If anything, it is the passage of the law itself that is “un-African.” It goes against the values of tolerance and “live and let live” that are part of many African cultures. (In 1970s Igboland, Area Scatter was a popular musician, a man who dressed like a woman, wore makeup, plaited his hair. We don’t know if he was gay – I think he was – but if he performed today, he could conceivably be sentenced to 14 years in prison. For being who he is.) And it is informed not by a home-grown debate but by a cynically borrowed one: we turned on CNN and heard Western countries debating “same-sex marriage” and we decided that we, too, would pass a law banning same-sex marriage. Where, in Nigeria, whose constitution defines marriage as being between a man and a woman, has any homosexual asked for same-sex marriage?
~ Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, author, Nigeria, February 2014
