Love Offers No Safety

Summary

Love Offers No Safety: Nigeria’s Queer Men Speak is a raw and powerful collection of 25 first-person narratives that explore the diverse experience of queer Nigerian men. These stirring stories cut across age, class, religion, ethnicity, family and relationships, offering a glimpse into what it means to survive as a queer man in Nigeria. From Tunji, who takes us back to the thriving networking community before social media, to Chukwori, who struggles to reconcile his need to serve God with his sexuality, and Abdulkarim, who frustratingly wonders if he’ll ever stop working twice as hard to be accepted, these stories are full of contradictions, anger, resiliency, profound insight, and radical hope.

With heightened levels of oppression, violence, and discrimination faced by LGBTQ Nigerians due to the Same Sex Marriage (Prohibition) Law, these voices remind us of what the queer community in Nigeria has always been fighting for—the freedom to be themselves, love themselves, and love each other, despite being viewed as unworthy. Love Offers No Safety is a heartbreaking yet hopeful reminder that love knows no boundaries and offers no safety, but it is worth fighting for.

"Told from the points of view of gay, queer, and bisexual men spread across Nigeria from the South to the North, [Love Offers No Safety] will provide insight and open up conversations around this misunderstood demography."—Toni Kan, author of The Carnivorous City and Nights of the Creaking Bed