'African Queer History Documentary'
Instagram: @queerafricanarchive @matthew.blaise
Goal
Through my study of African history, culture and context, I discovered that what is out of place in our society is not queerness, but homophobia.
After my initial research was released and gained over 300,000 organic impressions, I decided to expand it into a full-length documentary. Documentary has the power to translate much farther and faster than words or pictures ever will.
Help us reach our initial fundraising goal to begin this project! Your contributions will allow us to put together a research team and move forward with this important film.
About The Project
This project will explore how queerness has evolved from ancient Africa through pre and post-colonial times, into the modern-day.
The aftermath of colonialism has left Africa in a very poor and distressing state; and as with every problem a region faces, the most marginalized suffer the most. This means that the effects of colonialism on queer Africans are more pronounced because of the complete erasure of the existence of queer people from African history. This has not only led to the very common but completely unhistorical statement and belief that ‘Queerness is unafrican’, but it has also been the basis of the tons of homophobic and transphobic laws that criminalize queerness in Africa.
About Me
Matthew ‘Blaise’ Nwozaku is a Non-binary award-winning openly gay activist in Nigeria who is a passionate advocate of LGBTQ+ rights. They are the founder of The Oasis Project, a youth-led Queer organization in Nigeria. Their activism aims to challenge and change the harmful norms and prejudicial views of Nigerians towards sexuality and gender as well as create discussions about sexuality and gender in all the largest media spaces on the continent and in physical spaces.
They are a nominee in The Future Awards Africa for leading conversations, a Women Deliver Young Leader, Trustee at Reportout, Winner, SOGIESC activist of 2020, and convener of the Queer healing space and #Endsars Queer organizer. They also have appearances on British Vogue, Ze.tt, ZDFheute, The Continent, BBC, Out Magazine, Pink News, The Daily Beast, Bloomberg and Dazed.