Chike Frankie Edozien at Pages & Palette, photo by Victor Adewale
Chike Frankie Edozien. Photo credit: Victor Adewale.

To mark the designation of February as LGBTQ History Month, Manchester Metropolitan University’s Department of English has released a series of short films featuring their staff talking about an inspirational queer figure. A film is released each day and there will be 29 films in all. The format is meant to reflect “the diversity and range of LGBT culture.”

lives of great men - this is africa on twitter
Photo credit: This Is Africa‘s Twitter.

In the video below, Jennifer Nansubuga Makumbi, author of the monumental Kintu and Senior Lecturer in Creative Writing at the University, talks about Chike Frankie Edozien, whose Lambda Award-winning memoir Lives of Great Men is the first by a Nigerian to focus on being gay.

In both Edozien’s Nigeria and Makumbi’s Uganda, same-sex marriage is banned and their LGBTQ populations face public harassment and legal hurdles.

BUY LIVES OF GREAT MEN: LIVING AND LOVING AS AN AFRICAN GAY MAN

 

Graph image of Makumbi credited to Martin Harris Centre.