Simisolaoluwa Akande’s The Archive: Queer Nigerians won the best short film award at the 2023 London Film Fest.
In Nigeria, homosexuality is punishable by 14 years of prison, and in some northern states, death by stoning. Those who wish to live and love in freedom would be better off fleeing the country.
My New Book:
Gay Directors, Gay Films? By Emanuel Levy (Columbia University Press, August 2015).
The testimonies in this moving, experimental documentary are based on five Nigerians who have settled in the UK. They record their existence in an audio archive.
Filmmaker Simisolaoluwa Akande portrays their words in a poetic collage of metaphors. Bodies filmed from behind, traditional masked dancers, a figure behind a curtain—out of the shadows, they find their identity.
They talk about the joy of being able to celebrate their queerness and live an authentic life, but underneath there’s the hardship and sadness associated with exile. Many have not come out to their parents and relatives.
In one respect, Nigeria is more inclusive than England: in Yoruba, the language of one of Nigeria’s largest ethnic groups, there is no distinction between “he” and “she” but only “they.”
