Long before the Europeans came to colonize Africa, Africa was teeming with men who had sex with other men and no one batted an eye. And although these men didn’t identify as gays , still they practiced homosexuality and they were respected and upstanding pillars of the community. The story was the same among other nations like USA before the gay identity started to gain popularity there around 1960s and the struggle for civil rights gained momentum. Men would receive oral sex from other men without either one identifying as gay or anything.

I remember how during the time of President Mohamed Siyad Barre, everyone was allowed to do whatever they wanted in their private lives and people didn’t actually judge anyone(at least in South and Central Somalia). Barawe, a beach town in Southern Somalia, was renowned as a town whose inhabitants were mostly LGBTQ. The same can be said of Marko another town in Somalia where even under Alshabab rule people still practiced homosexuality and no one snitched. The other towns which had significant LGBT populations include Kismayo and Mogadishu. It is also worth noting that there were prominent businessmen and musicians who were gays and no one bothered me.

In the Somali community, although men still have sex with other men out, no one admits it publicly. It’s kept under wraps.

Some of the euphemisms used include ( Ma is wasnaa, ma iska shidnaa among other things).

This hatred for LGBTQ people emerged as people got exposed to negative stereotypes about LGBTQ people in the media and panicked and started questioning their own sexuality.

(Next time you see a bigot, just know that he secretly fears being gay. He obsesses over homoerotic things and projects his fears on LGBTQ people. They see 2 men/ women kissing, they imagine themselves doing it and panic.)

Africans and Somalis in particular are therefore just being hypocritical when they claim homosexuality is a foreign concept and try to deny the rich gay history of Somalia especially Central and Southern Somalia which I wish is revived again once Somalia cools down and Alshabab is out of the way.

I also wish to take part in a gay pride parade in Mogadishu, Somalia one day before and show my solidarity with a big portion of Somali LGBTQ who live in secrecy.