Commentary on LGBTQ+ Book Recommendations from April Contexts

It came softly to me in the night with soft shoes that I should write this story about the queers of Africa.
They say we are going to stand up.
And thanks to Viv Harte of GASi I continue to write this story.
I picked up in the New York Times the reporting by Abdi Latif Dahir on February 20, 2024 from Nairobi in Kenya.
I was able to get copies of two of the books: ‘God’s Children are Little Broken things’ by Arinde Ifeakandu, and Mohamed Choukri’s 1972 novel ‘For Bread Alone’.
This latter book caused a furore in Morocco, for its depiction of same-sex intimacy and drug consumption.
Unable to get Kevin Mwachiro’s book, not available to me ‘ We Have Been Here’, but shall wait.
These books are as they say an invitation to change a mindset and, in the process, create a dialogue, and as it goes, they don’t want to be a victim anymore, nor just tolerated but really wanting respect.
It is not as novel as it seems but really a gathering of momentum through traces of history and truly expanding the literary canon of Africa and its diaspora and all its complexities; and as one author says there needs to be hope;
“Books are really powerful”, and, as the author says “books are really intimate”
To quote again,
‘Ifeankandu dreams of a future where queer-centred African stories are no longer the exception to the rule’. Grudgingly he said, ‘hopefully we are going to stand up’. They are a way to push back against virulent homophobia and anti-gay legislation across Africa.
I am indebted to Abdi Latif Dahir, the East African correspondent of the New York Times, based in Nairobi, Kenya for his article and I have adopted his words for this article.
As Kevin Mwachiro, says on Instagram, ‘we are wonderfully made’.
I write this from Sydney where I am regarded as an LGTBQI elder.