If you identify as LGBTQI (or know anyone that is) and are living in Cape Town, I am in DESPERATE need of your help.
This weekend marks the last few days before one of my photography projects is due to be handed in. Unfortunately, due to circumstances beyond my control, not all of the individuals arranged to photograph were able to come through. As such, I am in DESPERATE need of new faces to photograph. I am aware that this is really late notice but any help or referrals would be greatly appreciated. This interested should email: FYEAHAFRICA@GMAIL.COM for further info.
Otherwise, feel free to pass the word on.
PLEASE NOTE: This project is solely for academic purposes (non-commercial) and involves no renumeration.
THANK YOU!
- DynamicAfrica
#signalboost
everything in this message is art.
have i mentioned my love for this woman?
oh. here. love.
Aw, thanks so much! I’m such a fan of that Darkness song too, thrusting is always appropriate for it ;)
So the task at hand is to show those women who prefer the Asian/Caucasian hairstyle, how to achieve it with their own natural hair.
Given that in 21/2 years the hair can grow beyond the shoulder, what we have to look at is
(a) How to strengthen the hair to make it look and feel like the Asian/ Caucasian
(b) How to groom the hair to ensure that it is strong and healthy until the desired length is achieved
In strengthening the hair, the process of hair relaxing is used. Relaxing loosens the hair’s natural curl pattern located inside the hair cortex, and once this curl pattern has been loosened, the hair becomes straight and the new structure cannot be reversed because the structure of the hair molecule has been reshaped. Reshaping the original molecular structure of any element weakens it, but if properly treated, that element can be made stronger in its new shape.
Given that relaxing runs the risk of making the hair to be brittle and weak, hence tending to breakage, this problem can easily be avoided if the application is performed by an experienced and certified hair stylist.
If you're in the Lagos, Nigeria area and need your hair styled for an event, product recommendations or tutorials, send us an email at litk@leaveinthekinks.com
:)
Why are Bantu knots called Bantu knots? I should probably Google this instead of throwing the question out via a blog post, but maybe one of you knows the answer. I know West Indians call them Chiney knots? Did I spell that right? Is that a even a racially appropriate term? I come to you full of questions, yo.
Anyway, I recently realized that my locs were now long enough to tie into knots. Excitement galore! See, I joined a few, so my normal habit of occasionally twisting them and braiding them to hold the twist just wasn't working unless I used rubber bands, which I don't want to do. So being able to twist them and then tie them into a knot is a cause for celebration, it's more efficient, which means I can be more lazy. Awesome, in my book.
So I twisted the locs, tied them into knots, and there we go. I didn't really take pictures of the knot-out because, well, it didn't look great, haha. It was wonky locs sticking in all directions and I ended up just pulling them back as usual. But when my locs are much longer, I think the wonkiness of the curl will look good.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/dec/16/curls-nigerian-women-straight?mobile-redirect=false
Miss Fizz and I are being boring and going to sleep after spending the day gallivanting around Lagos, swimming, and chopping well well.
Thank you to everyone for your love and support, for interacting with us, emailing us, being a part of this.
Here's to another year of awesome sauce!
Love,
Miss Fizz and Z
90’s babies throw e tantrums reinforcing why said women refuse to date them.
I.E: Ya’ll ain’t ready. Quit crying. Date your generation.
Kelechi Amadi-Obi
Artist and photographer Kelechi Amadi-Obi is a major force in the creative scene in Nigeria
African fashion is steadily developing, and West Africa is at the helm of this explosion. Creative talent accompanies the rise of emerging stylists, designers, make-up artists and of the different crafts that make up the building structure of the art and fashion scene.However, there are some who dared to be there, even when it seemed a relatively untapped market. Artist and photographer Kelechi Amadi-Obi is a major force in the creative scene in Nigeria. His passion for art pulsed strong in the seventies, even though his dad had deep misgivings regarding him building a career in the arts.
YASSSSSSS
i adore this song and video for always
Celia Cruz - La Negra Tiene Tumbao
peep the orange wig and matching orange everythang.
flawless video.<3
#NeverForget
LMAO at the “never forget” hahhaha
The look on Jay-Z face is priceless!
Never forget.
i’m laughing and cringing simultaneously
#neverforget
BUTT MEDS?!!! #diesslowly
yeah, i have to take deep breaths and prep before taking any pills and i still can’t take any big round ones. like panadol. god, i hate panadol.
puerto rico is like visiting a US state, folk living in the US already don’t need an additional visa to go there. i literally came in and out on my driver’s license!
Vogue Fems 10’s Ghetto Fab Ball
can you tell vogue femme is my fave category?
lol i just bounced there cos i found a cheap ticket o! spontaneous trip- friend and i rented an apartment by the beach. it was the bomb! went hiking in the rainforest and jumped off giant rocks into pools of water etc
i need OJ because i gotta take daily pills and i cannot take meds with water. i have a psych block to that which makes me throw up lol. i blame my mom. she used to grind panadol with sugar and make me take it like that as a child. i became an expert at throwing my pills into a corner of the dining room when she wasn’t looking lol
on le tumblr? i thought my queue had been keeping up lol. been finishing up with school and planning what on earth imma do with my life lol
on le blogger one? i had to stop there when i started SOGI Naija, it was just too many things to keep up with, especially as I’m still running Leave In The Kinks. i do miss it a bit, and writing text posts on tumblr doesn’t really have the same effect :(
“Alter Gogo*” - A photographic series by Nigerian photographer Andrew Esiebo
Football has captured the heart of Africans.
It is the game that knows no boundaries of age, gender or status. It is often said as Africa’s unifying game.
One of the people in whom these phenomenons of football have reflected is the Gogo getters Football team in South Africa.
Alter gogo is a diptych portraits series of grand mothers footballers in Gogo Getters football club in Orange farm, a township of South Africa.For them, playing the game has become an alternative to better living and making social relevance in their community. Football playing is their therapy for their health, social and physiological problems, like diabetes, high blood pressure, alcoholism etc.
Alter gogo proposes an alternative image of African women. Quite often the collective imaginary, African women are often located in the sphere of the “tradition”. The image is the one of the oppressed woman, submitted to tradition and tribal customs, with no authority, freedom and conception of the self. Women’s sad faces often complement African stories of famine, poverty and violence. Hence Alter gogo challenges gender stereotypes as well the role and image attributed to women, in particular in their old age. The Grand mothers’ regalia, their proud postures in the soccer field along with the charm of their intimate spaces and loves create a powerful socio-cultural scenario in which soccer is the means and the ultimate expression of a new gender and generation identity.
- Andrew Esiebo, 2010
*(‘gogo’ is a South African word from the Zulu language meaning ‘grandmother’)
We are LGBTQ Nigerians who believe that human rights and dignity are our birthrights. We have created this space to collect and document our individual and shared stories in the hope that we can build authentic relationships with ourselves and each other, heal from our generational cycles and patterns of isolation and oppression and envision a future that embraces us all.The campaign is a fundraiser on Indiegogo, and you can click here to donate and contribute.
In solidarity with Zanele we would like to galvanise support from the global community to help replace her equipment. We know there is nothing we can do from NYC to recover the works stolen, but we can make sure that her future work continues to be produced and shared. Please read Zanele's words below and help out however you are able.So far, support has been overwhelming and the $4,000 goal has been surpassed, which is awesome! Donations are open until July, so let's keep it rolling in. In Zanele's words-
---Palm Wine NYC
On the 26th April I returned from Seoul, Korea where my documentary Difficult Love was shown at the 14th International Woman's Film Festival. All went ok until I got home only to receive bad news from Liesl about burglary at our flat on 20.04.2012. I''ve lost all the work I produced from 2008 - 2012. Also backups were stolen. I thought of the day I spoke with another friend about alternative storage. Now it is too late. I feel like a breathing zombie right now. I don't even know where to start. I'm wasted....The person/s got access to the flat via the toilet window, broke the burglar guard and got away with my cameras, lenses, memory cards and external hard drives, laptop, cellphones ...Whoever ransacked the place got away with more than 20 external hard drives with the most valuable content I've ever produced...Spread the word!! I'm proud to be a part of Palm Wine NYC because this campaign is rather bloody amazing. Sending love and strength to Zanele, her work is so important!!
This is just a quick note.
It's a common argument used by anti-gay Nigerians that being gay is a 'Western' thing, that it is un-African, et cetera. Needless to say, this is an argument easily deconstructed- take for example the fact that Christianity is also a Western thing. We wear Western clothes, we go to Western schools, we use Western technology, and the list goes on and on. Besides, gay people were around long before Western influences, while homophobia wasn't.
Santana: "I've watched you my whole life and you've always been so strong, done exactly what you believe and never cared what anybody else thought of you... I love girls, in the way I'm supposed to love boys. It's just something I want to share with you because I love you so much. I want you to know me. When I'm with Brittany, I finally understand what people are talking about when they're talking about love. nd I've tried so hard to keep this locked up inside, but everyday just feels like a war. And I walk around so mad at the world, and I'm really just fighting with myself. I don't wanna fight anymore, I'm just too tired. I have to just be me."
Abuela: "Everyone has secrets, Santana. They're called secrets for a reason. I want you to leave this house, I don't ever want to see you again... you made your choice, now I have made mine... it's selfish of you to make me uncomfortable... the sin isn't in the thing, it's in the scandal, when people talk about it aloud."
It is with articles like this that I realize that Nigerian LGBT people are really passing through a lot of things. Being a brother to a Nigerian gay man who is at present in a stable loving relationship, I always want to believe I have an idea of the difficulty people face when they have same-sex affections. It was a huge shock when my brother came out to us his family so many years ago, my loving, caring, very dear younger brother, a very brilliant graduate from the university then, an example of best behaviours, pure, mild and gentle in everything…..until that time, I was the fiercest homophobe in Nigeria, wishing fire and brimstone on anyone who professes to be gay or support gay relationships.It was a hard time, I cannot deny it, but my love for him as my dear younger brother won me over. He was, and still is, in a stable relationship with a man then, and you had to really feel the love between them, it was that palpable.That was more than 10 years ago, and I can say as a family, we have come a long way since then…..
I think the most important weapon in the fight against homophobia is love and affection. Gay people must learn to love homophobes as much as they are hated. Because, it was my love for my brother that won me over, and I can say rightly, that that love is more important than any other thing in the world. From my experience over the years, a lot of people in Nigeria are living in the closet on the down low, just because of societal values and the deeply entrenched homophobia that Nigerian bigotry with religion has done nothing but increase. They live in classical Catch 22 situation: How do you want to show people that being gay is great, if you dont come out as gay first? Yet you cannot be accepted if you cant show that being gay is good!!
I believe the answer also lies with families of people who have come out as gay, and have been accepted. If they can show that life does not end when you have a family member that is gay, then, maybe people will start seeing reason in the idea of sexual identity and orientation. The question I always pose to my friends and other people whenever the gay question is up for discussion is this: ‘What if I wake up tomorrow, and find that my father/mother/son/daughter/brother/sister/niece/nephew/uncle/aunt/cousin etc was homosexual?” What would I do in the circumstances?’ you will be surprised at the answers you get to this question. And I have been able to change the mind of a few people (I’m proud to say that) towards the subject, both through word and deed. A few of my friends have met my brother, and they have come to understand that love can have a same-sex identity too.
I am Nigerian, I have no other country. I have not other land or citizenship. I love my country, I am not gay, but I believe that people in same-sex relationships are not less human than the general population….hope that doesnt sound like a statistic….lol
It's a new year in Lagos, as evidenced by the noise from churches as I travelled back to the mainland after eleven last night.
I hope you all entered the year surrounded by people who love, support, and cherish you. I've been vacationing and so the posts have been slow, but it'll pick up by next week, never fear!!
Sending strength and love to all my gay, lesbian, transgender, queer, intersex, gender queer, gender non conforming, asexual, questioning, and bisexual Nigerians and our allies.
Happy New Year, darlings!
The Nigerian Embassy in Germany has responded to the international reaction to the passage of the same sex marriage prohibition by the Nigerian Senate with a statement on its website. The embassy, which defended the Nigerian senate’s vote on the issue, said, “The debate on this issue, within and outside Nigeria, becomes an unnecessary distraction from the pressing need by the Nigerian government to deliver the dividends of democracy to its people through the provision of educational opportunities, healthcare, employment, basic infrastructure and access to justice.”
The bill, passed by the Senate last week, prescribing 14-year-jail term for gay offenders, has sparked controversy amid increasing pressure from western governments against nations criminalising homosexuality. The legislation passed the first reading at the House of Representatives on Wednesday, a day after United States President Barack Obama directed that American foreign aids be reviewed to reflect his administration’s policy against the discrimination of lesbians, bisexuals, transsexuals and gays....At the House, the bill awaits a second and third reading to become law.
The Consul-General of Nigeria, Mr Habib Habu, told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) that he learnt the group came around and left after a while without demanding to present their grievances to anyone.“I learnt it’s like people making a brief stop-over for a while. If they had requested for me, I would have received them.” (NAN)You know what? Okay oh. That's the official statement even though an NYPD officer blocked Ifeanyi from entering the consulate and a Consulate official also refused him entry when he wanted to present said grievances?
So, today I was outside Naija House (the Nigerian Consulate in New York), protesting the anti-gay bill we've been talking about since last week. I got there a little after noon, and I'd honestly been expecting to see more people, but I recognized Ifeanyi Orazulike at once and even one of the photographers who was covering the protest. I waited for my friend, since she was a few blocks away, and then we stepped in and took up signs along the other protestors.
There were a couple of press folk covering the event, and we spoke to them about the bill, what it means to us as queer Nigerians and what our hopes are for the future. One of the women interviewing was being rather provoking, intentionally. She was talking to Osazeme and I, asking if we were a couple. When we said no, she started asking if we had girlfriends. Osazeme politely replied "I'm single at the moment", and I retorted with "I don't see how that's relevant at the moment." She let us be after that...
A few people gave us a thumbs up as they walked past, one woman started clapping once she read our signs, and a Nigerian woman inside her car wound down her window to call out "Nigeria, we hail thee!" several times in support. The protestors raised fists in the air and echoed her call while Nigerians who were walking in and out of Naija House paused on the sidewalk to look over the protest. The positive responses were encouraging, as there was a general air of disapproval from the people at Naija House, though no overtly hostile words were thrown about.
At some point, Ifeanyi made an attempt to enter Naija House in order to submit the position paper that was read in Abuja at a public hearing to the Nigerian Ambassador to the USA. You can read a transcript of the paper HERE. Despite the fact that Ifeanyi holds a Nigerian passport, he was denied access to the Consulate, blocked by an NYPD officer. An official from within stepped outside the door to call out- "We don't have anything to say to you!" and Ifeanyi had to return to behind the metal guards.