This is My Story

What inspired me for this particular piece was my recent desire to understand and highlight both my culture and my queerness, while raising awareness.

Right now, the Ghanaian Parliament is on the verge of passing a “Promotion of Proper Human Sexual Rights and Ghanaian Family Values Bill,” one that aims to legally persecute and discriminate against members of the LGBTQIA+ community, even those that speak out in support. This bill is funded and influenced by conservative evangelical institutions out in the west, those that have a stake in seeing this bill pass.

I drew my version of Sankofa, an Adinkra symbol popular in Ghana. Sankofa means “to return and get it,” in other words, learning from your past to inform a better future. Stamping this symbol all over a copy of the bill is my way of communicating that queerness has a rich history, present, and future in Ghana and Africa as a whole- people that were celebrated, revered and important because of their differences, before colonization, extraction and “values” of the West desecrated our culture.

I want to remember, support and uplift my queer Ghanaian community. There are amazing queer organizers, artists and musicians that are speaking out against this horrific bill. Seeing my brothers and sisters and siblings beyond the binary use their voices and talents has inspired me and given me hope, while also reminding me that being Ghanaian, and so very, fucking, gay are not mutually exclusive— and god, is it a beautiful thing.

Medaase.