Title: Gay Nigeria
Year: 2014
Issue: 114
Cover image: Dogon Couple II. ©2013 Kehinde Wiley.
This issue of Transition pays tribute to those who “agitate the establishment.”
Issue 114, Gay Nigeria, grapples with anti-gay sentiment in Africa through the case-in-point of Nigeria’s recent Same-Sex Marriage Prohibition Act, and the global backlash against it. Ayo Sogunro, Rudolf Pell Gaudio, and Davis Mac-Iyalla introduce readers to the complexities of being queer in Nigeria.
We also remember Amiri Baraka (1934 – 2014), championed by Molefi Kete Asante as “a righteous defender of human freedom.” Komozi Woodard, Ishmael Reed, and Baraka’s daughter Kellie Jones add their recollections of the controversial poet-activist.
The issue is further graced by tales quintessentially diasporic: a Ghanaian slave-fort turned five-star resort by a British ex-pat; a West African merchant-missionary returning former slaves to his Gold Coast homeland; and tips on how to freak out your American roommate.
With incarceration rates of black Americans continuing to soar, Micol Seigel wants to know who makes bank in the lucrative world of bail. Also, is American cinema ready for a black woman protagonist? And an interview with director Steve McQueen. What’s on your summer reading list?
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Featured Article: Castles: Slave Forts, Tourist Resorts, and the Burden of the Past #OpenAccess
by Jonathan Roberts
The surreal, tragicomic tale of a British ex-pat whose dream is to convert a Ghanaian slave fort into a five-star resort, proving yet again that truth is stranger than fiction.
Contributors: Gbolahan Adeola, Molefi Kete Asante, Joshua Bennett, Ebony Coletu, Jenny Davison, Kendra Taira Field, Mechac Gaba, Henry Louis Gates, Jr., Rudolf P. Gaudio, Allison Janae Hamilton, Imo Nse Imeh, Kellie Carter Jackson, Kellie Jones, Marcia Kure, Spree MacDonald, Davis Mac-Iyalla, Brianna McCarthy, Steve McQueen, Chigozie Obioma, Ishmael Reed, Jonathan Roberts, Micol Seigel, Ayo Sogunro, Mickalene Thomas, Kehinde Wiley, Deborah Willis, Komozi Woodard.