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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\u2018Allyship needs to be loud\u2019<\/p>\n
The Nigerian music genre Afrobeats is flourishing on global stages that celebrate queer pride, even as queerness remains criminalised at home.
\nYemi Alade
\nBy Bolaji Akinwande
\nOn August 27, 2024, Nigerian Afrobeat superstars Yemi Alade and Omawumi became the first African women to headline Global Black Pride in Atlanta, Georgia.
\nLike every other Pride event dedicated to celebrating the diversity of being queer,\u00a0Global Black Pride, which was founded in 2020, focuses on bringing together and honouring African-descendant LGBTQI+ communities across the world. With its founder,\u00a0Micheal Ighodaro, being Nigerian, it felt only natural to globalise Nigerian music\u2014Afrobeats\u2014for an international Black audience by inviting Yemi Alade and Omawumi as headliners.
\nWhile this was a bold and admirable milestone for Afrobeats and its women, it also raised difficult questions about platforming a genre and its performers whose intersections with queerness have not always been progressive.
\nQueerness in Nigerian entertainment is not new, even if it has often been hidden, coded, or mocked. The 2000s, now remembered as the \u201cold Nollywood\u201d era, repeatedly\u00a0portrayed\u00a0queerness as taboo, caricaturing queer characters as deviant or cursed. Films leaned heavily on tropes of possession, corruption, or tragedy, embedding stereotypes deep into the public consciousness. In music, queerness appeared more as spectacle than as identity.
\nFuji musician Obesere\u00a0exemplified\u00a0this paradox. His flamboyance was notorious: skimpy outfits, experimental videos, and scandalous lyrics. In another context, his choices might have sparked speculation about sexuality. Yet because he was simultaneously rumoured to pursue numerous women, his masculinity was never questioned. His eccentricities were framed as entertainment, not identity.
\nCharlie Boy (Photo courtesy of AllAfrica.com)
\nCharlie Boy followed a similar path. In the late 1980s and 1990s, they embraced androgyny, makeup, and bold hairstyles that scandalised conservative Nigerians. Their appearance challenged norms, but their\u00a0allyship\u00a0came later. In 2017, three years after Nigeria\u2019s\u00a0Same-Sex Marriage Prohibition Act (SSMPA) had already criminalised queer existence, Charlie Boy became more openly supportive.\u00a0 It was a bold move that underscores how rare such advocacy has been among Nigeria\u2019s mainstream artists.
\nThe SSMPA and its aftermath
\nThe SSMPA, passed in 2014, prohibits same-sex relationships and associations. It handed\u00a0legal backing to homophobia, intensifying risks for queer Nigerians and embedding anti-queer sentiment in law. Ironically, this was also the same decade Nigerian entertainment was expanding globally: Afrobeats became a worldwide phenomenon, Nollywood films hit Netflix, and Nigerian fashion gained international visibility. Within this context, allyship became even murkier\u2014celebrated abroad, silenced at home.
\nPromotional image for the film \u201cIfe\u201d.
\nFilms like\u00a0\u201cCountry Love\u201d produced and directed by\u00a0Wapah Ezigwe,\u00a0and\u00a0\u00a0\u201cIfe\u201d\u00a0produced by Pamela Adie and directed by Uyaiedu Ikpe-Etim, despite not being mainstream due to censorship, told queer stories, providing depth to queer identity in Nigeria.
\nIn music, Eldee and M.I. Abaga spoke in favour of queer rights in\u00a02013\u00a0and\u00a02017\u00a0respectively. But unlike Nollywood, which saw the rise of underground creators and films focused on the queer experience, these were isolated gestures. For the most part, Nigerian music either ignored queerness or addressed it through homophobic lyrics.
\nBurna Boy illustrates this contradiction. In the track \u201cWetin Dey Sup,\u201d a song that encompasses multiple themes like gun violence and police brutality from his fifth studio album,\u00a0Twice as Tall, he sings \u201cI no be one of those men wey dey fear toto fuck yansh,\u201d which translates as \u201cI am not one of those men who are scared of a vagina and engage in anal sex.\u201d\u00a0 A jab at gay men, who are often considered fearful of heterosexual sex.
\nOn \u201cReal Life\u201d from the same album, another lyric warns: \u201cIf dem wan fuck you for nyash, make you no lie down\u201d\u2014in English, \u201cIf anyone proposes anal sex to you, do not agree.\u201d\u00a0Fans sometimes argue the first lyric reflects street slang in Port Harcourt, Burna\u2019s hometown, where it implies a man is unafraid to get a woman pregnant. But even with that context, the line still ridicules same-sex intimacy.
\nWhat makes this more jarring is that in the same year, Burna collaborated with Sam Smith, one of the most visible queer artists in the world. The collaboration expanded his global reach and streaming numbers, while his lyrics at home reinforced homophobia.
\nThis contradiction is not accidental. It reflects the\u00a0economics of allyship. Global markets reward inclusivity, especially in queer-friendly countries. Pride festivals, collaborations with openly queer artists, and inclusive performances deliver visibility and revenue. At home, however, silence,\u00a0or coded homophobia,\u00a0keeps artists \u201csafe\u201d within conservative Nigerian society. It is allyship when profitable, not when it matters most.
\nAyra Starr (Photo courtesy of Glamour UK)
\nPerformances of allyship
\nIn 2023, Ayra Starr asserted a form of allyship for marginalised communities when she performed in Brazil,\u00a0highlighting\u00a0the admiration she received from her queer Brazilian fans. Even before then, Ayra seemed to hint at inclusivity. A\u00a0viral tweet\u00a0in late 2023 affirmed this image, reinforced by her use of openly femme-presenting backup dancers, all of which endeared her to queer Nigerians hungry for representation.
\nBut Ayra\u2019s stance also makes commercial sense. Brazil is one of the\u00a0world\u2019s largest music markets, generating nearly $3 billion annually. It also\u00a0ranked twelfth globally for LGBTQ friendliness and queer rights in 2023, according to\u00a0Equaldex. For Ayra, embracing inclusivity was both solidarity and smart market positioning.
\n\u201cI do not believe it is allyship when it is done when there\u2019s a financial or socioeconomic incentive,\u201d says Temmie Ovwasa, an openly queer artist credited with having released\u00a0Nigeria\u2019s first openly queer album. \u201cHowever, I think there\u2019s an understanding of the culture at play, an understanding of the shifting tides.\u201d
\n See Also<\/p>\n
Temmie\u2019s critique points to a deeper frustration within Nigeria\u2019s queer community. Pride events are not just about music; they are about survival and liberation. Global Black Pride should have centered openly queer African artists like Angel Maxine, Chimano, JOJO Abot, or Ovwasa themselves. Instead, it featured mainstream stars with no public record of queer advocacy. For queer Nigerians, it was a reminder that even in queer spaces, their voices can be sidelined. \u2018Allyship needs to be loud\u2019 The Nigerian music genre Afrobeats is flourishing on global stages that celebrate queer pride, even as queerness remains criminalised at home. Yemi Alade By Bolaji Akinwande On August 27, 2024, Nigerian Afrobeat superstars Yemi Alade and Omawumi became the first African women to headline Global Black Pride in Atlanta, Georgia. …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":666,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":{"facebook_3659155457675267_172535249438148":""},"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-665","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","","category-news"],"featured_image_urls":{"full":["https:\/\/xavieradioug.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Afrobeats-uneasy-relationship-with-queerness-at-home-in-Nigeria.jpg",1900,1900,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/xavieradioug.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Afrobeats-uneasy-relationship-with-queerness-at-home-in-Nigeria-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/xavieradioug.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Afrobeats-uneasy-relationship-with-queerness-at-home-in-Nigeria-300x300.jpg",300,300,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/xavieradioug.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Afrobeats-uneasy-relationship-with-queerness-at-home-in-Nigeria-768x768.jpg",618,618,true],"large":["https:\/\/xavieradioug.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Afrobeats-uneasy-relationship-with-queerness-at-home-in-Nigeria-1024x1024.jpg",618,618,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/xavieradioug.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Afrobeats-uneasy-relationship-with-queerness-at-home-in-Nigeria-1536x1536.jpg",1536,1536,true],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/xavieradioug.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Afrobeats-uneasy-relationship-with-queerness-at-home-in-Nigeria.jpg",1900,1900,false],"tie-small":["https:\/\/xavieradioug.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Afrobeats-uneasy-relationship-with-queerness-at-home-in-Nigeria-110x75.jpg",110,75,true],"tie-medium":["https:\/\/xavieradioug.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Afrobeats-uneasy-relationship-with-queerness-at-home-in-Nigeria-310x165.jpg",310,165,true],"tie-large":["https:\/\/xavieradioug.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Afrobeats-uneasy-relationship-with-queerness-at-home-in-Nigeria-310x205.jpg",310,205,true],"slider":["https:\/\/xavieradioug.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Afrobeats-uneasy-relationship-with-queerness-at-home-in-Nigeria-660x330.jpg",660,330,true],"big-slider":["https:\/\/xavieradioug.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Afrobeats-uneasy-relationship-with-queerness-at-home-in-Nigeria-1050x525.jpg",1050,525,true]},"author_info":{"info":["Editor"]},"category_info":"News<\/a>","tag_info":"News","comment_count":"0","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/xavieradioug.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/665","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/xavieradioug.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/xavieradioug.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xavieradioug.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xavieradioug.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=665"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/xavieradioug.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/665\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xavieradioug.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/666"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/xavieradioug.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=665"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xavieradioug.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=665"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xavieradioug.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=665"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nSupporters argue there is value in inviting mainstream stars. Olaide Kayode Timileyin, founder of Pride in Lagos, frames it as a strategy: \u201cSometimes we do these things to bring people into inclusion,\u201d he says. \u201cIt could be a way of introducing them.\u201d Yet even he admits, \u201cIt is sad that none of the openly queer African artists who have worked so hard were recognised. The platform took the opportunity away from them.\u201d
\nThe stakes of silence
\nThis matters because queer Nigerians face daily violence. In August 2024, a trans woman in Abuja known as Area Mama was brutally\u00a0murdered: one of many\u00a0attacks\u00a0against queer people across the country. Online hate regularly spills into real life, fuelling fear and repression. Against this backdrop, allyship cannot be selective. It cannot only appear when profitable abroad.
\nOutside Nigeria, global stars provide examples of more consistent allyship. Madonna championed queer rights as far back as the 1990s and dedicated a\u00a0tour\u00a0to LGBTQ advocacy in 2023. Beyonc\u00e9 and Taylor Swift have woven LGBTQ themes into their music and activism, often at personal or political cost. Nigerian artists, now commanding global stages, could emulate this model. Allyship should be public, consistent, and willing to withstand backlash.
\n\u201cAllyship has to be both public and intentional,\u201d says Chimee Adioha, an editor and co-founder of\u00a0Diaspora Africa. \u201cConsidering the state of both global and national homophobia, allyship seriously needs to be loud. What the loudness does is send a signal to the public. Homophobia largely stems from public hate, and many times, to face it,\u00a0 we have to go public.\u201d
\nHe goes further to state what allyship should look like: \u201cBeing an ally also means you do not back down when facing scrutiny and criticism based on your allyship because that is inevitable, as an ally, you are constantly listening, you are continually seeking information from the queer people around you, and you are also hyper-aware of the struggle of marginalised communities.\u201d
\nNigerian music, for all its global dominance, has yet to embrace that level of allyship. What exists is too often a strategy without solidarity.\u00a0Afrobeats is now one of the world\u2019s most listened-to genres. Its stars headline Glastonbury, sell out Paris stadiums, and dominate Billboard charts. With that power comes responsibility. Queer Nigerians are part of the audience streaming songs and buying tickets. They deserve more than symbolic gestures at Pride events abroad.
\nOmawumi (Photo courtesy of Deezer)
\nYemi Alade and Omawumi\u2019s Global Black Pride performance mattered. Burna Boy\u2019s collaboration with Sam Smith mattered. Ayra Starr\u2019s queer visibility matters. But all of these remain incomplete, rooted as much in market logic as in solidarity. Allyship tied to profit risks becoming shallow; a performance rather than a commitment. Until allyship in Nigerian music becomes consistent, public, and rooted in defending queer Nigerians at home, it will remain just a performance.
\nThis story was first published on Minority Africa and appears here with permission.<\/p>\n\n
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