Limitless Africans

Limitless Africans is a documentary photography series that focuses on the lives and experiences of 50 LGBTQ African immigrants, refugees, and asylum seekers in North America, Europe, and the Caribbean. Photographed over 6 years in 10 countries, this work is in conversation with precolonial African notions of LGBTQ people as the gatekeepers, shamans, and healers of their communities and combats contemporary ideas that it is “un-African” to be LGBTQ. Limitless Africans was released as a published monograph in October 2019.

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Brian : Queer Rwandan (Pronouns: he or she)

Montreal, Canada (2016)

“My Africa is one that is intrinsically hate-free, welcoming, comprehensive and protective. It’s not about knowing if LGBTQ is “un-African” or not but it’s more about understanding that homophobia and transphobia are clearly not derived from African values, culture and traditions.” 

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4 Queer African Women in the Snow

From right : Mai'Yah - Queer Liberian (Pronouns : she, they) - Amadi - Queer Nigerian (Pronouns : she) - Yéwá - Queer Nigerian (Pronouns : she, they)- Badu - Queer Ivorian (Pronouns : she)  - 

Brooklyn, NY, USA (2017)

"To the queer Africans that would be shunned by their community, family and/or country. To the queer Africans that are in desperate need of an answer and feeling lost as to where to look for it.

I know the feeling.

Chant this from the top of your lungs and mean it with every emotion in your body.

You are bold and filled with strength.

You are not alone. I’m with you. Limitless is with you.

We are here, we exist and WE ARE NOT going anywhere.

To Being a Limitless African " - Mai’Yah (furthest right)

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Amadi - Queer Nigerian (Pronouns: she) 

Brooklyn, NY, USA (2017)

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Badu - Queer Ivorian (Pronouns: she)

Brooklyn, NY, USA (2017)

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4 Queer African Women in Repose

From right : Mai'Yah - Queer Liberian (Pronouns : she, they) - Amadi - Queer Nigerian (Pronouns : she) - Badu - Queer Ivorian (Pronouns : she) - Yéwá - Queer Nigerian (Pronouns : she, they)

Brooklyn, NY, USA (2017)

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Wiilo – Queer Somali (Pronouns : they)

Arlington, VA, USA (2015)

“Wiilo Geedi. Wiilo in Somali means girls who dresses like boy. It’s a nickname that I was given by my elders when I was younger. 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. ”

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Netsie – Queer Ethiopian-Namibian (Pronouns : she)

Seattle, WA, USA (2016)

“I have always wanted to have an Ethiopian wedding. There are few things that would make me happier. If I end up marrying a cis man, I can have that wedding. If I end up with anyone else, I can’t. It’s that simple. That fact still makes me feel profoundly sad."

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Olave – Queer Nonbinary Trans Femme Burundian (Pronouns : she or they)

Rotterdam, the Netherlands (2017)

“Dutch society is rather racist. The Dutch hold their culture as supreme, objective, “tolerant” and progressive. Anything (and anyone) that isn’t Dutch is suspect, uncivilised and a liability. To be worthy of dignity, love and freedom, however, you have to basically be or ascribe to whiteness, heterocissexuality, capitalism, etc. Growing up in The Netherlands, I was in countless subtle and overt ways “pushed” to reject my “african”-ness, my femininity, everything that made me different. I failed at it. I gave up on it. I abandoned my efforts to become “worthy” of the Dutch. Since then I have been pursuing my Burundian-ness, my black-ness, my trans-ness, my queer-ness, my femme-ness, my crazy-ness, my different-ness. Doing so has brought me a lot of healing from the violence of the Dutch white supremacist, imperialist, ableist, speciest, transmysoginoir, capitalist patriarchy.”

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Olave – Queer Nonbinary Trans Femme Burundian (Pronouns : she or they)

Rotterdam, the Netherlands (2017)

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Queer Kenyan Twins: Subira (left, Pronouns: they) and Wandia (right, Pronouns: she)

Hamburg, Germany (2017)

Subira (left) : I dealt with a lot of racism in LGBTQ spaces during my undergraduate degree, which was exhausting and isolating. I would try to overcome that by attempting to educate everyone, which was even more exhausting. Eventually I learnt to set better boundaries, and invite people to do their own learning for themselves. Luckily the spaces I’m in now are a lot better, and when I do still (inevitably) experience racism in queer spaces, I have a good community of QTIPOC (queer, trans, and intersex people of colour) folks who I know will have my back.

Wandia (right) : Before western colonialism, norms about sexuality and gender in Africa looked very different to how they did after the violence of colonisation. In many African countries societies were built differently, nuclear families were not the normal constellation in which children were raised, gender was not binary, cisgenderism and heterosexuality were not the norm. But the white coloniser's narrow ideas of what constituted 'civilisation' were forced upon people on the continent, and cultural practices, religions and traditions were brutally and violently erased and replaced in part with homophobic, transphobic religious teachings.

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Queer Nigerian Motherhood : Tobi (Pronouns: they) and their daughter Gabi

Essex, United Kingdom (2017)

Tobi : My dream for my daughter is that she understands what freedom is in all senses of the word and is always surrounded by people who will guide and nurture her in the ways she chooses to go. For her to be able to make decisions based on her own desires, drawing strength and understanding from the experiences and realities of those around her whilst trusting with confidence that based on all of these considerations, she knows what is best for her at all times

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Gesiye – Bisexual/Queer Nigerian-Trinidadian (Pronouns: she)

Port of Spain, Trinidad & Tobago (2015)

“I hear this a lot in the Caribbean, that the LGBTQ experience is un-African or un-natural. From the homophobic music that we all dance and sing along to, to the fact that it’s still illegal to have sex with someone of the same gender in Trinidad*. It’s exhausting. I wish we would accept/understand that gender-fluidity and same sex attraction are historically indigenous and African.”

*: On April 12, 2018 the High Court of Trinidad and Tobago ruled unconstitutional the criminalization of sex between people of the same gender, opening a new chapter for LGBT people and politics in the Caribbean

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Aru – Queer Congolese (Pronouns: they)

Brussels, Belgium (2017)

“To put Africans in a box of heteronormative western structures is to really deny yourself of your true history. We were never meant to be enslaved physically and mentally. Imagine how different our countries and mind-set would be if we weren’t so deeply rooted in western ideology.” 

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Jihan – Trans Algerian Man (Pronouns: he)

Brussels, Belgium (2017)

“ For me Limitless in an important project for the next generations. That they can have some faces, some references and not waste time as we did because we were scared or we felt alone and/or ashamed. We grew up with only caucasian and heteronomative representations, so that is hard sometimes to realize that we will never match this limited model. For the people who are isolated, it can be very difficult. However when we have access to very positive, strong images, that resemble us or to which we can identify, it really gives hope and momentum. ”

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Po – Queer Congolese (Pronouns: she or they)

Brussels, Belgium (2017)

"Being African and queer was two outsider identities and for me it never seemed impossible to combine. In both spaces I was supposed to be fitting a norm that I wasn’t able to fit. Whether it’s the white one or the straight one."

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