DAKAR: Each time Abdou’s mom hears of a homophobic assault within the streets of Senegal‘s capital Dakar, she locks him in her bed room.
Abdou — who, like different LGBTQ individuals AFP interviewed, requested to not be recognized by his actual title — is used to hiding. He has been concealing his sexuality most of his life.
However these days the 20-year-old has felt much more in peril.
“The state of affairs is turning into increasingly more severe,” mentioned the soft-spoken unemployed tailor.
“Earlier than they might say you had been homosexual, however they did not hit you. In the present day you’re crushed and it is posted on social media.”
Homosexuality has by no means been extensively accepted in Senegal, a deeply conservative nation. However tensions have risen to new heights in current months.
In Might, Senegalese soccer star Idrissa Gana Gueye was criticised in France for lacking a Paris Saint-Germain match for “private causes” through which gamers wore rainbow jerseys to help LGBTQ rights.
The experiences prompted an outpouring of help for Gueye again dwelling with social media deluged with homophobic memes.
Days later, a mob hurling homophobic slurs beat up an American artist who was in Dakar for a global competition.
Abdou’s nightmare started when a cousin found his sexuality and outed him, forcing him to flee from Senegal for months after being banished from his home, sacked from his job and bombarded with threats.
Now he’s again and mentioned he’s making an attempt to persuade his household he has “turn into” straight.
“I attempted a number of occasions to say, ‘Tomorrow, I am not going to be homosexual anymore, tomorrow I’ll attempt to discover a girlfriend,’ [but] I can not.”
Abou reduce contact along with his homosexual mates to guard them and spends most of his time in isolation, trawling social media for details about Senegal’s rising anti-gay motion.
“I can not discover the phrases to explain how a lot it hurts deep all the way down to be hated,” he mentioned.
He as soon as even tried to kill himself by consuming a poison for cockroaches.
The homosexual ‘foyer’ – Activists say anti-gay rhetoric has been ramped up since a Might 2021 demonstration within the capital calling for homosexual intercourse — at the moment punishable by as much as 5 years in jail — to be made a severe crime.
France, the previous colonial energy, has eliminated Senegal from its listing of protected international locations of origin due to the dangers gays face there.
Final yr the vast majority of the 1,300 Senegalese asylum functions in France cited persecution over sexual orientation, in accordance with official figures.
However many in Muslim-majority Senegal imagine homosexuality is a Western way of life being imposed on their society.
“I do not see how Senegal ought to change its place to offer extra space to those homosexuals,” mentioned Abdoulaye Guisse, a 28-year-old pupil, including that LGBTQ individuals ought to stay “discreet”.
“Socially it’s not allowed — faith is so sturdy in Senegal that it circumstances our social practices.”
Highly effective Sufi brotherhoods maintain appreciable social and political clout in Senegal.
There may be additionally rising anti-French sentiment.
Ababacar Mboup, who runs And Samm Jikko Yi, a bunch that helped organise final yr’s march, accused France of forcing its customs on Senegal when it doesn’t settle for Muslim practices corresponding to polygamy inside its borders.
He mentioned he desires to cease the homosexual “foyer” from dominating mainstream Senegalese tradition.
“If two homosexuals, holed up of their dwelling, have interaction of their actions, that doesn’t concern us — however we actually need to protect Senegalese public area,” he mentioned, insisting his organisation is peaceable and doesn’t condone mob violence.
“Holding Homosexual Pleasure… that we are going to not settle for.”
Senegal just isn’t the one sub-Saharan state with legal guidelines towards homosexual intercourse — some two dozen others have them as properly.
Whereas some nonetheless have small however seen LGBTQ communities, in Senegal — a rustic recognized for its hospitality, with a repute for stability and the rule of regulation — that’s not the case.
– ‘You simply need to go away’ – Khalifa, a bisexual, claims teams have been monitoring down LGBTQ individuals and rights teams that assist them and publicly denouncing them.
The 34-year-old, who was not too long ago outed to his household and compelled into hiding outdoors Dakar, mentioned some homophobes have his private info and he’s apprehensive they are going to publish it.
“In Senegal, there isn’t any place for gays,” he mentioned. “Whenever you hear the imams preach you simply need to get on a aircraft and go away instantly.”
Though he’s proud to be Senegalese and a practising Muslim, he hopes to get asylum overseas.
“For me there is just one nationality on Earth and that’s Senegalese,” he mentioned.
Married with a toddler, Khalifa was capable of disguise his bisexuality most of his life, till being outed by a buddy after a falling-out.
“After I stroll outdoors, you may’t inform I am bisexual — quite the opposite, you assume it is a homophobe strolling,” he mentioned. “That is a part of the ways.”
Abdou, however, was effeminate from a younger age and his mom compelled him to see a non secular chief generally known as a marabout for “therapies” together with midnight “non secular” baths and conversion remedy.
As he acquired older, homosexual males would cease him within the streets and ask for his telephone quantity.
That may be harmful. LGBTQ individuals may be lured into conferences the place they’re attacked.
Dakar has by no means had homosexual bars, LGBTQ neighborhood members say, however there have been beforehand venues the place they might meet and mingle alongside straight individuals with out others figuring out.
All that has stopped because the anti-gay march.
“It’s riskier at present to publicly show one’s LGBTQI id in Senegal in contrast to some years in the past,” mentioned Ousmane Diallo, an Amnesty Worldwide researcher.
Homosexual activists declare politicians are leaping on the anti-gay bandwagon to rally help for parliamentary elections Sunday and a presidential vote in 2024.
– Father swore he’d shoot son – Mame Mactar Gueye, the chief of the Jamra NGO that has been pushing for harsher punishments for homosexual intercourse, argued that more durable legal guidelines would in truth be “dissuasive” and shield LGBTQ individuals from mob violence.
After parliament rejected them in January, Jamra organised a second march in February, and Gueye met President Macky Sall in Might.
Gueye mentioned that traditionally there was a spot in Senegalese society for effeminate males or transvestites generally known as “goor-jigeens” — that means “man-woman” in Wolof — however that LGBTQ individuals have gone too far with sacrilegious “provocations” during the last decade.
“They began to be an issue once they organised themselves into associations and began to invade the general public area,” he mentioned.
“Many international locations have given in,” Gueye mentioned, claiming Gabon had “fallen into the fingers of the LGBT foyer” by enjoyable legal guidelines on homosexual intercourse.
“You Westerners are used to instructing us in your college lecture halls that democracy is the regulation of the bulk, however please, the overwhelming majority of Senegalese don’t desire it,” he mentioned.
For Senegalese gays, leaving could appear the most suitable choice, however it comes with its personal challenges.
Daouda, 32, fled to a neighbouring nation in 2016 and typically struggles to make ends meet.
“In Senegal residing with homosexuality means being in peril from morning to nighttime,” he mentioned.
He misses his household and want to go dwelling however believes he can’t as long as his father is alive.
“He took out a gun and needed to shoot me — if there weren’t individuals in the home proper then I might have died,” he mentioned. “He swore that he’d kill me if it is the very last thing he does.”
Abdou — who, like different LGBTQ individuals AFP interviewed, requested to not be recognized by his actual title — is used to hiding. He has been concealing his sexuality most of his life.
However these days the 20-year-old has felt much more in peril.
“The state of affairs is turning into increasingly more severe,” mentioned the soft-spoken unemployed tailor.
“Earlier than they might say you had been homosexual, however they did not hit you. In the present day you’re crushed and it is posted on social media.”
Homosexuality has by no means been extensively accepted in Senegal, a deeply conservative nation. However tensions have risen to new heights in current months.
In Might, Senegalese soccer star Idrissa Gana Gueye was criticised in France for lacking a Paris Saint-Germain match for “private causes” through which gamers wore rainbow jerseys to help LGBTQ rights.
The experiences prompted an outpouring of help for Gueye again dwelling with social media deluged with homophobic memes.
Days later, a mob hurling homophobic slurs beat up an American artist who was in Dakar for a global competition.
Abdou’s nightmare started when a cousin found his sexuality and outed him, forcing him to flee from Senegal for months after being banished from his home, sacked from his job and bombarded with threats.
Now he’s again and mentioned he’s making an attempt to persuade his household he has “turn into” straight.
“I attempted a number of occasions to say, ‘Tomorrow, I am not going to be homosexual anymore, tomorrow I’ll attempt to discover a girlfriend,’ [but] I can not.”
Abou reduce contact along with his homosexual mates to guard them and spends most of his time in isolation, trawling social media for details about Senegal’s rising anti-gay motion.
“I can not discover the phrases to explain how a lot it hurts deep all the way down to be hated,” he mentioned.
He as soon as even tried to kill himself by consuming a poison for cockroaches.
The homosexual ‘foyer’ – Activists say anti-gay rhetoric has been ramped up since a Might 2021 demonstration within the capital calling for homosexual intercourse — at the moment punishable by as much as 5 years in jail — to be made a severe crime.
France, the previous colonial energy, has eliminated Senegal from its listing of protected international locations of origin due to the dangers gays face there.
Final yr the vast majority of the 1,300 Senegalese asylum functions in France cited persecution over sexual orientation, in accordance with official figures.
However many in Muslim-majority Senegal imagine homosexuality is a Western way of life being imposed on their society.
“I do not see how Senegal ought to change its place to offer extra space to those homosexuals,” mentioned Abdoulaye Guisse, a 28-year-old pupil, including that LGBTQ individuals ought to stay “discreet”.
“Socially it’s not allowed — faith is so sturdy in Senegal that it circumstances our social practices.”
Highly effective Sufi brotherhoods maintain appreciable social and political clout in Senegal.
There may be additionally rising anti-French sentiment.
Ababacar Mboup, who runs And Samm Jikko Yi, a bunch that helped organise final yr’s march, accused France of forcing its customs on Senegal when it doesn’t settle for Muslim practices corresponding to polygamy inside its borders.
He mentioned he desires to cease the homosexual “foyer” from dominating mainstream Senegalese tradition.
“If two homosexuals, holed up of their dwelling, have interaction of their actions, that doesn’t concern us — however we actually need to protect Senegalese public area,” he mentioned, insisting his organisation is peaceable and doesn’t condone mob violence.
“Holding Homosexual Pleasure… that we are going to not settle for.”
Senegal just isn’t the one sub-Saharan state with legal guidelines towards homosexual intercourse — some two dozen others have them as properly.
Whereas some nonetheless have small however seen LGBTQ communities, in Senegal — a rustic recognized for its hospitality, with a repute for stability and the rule of regulation — that’s not the case.
– ‘You simply need to go away’ – Khalifa, a bisexual, claims teams have been monitoring down LGBTQ individuals and rights teams that assist them and publicly denouncing them.
The 34-year-old, who was not too long ago outed to his household and compelled into hiding outdoors Dakar, mentioned some homophobes have his private info and he’s apprehensive they are going to publish it.
“In Senegal, there isn’t any place for gays,” he mentioned. “Whenever you hear the imams preach you simply need to get on a aircraft and go away instantly.”
Though he’s proud to be Senegalese and a practising Muslim, he hopes to get asylum overseas.
“For me there is just one nationality on Earth and that’s Senegalese,” he mentioned.
Married with a toddler, Khalifa was capable of disguise his bisexuality most of his life, till being outed by a buddy after a falling-out.
“After I stroll outdoors, you may’t inform I am bisexual — quite the opposite, you assume it is a homophobe strolling,” he mentioned. “That is a part of the ways.”
Abdou, however, was effeminate from a younger age and his mom compelled him to see a non secular chief generally known as a marabout for “therapies” together with midnight “non secular” baths and conversion remedy.
As he acquired older, homosexual males would cease him within the streets and ask for his telephone quantity.
That may be harmful. LGBTQ individuals may be lured into conferences the place they’re attacked.
Dakar has by no means had homosexual bars, LGBTQ neighborhood members say, however there have been beforehand venues the place they might meet and mingle alongside straight individuals with out others figuring out.
All that has stopped because the anti-gay march.
“It’s riskier at present to publicly show one’s LGBTQI id in Senegal in contrast to some years in the past,” mentioned Ousmane Diallo, an Amnesty Worldwide researcher.
Homosexual activists declare politicians are leaping on the anti-gay bandwagon to rally help for parliamentary elections Sunday and a presidential vote in 2024.
– Father swore he’d shoot son – Mame Mactar Gueye, the chief of the Jamra NGO that has been pushing for harsher punishments for homosexual intercourse, argued that more durable legal guidelines would in truth be “dissuasive” and shield LGBTQ individuals from mob violence.
After parliament rejected them in January, Jamra organised a second march in February, and Gueye met President Macky Sall in Might.
Gueye mentioned that traditionally there was a spot in Senegalese society for effeminate males or transvestites generally known as “goor-jigeens” — that means “man-woman” in Wolof — however that LGBTQ individuals have gone too far with sacrilegious “provocations” during the last decade.
“They began to be an issue once they organised themselves into associations and began to invade the general public area,” he mentioned.
“Many international locations have given in,” Gueye mentioned, claiming Gabon had “fallen into the fingers of the LGBT foyer” by enjoyable legal guidelines on homosexual intercourse.
“You Westerners are used to instructing us in your college lecture halls that democracy is the regulation of the bulk, however please, the overwhelming majority of Senegalese don’t desire it,” he mentioned.
For Senegalese gays, leaving could appear the most suitable choice, however it comes with its personal challenges.
Daouda, 32, fled to a neighbouring nation in 2016 and typically struggles to make ends meet.
“In Senegal residing with homosexuality means being in peril from morning to nighttime,” he mentioned.
He misses his household and want to go dwelling however believes he can’t as long as his father is alive.
“He took out a gun and needed to shoot me — if there weren’t individuals in the home proper then I might have died,” he mentioned. “He swore that he’d kill me if it is the very last thing he does.”