Last month, we hosted Matthew Nwozaku, the executive director and founder of Obodo Nigeria, as part of our LGBTQ+ Team Impact Group and “Beyond Your Bubble” series – an internal initiative that sees us invite external speakers from different walks of life to share their experiences.
Obodo Nigeria is a youth-led organisation to advance queer rights and visibility in Nigeria through art and culture.
Matthew kicked off their talk by explaining the linguistic origins of Obodo, a powerful Igbo word, which is loosely translated to “a place” and implies one of shared ancestry that have coexisted throughout history in times of danger, conflict, and turmoil as well as times of safety, abundance, and success.
They then explained the important work for the queer community in Nigeria’s overtly homophobic society, by providing safe spaces and multiple forms of support to ensure queer lives are able to be lived as openly and comfortably in a culture that criminalises this identity.
We learnt that centuries of imperialism and colonisation led to the demonisation of previously accepted queer people, which remodelled the cultures and societies of Nigerians. This has led to queerness outside the West being synonymous with otherness, and often categorised by living on the fringes of society, isolation, and fear.
Matthew explained their internal initiatives to support the various needs of their community, such as The Queer and Trans Creative Hub, which provides a space for queer people to communicate and experiment with their creativity in a like-minded community. As a result, they set up a Queer Artist Fund to support 7 queer artists of multiple artistic mediums.
Obodo has since incorporated technology to address the rights and welfare-related issues that face the Nigerian LGBTQ+ community and provided opportunities for these individuals to learn digital skills. They also explained the importance of providing a physical safe space to provide queer-positive and gender affirming education, information and encouraging interpersonal interaction.
Matthew wrapped up their impactful talk by sharing their journey into queer activism via the #EndSars movement in 2020, the power of social media activism and mobilisation to amplify the voices of young queer Nigerians and the importance of sparking and sustaining a wave of demand for justice and accountability.
The overall message they left us with was to stand-up, speak up, the importance of allies as they reach audiences that queer people are unable to, and continuing to advocate for human rights for all.
Follow Obodo Nigeria on Instagram and X to support them and to check out the great work they do to improve the lives of queer Africans.
