When Ade’s aunt learned he was gay, the then-16-year-old Nigerian was made to go through an exorcism to expel “the demon of homosexuality.”
“The priest came to the house with candles, holy water and anointing oils. I had to kneel down, holding candles in my hands,” said Ade, now 25, as he sat in a cafe in Lagos.
He did not wish to reveal his full name.
“He kept shouting ‘Come out! Come out! Come out!’ in a fevered voice ... I was allowed to go back to church after that, but I had to pretend to be straight,” Ade said.
In a country where homosexuality is punishable by up to 14 years in prison, it is no surprise that many of Ade’s friends — those who, like him, are both gay and religious — stay away from church altogether for fear of being outed.
However, an alternative could soon be at hand. Ade is helping to resurrect a religious refuge for himself and his friends. He is part of the team restarting House of Rainbow, the country’s only gay church, which was forced to close in 2008 after a witch-hunt stirred by exposes in local newspapers.
The Reverend Rowland Jide Macaulay, the gay minister who founded the church, is leading the comeback even though he remains in self-imposed exile in London.
“Religion is a backbone to life in Nigeria, so we all want to go to church,” he said. “But we don’t want to lie to God about who we are.”
Macaulay has recently recruited a local leader in Accra. He is considering applications from Rwanda and Zimbabwe.
Religious groups are central to Nigeria’s culture of homophobia. Pentecostalism has blossomed in southern Nigeria and across Africa in recent decades.
Meanwhile, in Nigeria’s mostly Muslim north, 12 states have adopted Shariah law over the last decade. Gay sex carries the death penalty under Shariah, although no executions have yet taken place. A national anti-gay marriage bill, which pushes for jail sentences for anyone who even assists gay marriage, has been before Nigeria’s parliament since 2009.
Being gay is regarded as an offense across much of Africa.
Apart from being on the wrong side of the law, many homosexual Nigerians say exclusion from church is one of the hardest parts of being gay.
“We are brought up to believe that you should belong to a religion. We feel that, if we don’t go to church, God will not answer our prayers,” a young gay man in Abuja said. “When I recently told a friend I was having financial difficulties, he said: ‘When did you last go to church?’”
In oil-rich Nigeria, where corruption robs many of even basic services, religious groups provide more than spiritual assistance. Muslim movements such as Izala have built schools in the north, while southern pentecostal groups such as the Redeemed Christian Church of God run universities.
“[We] lose out on all these services,” the young man said.
Some argue that African homophobia is slowly waning. Marc Epprecht, an expert on sexuality in Africa at Queen’s University in Canada, said the continent’s growing number of gay rights groups are challenging negative stereotypes.
He said that despite the bad press it attracts, African homophobia is not markedly stronger than that of poor or patriarchal parts of the Middle East and South America.
Macaulay, however, is not taking any chances this time. He continues to preach via YouTube from London — he thinks it would be unwise to return home.
“We have learnt our lesson,” he said. “It is a hostile situation.”
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