Nigeria’s underground queer ballroom scene

The placement of the celebratory ball needed to be stored a secret.

This was a queer occasion and in Nigeria, the place same-sex relationships or public shows of affection are unlawful, something that’s devoted to embracing this tradition is in peril.

Marking Satisfaction month in any approach right here is an act of defiance.

The organisers of the Fola Francis Ball – named in honour of a transgender girl who died final 12 months – solely launched the venue particulars with simply hours to go earlier than it opened.

However this didn’t deter the greater than 500 individuals who turned up in a district near the thriving waterfront space of Nigeria’s business heartland, Lagos.

Across the gated venue had been deserted automotive components and warehouses identified for rave events.

A thumping bassline could possibly be heard via the door and crossing the brink felt like getting into another actuality.

Inside was Lagos’s queer group, the venue, a cloak shielding them from the world exterior.

For security causes, many LGBTQ+ Nigerians use the phrase “queer” as a broad time period to embody their identities.

Excited chatter and laughter coursed via the air. This was the enjoyment of shedding concern.

Everybody was dressed to suit the neo-gothic theme.

Within the dimly lit corridor, strobe lights painted the pores and skin of attendees in several colors. The flashes caught figures in several poses – a kaleidoscope of motion.

Androgyny and eccentricity reigned supreme. A girl with a shaved head and glowing make-up strutted confidently subsequent to a person in a flowing black gown.

Individuals who, past the partitions of the get together, needed to conform to a view of how a person ought to look felt empowered to put on wigs and bodycon attire, and use their faces as a canvas for glitter and daring hues.

The artistic duo behind the ball – Ayo Lawanson and Uyaiedu Ikpe-Etim – had been impressed by an analogous occasion that they had been to.

“We thought we had been very queer and really on the market, however going to expertise a ball actually modified our perspective of what it’s to be queer and what queer pleasure actually is,” Lawanson advised the BBC.

Final 12 months’s first version of the occasion was held to have a good time their queer-themed film 14 Years and a Day, however this 12 months they wished to honour Fola Francis.

Till she drowned near a Lagos seashore on the finish of final 12 months, she had been on the coronary heart of the burgeoning underground ballroom scene.

She hosted, organised and invited queer individuals to all the main events.

For a lot of, the Fola Francis ball was a possibility to pay their respects.

“I need to have a good time Fola,” stated one of many platform-heeled revellers, who was carrying a black choker, a darkish corset, and lace leggings underneath a crimson checkered mini-skirt that matched her nails.

“Once I first began going out, she was all the time telling me: ‘You look so good’, and it received to my head. It made me assured in being myself,” she stated.

Fola Francis had a huge impact on your complete queer group within the nation. However for a lot of trans and non-binary individuals, her loss of life was private, and honouring the life she lived was essential.

A trans, non-binary particular person carrying an African-print robe stated that Fola helped them realise the significance of displaying up authentically. “Her existence gave me freedom,” they added with a way of delight.

One other of the trans ladies, who was attending her first ball, advised the BBC that the occasion was a “dream come true”.

She was pressured to relocate to Lagos after going through transphobic violence in northern Nigeria and Fola Francis had provided to assist her discover protected housing.

The LGBTQ+ ballroom tradition may be traced to the US and underground African-American drag occasions within the mid-Nineteenth Century. It has since blossomed throughout the US, and past, with a well-developed infrastructure together with “homes”, which give help networks and the premise for competitions.

TV reveals like RuPaul’s Drag Race, Legendary and Pose have additionally introduced the idea into the mainstream.

On the Fola Francis Ball, a few of those that got here competed towards one another in a number of classes – butch queen realness, femme queen realness, physique, face, voguing and best-dressed.

The viewers chanted and clapped as individuals danced and walked on the stage.

For the organisers, the aim of a ball in Nigeria is evident: to be an area for self-expression and to have a good time the fantastic thing about variety, even within the face of concern.

And that concern is rarely distant because it feels just like the 2014 Similar-Intercourse Marriage Prohibition Act criminalises who they’re.

“I’m not 100% relaxed or safe. One minute you may be protected, and one other minute you’re busted,” a homosexual man on the venue advised the BBC, citing instances up to now the place the police arrested individuals at an all-male get together.

Amid the enjoyable he mirrored on those that didn’t need to flip up.

“Lots of my pals would have been right here tonight, however due to that concern [of arrest], they selected to not come.

“It makes me unhappy as a result of ballroom tradition, queer tradition, is our approach of celebrating who we’re,” he added.

“I don’t get to expertise it absolutely with them. It additionally makes me offended as a result of there’s no cause why we must be dwelling in concern after we can simply specific ourselves, be ourselves, and simply dwell and be completely satisfied.”

However the organisers did all they might to create a protected setting.

A few of the security measures included offering altering rooms for individuals who wished to decorate as their most genuine selves however wanted to keep away from homophobic and transphobic violence on their method to the venue.

Additionally they labored with a non-public safety agency that was dedicated to inclusion.

There was some criticism that the organisers had been permitting cisgendered and straight individuals to return into queer areas however they insisted they wished allies, households and pals to attend.

“Queer pleasure is among the greatest types of resistance,” Ikpe-Etim stated, they usually wished individuals to expertise the tradition.

“We need to push the narrative that queer individuals exist. Altering the narrative of what queer persons are seen as in Nigeria.”

Creator Eloghosa Osunde, who was one of many judges, noticed the Fola Francis Ball and others prefer it as “areas the place individuals really feel much less disgrace”.

“There’s nobody id that’s higher than the opposite simply because it’s validated by the regulation. I actually imagine we are able to create legitimacy for ourselves, and that’s a method for our world to develop.”

And the underground ball scene appears to be like set to develop additional in Lagos as extra queer individuals really feel the help from the group.

“Areas like this are so essential,” stated one other of the judges, clothier Weiz Dhurm Franklyn.

“Understanding you even have house you may name residence, and be free, and be your self with out judgement, with out prejudice. It’s completely essential not only for the sake of getting enjoyable, however for the sake of dwelling.”