Minority Africa

10/11/2025

In Nigeria, people living with complex mental health conditions like schizophrenia and bipolar disorder face deep stigma, cultural misconceptions, and high treatment costs. In this video .yya speaks to individuals who explain how limited access to care and misunderstanding from loved ones often make daily life even more challenging.

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07/11/2025

Muslimah Spiels is an initiative dedicated to addressing the pressing concerns of Muslim women in particular, and the Muslim community at large. Its focus is on offering couples sound Islamic guidance to help them nurture and strengthen their bond, whether they are newlyweds or have been married for many years.

Started by Safiyyah Taiwo, the series of talks was born out of both need and opportunity. The COVID-19 lockdown gave people an unusual gift: time—time to look inward, explore interests, and pour energy into creative pursuits. For Taiwo, it became a period of deep learning. “I watched a whole lot of YouTube channels, particularly the ones that talk about women in Islam or those run by women,” she recalls. But she soon noticed a troubling pattern: “It usually takes a lot of extra effort to find videos of female scholars.”

Read full story on our website: https://minorityafrica.org/oral-pornography-they-called-it-these-women-call-it-an-intimacy-seminar/

30/10/2025

A Nigerian man, Hilary Ikechukwu Emereole, has died in a case some believe may be connected to kito attacks — a term used in Nigeria to describe luring and assaulting q***r people. Minority Watch and the Obodo Centre for Advocacy and Equal Rights have petitioned the Inspector General of Police, calling for an investigation into Hilary’s death.

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29/10/2025

Transgender inmate Nthabiseng Mokoena is suing South Africa’s Department of Correctional Setvices, alleging discrimination and denial of gender affirming care while imprisoned At Johannesburg Correctional Center. The Equality Court has heard the case and yet to issue a ruling.

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27/10/2025

The Abayudaya are a community born of rebellion by the then spiritual leader Semei Kakungulu. When the community was formed in 1919, it found a landscape already shaped by Christianity and Islam.

At the time, faith dictated nearly everything—education, health care, trade, even one’s standing in the community. Religion was a kind of apartheid. Coexistence was difficult. Christians and Muslims were already fighting over the “true faith,” and Abayudaya became a third front. Both sides sought to convert them.

When Idi Amin Dada outlawed Judaism and any form of faith that had similarities to it in Uganda, the Abayudaya community faced all forms of violence, and many who refused to convert were forced into hiding.

When freedom of worship was restored, the Jews started to rebuild. But in a predominantly Muslim district, the bias and resentment ran deeper than the law could mend.

There were many underlying issues that brought animosity. During the reign of Idi Amin, some synagogues had been appropriated as mosques and churches.

“As Jews, we had to fight to get our land and properties that had been possessed by Muslims and other faiths,” says Sisiri Israel, an elder and former chairperson for the Jewish community, “and eventually we had court cases that settled the matter and the land returned to the Jewish community.”

Read full story on our website at link in bio.

23/10/2025

The removal of our ancestors’ bones, under the guise of scientific study, constitutes a grave desecration that continues to affect our community’s well-being. On top of that, the vast majority of what we know about what happened in the Kalahari during Pöch’s expedition, we know from his own accounts. He claims to have made these recordings without external help but that has been refuted.

If nothing, these show that the time for uncritical celebration of these legacies is over. There has to be a more honest reckoning with history, one that firstly acknowledges the harm inflicted on our people. For it to be honestly, it must simultaneously continue with a recognition that the repatriation of our ancestors’ remains is as much a matter of justice, as it is a necessary step towards healing and reconciliation.

In recent years, there has been growing recognition of the need for accountability and redress in the field of anthropology. Many institutions and individuals are beginning to confront the historical injustices inflicted on indigenous communities and are working to develop more equitable, collaborative approaches to research. It is an affirmation of their inherent dignity, and of our community’s right to determine its own narrative.

Read full piece on our website: https://minorityafrica.org/my-ancestors-were-exhumed-by-a-colonial-scientist-some-were-children/

22/10/2025

Transphobia can show up anywhere, even in casual conversations. In this video, shares a personal experience and offers practical ways to stay safe, find support, and stand up when it matters.

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20/10/2025

In 2023, Ayra Starr asserted a form of allyship for marginalised communities when she performed in Brazil, highlighting the admiration she received from her q***r Brazilian fans. Even before then, Ayra seemed to hint at inclusivity. A viral tweet in late 2023 affirmed this image, reinforced by her use of openly femme-presenting backup dancers, all of which endeared her to q***r Nigerians hungry for representation.

But Ayra’s stance also makes commercial sense. Brazil is one of the world’s largest music markets, generating nearly $3 billion annually. It also ranked twelfth globally for LGBTQ friendliness and q***r rights in 2023, according to Equaldex. For Ayra, embracing inclusivity was both solidarity and smart market positioning.

“I do not believe it is allyship when it is done when there’s a financial or socioeconomic incentive,” says Temmie Ovwasa, an openly q***r artist credited with having released Nigeria’s first openly q***r album. “However, I think there’s an understanding of the culture at play, an understanding of the shifting tides.”

Read more on our website here: https://minorityafrica.org/allyship-needs-to-be-loud-afrobeats-uneasy-relationship-with-q***rness/

17/10/2025

Did you know a city can disappear?
Across Africa, more than 15 cities have been lost to water, sand, and time. One of them, Great Zimbabwe, once stood as the heart of a thriving kingdom, built by the Shona people in the 11th century.

What do you think about lost cities?

Host:

15/10/2025

Efforts to end child marriages in Somalia have faced repeated obstacles. A 2018 bill proposing 18 as the minimum marriage age was replaced by a 2020 draft permitting marriage after “puberty.”

The issue resurfaced in 2024 during constitutional reform and again in 2025 after a case involving an 8-year-old sparked national debate. Somalia has since ratified the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child, but enforcement continues to depend on how national and religious laws are interpreted.

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15/10/2025

In the dusty streets of Epworth, a densely populated settlement just east of Harare, Zimbabwe, a group of women who are neither nurses, doctors, nor midwives are often the only hope for exiled teen mothers such as Rutendo Ndaba*. Known as Women in Action Traditional Birth Attendants, this community group has stepped in where the formal health system has closed its doors.

Ndaba first encountered them in 2023, just after feeling as though her world had collapsed: At just 15, she had left her rural home in Honde Valley, hundreds of kilometers away to seek opportunity in the city, only to find herself pregnant, abandoned by her boyfriend, and disowned by her family. With no money to pay the $25 antenatal care fee charged in public clinics — a cost that can be double in private institutions — she faced pregnancy in isolation. That is, until she met Rumbidzai Nyakudanga, a second-generation birth attendant who listened, comforted, housed and eventually guided her through safe motherhood.

Since its founding in 2003, Women in Action told More to Her Story it has assisted more than 50,000 childbirths in Epworth. In 2022, the group began keeping separate records of teenage mothers and, in just three years, they have supported at least 70 girls like Ndaba.

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Traditional birth attendants in Epworth have supported more than 50,000 births, stepping in where the health system leaves pregnant teens behind.

10/10/2025

In January 2014, the Nigerian government established the Same S*x Marriage Prohibition Act (SSMPA), one of the severe anti-q***r laws in the world. Since the introduction of the Act, LGBTQ+ individuals in the country have not only found it unsafe to live as regular persons; censorship and homophobia in art spaces across the country have also deepened.

Yet, many q***r artists are finding their feet in major cities like Ibadan, expressing themselves through various art forms despite pushback. In 2023, Ibadan Qu**rs (IQs), in collaboration with Tantdile Xperimenta Lab, organised Mas-Q-Raid, a successful arts festival aimed at celebrating the creative ways q***r writers and artists in Ibadan are living their truth. Several of these artists would go on to receive support and funding from local and international institutions.

Read more here: https://minorityafrica.org/they-stayed-in-a-communal-nigerian-city-and-built-a-home-for-q***r-art/