this leg of the journey, he says, his almost four-year project to document the lives of LGBTQ Africans will be complete.

"The pictures are meant to be uplifting and emancipatory," he says. "With every click of my camera, I work to envision what a free world can look like for black queer and trans people. We exist, and have always existed in African communities."
Ofc a white person wrote this article :camby:
 
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