|
Foremost Nigerian gay movement, the Alliance Rights, Nigeria (ARN) led by Dare Odumuye
makes a bold strive to stay alive, as it celebrates five years of existence in a largely
homophobic society, writes TONY IYARE
Not many in this clime would touch his pet
project even with a long spoon. But undaunted, Dare Odumuye, who presides over Nigeria's
first publicly known gay movement, Alliance Rights Nigeria (ARN) as chief executive officer
is forging ahead with his strange homily in a largely homophobic society. Odumuye whose
ARN got a Red Ribbon award recently from the Journalists Against Aids (JAAIDS) in Lagos
for its effrontery to publicly raise its voice on this issue, narrates the story of his
organisation set up to defend gay and lesbian rights five years ago "I was living in
Lagos.
Within the gay and lesbian community, we were just having parties. After
that, my friend and I sat down and said we needed to pursue things about sexual health and
rights of gays and lesbians. Prior to that, a lot of people were sacked for being gay and
lesbian. One was a manager, he was sacked and harassed. Another was a bank senior
executive, he was also sacked. At social gatherings, area boys would come and harass people
suspected of being gay or lesbian. Because of information we had about rights, we felt this
was an integral part of the human being. Why should people be harassed for their sexual
orientation? We now sat down and said this cannot continue. We had the same ideals and
then the name Alliance Rights Nigeria came up".
Continuing his moving story, Odumuye, a former administrative manager in
Lead Assurance says the ARN which started as a membership based organisation on July 2,
1999 has now evolved into a service provider as an NGO. "With the advent of
democracy, we thought we had the constitutional leverage to operate. So we started
exploring contacts and issues with friends. We started at my house at Alaka Estate in
Surulere, Lagos . When the number increased, we now moved to now defunct Surulere Night
Club around Shita area. From there we moved to the National Stadium where we had more
space. That was how we started.
There was also a place around Kuramo beach in Victoria Island where we
used to meet. On an average night, we had 400 people who usually come and enjoy
themselves. We started pursuing issues of sexual rights. We used to have lesbians and gays
but right now we are focused more on issues that affect gays. The lesbians now have their
own organisation". With seven "reputable people" on its board, Odumuye
says the ARN is trying to engage the Nigerian society so that it can be less homophobic. Out
of the four men and three women who make up the board, only two are said to be openly gay.
The ARN also has a five-member expert advisory committee. "These are friends who
identify with the aims and objectives of the organisation. They are the steering wheel of the
organisation.
They've been very instrumental to the modest achievement we've been
able to do." On the objective of the foremost Nigerian gay movement whose work has
touched more than 10.000 people across the country, the ARN boss says, "The World
Health Organisation WHO talks about health for all and you can't do that if you exclude
some part of the society. Our contribution is to ensure sexual and health rights for
everybody. If we focus on just a part, there will be problems. We need to do a dynamic
study of the needs of the gay/lesbian and bisexual and trans-gender issues". Contrary
to the belief of many here that gay and lesbian culture is foreign inspired, Odumuye, who
also worked in a finance house in the 90s, would certainly stir the hornet nest with his
treatise that this phenomenon predates colonialism in Nigeria .
Hear him, "Something that can be found in the language pattern of
the people is part of that society. In Remo language, it is called gbowo. In Hausa, it is called
dan daudu while the word langwa is used by the Ngwa in southeast Nigeria to derogatively
abuse people who engage in homosexuality." According to the ARN chief executive
officer, "It was actually colonialism that criminalised sodomy or sex that is against the
order of nature.". "There's a lot of misconception out there. When we talk of
homosexuality, it is not just anal sex. Some people do not have anal sex. Some do
masturbation, some do thy sex, some just comfort each other and stay together."
Odumuye argues that while Christianity and Islam frown at
homosexuality, traditional African religion does not. According to him, in traditional Yoruba
society when boys are approaching puberty, they are usually taken to the bush by older men
who teach them how to have sex. Some of these young men grow out of it and become
bisexual while some continue with the act of having sex with men. He also says some aids of
the Oba who usually take care of the harem in the palace were eunuchs who had sexual urges
but had no children. The son of a former deputy registrar, University of Ibadan , Odumuye
says he has the support of his highly educated family for his not too warm project. " My
people are very educated. My mother has a PhD. My father (late Femi Odumuye) who retired
as a former deputy registrar, University of Ibadan was the first graduate from Ilishan Remo.
My mother retired as a civil servant. She's now into private business and also does some
consultancy. My grand parents were also educated. They impacted education in every
sphere" Just a little over 35 years, Odumuye who describes himself as "single on
both aspects", says he gets a lot of pressure from the extended family members to get
married but prefers to enjoy "my life as I am". "There are other people who
are not homosexuals, who are older than I am and are not married.
As long as you don't go and steal and you do your work and you are
getting public award and recognition, they feel you are doing some service to society."
And the ARN which operates a small apartment office in the serene of Bodija, Ibadan ,
actually has its hands full of advocacy projects. One of them is a 12 month project called the
Alliance Aids Initiative which is commencing from July 2004 to June 2005. This is an
HIV/AIDS prevention education project for and with men who have sex with men (MSM)
which is to be carried out in Ibadan metropolis The project which takes after the one held
earlier in Senegal, South Africa, Kenya, Ghana and Sierra Leone, is being funded by
Network in Ethics, Law, Human Rights HIV/AIDS Prevention, Education Care and Support
(NELA) based in Ibadan in conjunction with International HIV/AIDS Alliance (IHAA) based
in London. Says the ARN chieftain, "it involves pair education. When we train the core
group, they will go and train other people. We give them information of where to go for
treatment.
We want to capture this community and improve their sexual health
condition. We hope we would have been able to reduce the sexual hazards among
MSM." The mission of the ARN in line with this project is to distribute more condoms.
"We want a situation where they (MSM) will be safe and the general population will be
safe. MSM are advised to use stronger condoms. Once you use condoms, that are not strong,
there's a problem. It depends on how they use it. They must use it right. They must have the
skills because these men also have sex with women". The ARN which also has
partnership with Hope World Wide based in Lagos and Family Health International envisages
to kick start a very big project with three other organisations around the last quarter of the
year. Estimated to cost over N20 million, this project will cover some selected sites in the
country.
It has not been smooth sail for the ARN whose membership is said to cut
across different regions of the country. Between 2000 and 2002, six members of the
executive died of HIV/AIDS related cases. Odumuye, a 1988 BA English graduate of Ogun
State University , Ago Iwoye says, "Membership cuts across the different ethnic
groups. We had slightly more Igbo members. We've attended parties in Kano , Kaduna , Port
Harcourt , Benin , Enugu , Owerri, Ijebu-ode and so on. There's a preponderance of
membership from the south east and south south. Unfortunately these areas are where the
stigma is more". Not done with his gospel which many would prefer to see as heresy,
Odumuye says the prevailing stigma on homosexuality in Nigerian society is misplaced
because sex is a universal language of the human being. "The release is there and the
joining of the physical body, the passion that is aroused. It also plays on emotion. It brings
down tension. It's about the highest expression of the attraction to one another. It is used as
a form of covenant, contract and procreation in some instance. MSM comes down to the same
issue. All the passion and emotion that goes on in heterogeneous sex is also their in MSM. It
is more emotional, and passionate. It is possible to have multiple partners without any sexual
act. They just have more time together over drink in what they call serial monogamy. They do
help each other and so on."
Culled from gleaneronline.com
|
|