At only 20 years old, Abdou is threatened with death and suffers ostracism from his family. He bears witness to an almost impossible life in Senegal and the social exclusion of homosexuals in his country.
“The situation is getting more and more serious“, he blurts out. “The anger that people have… it’s not something that existed before“.
Repressive laws against homosexuality.
In this 95% Muslim and very practicing country, homosexuality is widely considered deviant. Today the law punishes with a prison term of one to five years the so-called acts “against nature with an individual of his sex“.
A law deemed too insufficiently severe by part of the opposition. In December 2021, at the initiative of the Islamic NGO Jamra, 11 deputies tabled a bill intended to punish homosexuality with a sentence of five to ten years in prison.
Have : Senegal: homosexuality in the sights of a bill
The Parliament rejects the proposal considering the existing legislation quite severe. The spokesperson for the NGO Mama Mactar Gueye argues that the LGBT community “problematic” because she “begins to invade the public space” and to “to provoke“.
According to him, the country is in a “deplorable tension“. He argues that a new law would protect “society, but also the homosexuals of a mob justice“.
In recent years, Islamic groups have been at the forefront of the fight against homosexuality in Senegal. Many members of these groups have studied in Arab countries according to AFP. For some of them, homosexuality is an instrument used by Westerners to impose values that are allegedly foreign to the culture of the country.
For his part, the main opponent Ousmane Sonko made the fight against homosexuality a campaign argument for the legislative elections next Sunday.
Have : Senegal: who is Ousmane Sonko?
In the streets, violent campaigns against homosexuality.
“The situation of the LGBTQI community is very complicated, especially the last year and a half“says Ousmane Aly Diallo, researcher at Amnesty International contacted by AFP. According to this head of the West and Central Africa office within the NGO, the past year is characterized”through a massive campaign“against homosexuality”led by religious and conservative associations that allegedly want to restore Senegalese values“.
The “goor-jigéen” (man-woman in Wolof) have long been part of the social landscape. “But what we note today is really an intolerance to LGBTQI identity.“, reveals Aly Diallo. “This increasingly dangerous and very political intolerance is due to the rise of religious discourse and religiosity in Senegal and (…) to the weakness of institutions in the face of this rise.“.
The sociologist Djiby Diakhate explains, for his part, that “for many Senegalese, if homosexuality develops, it will be a disaster; we will experience drought, epidemics, bad luck“.
They just have to do their practices discreetly; citizens are not ready to live with them
Abdoulaye Guissé, 28-year-old Senegalese student
Abdoulaye Guissé, a 28-year-old student, told AFP “do not see why Senegal must change their position to grant more space“to homosexuals.”They just have to do their practices discreetly; citizens are not ready to live with them“.
Malamine Bayo, 32, for his part, advocates “to study the question to see if it is not a disease“, or, “if it’s by choice“. She suggests to”supervise these people so that they can live without difficulty“.
In mid-May 2022, a controversy agitated France and Senegal around the football player of Paris Saint-Germain and Senegalese international Idrissa Gana Gueye. The player is accused of having refused to join the fight against homophobia during a match in France. He received an outpouring of support in Senegal.
To read : Football: PSG player Idrissa Gana Gueye at the heart of a controversy over homophobia
During the same period, an American artist visiting Dakar was violently attacked. The video posted on several social networks shows a dozen men manhandling the artist because of his style deemed homosexual.
“It is more risky today to publicly display your LGBTQI identity than a few years ago. Explains Aly Diallo. “There are more and more attacks against members of this community, often filmed and broadcast on social media,” he said.
In May 2021 and February 2022, thousands of people demonstrated in Dakar to demand a strengthening of the repression of homosexuality.
For homosexuals in Senegal, a life prevented.
Abdou bears witness to a traumatic childhood and adolescence. During this part of his life, he undergoes the “spiritual” baths of marabouts to cure his supposed “disease” and his effeminate side. He hides to live his sexuality and is beaten by his relatives and makes a suicide attempt.
To see: Senegal: Senegal: campaigning for LGBTQIA+ rights, the fight of Djamil Bangoura
His life changes at the end of 2021 when a cousin and his father reports a conversation of the young man with an LGBT network. Immediately after his father divorced his mother and kicked him out of the home. “He sent me messages where he said “you make me ashamed; you don’t deserve to live… ‘”, says the Abdou.
Abdou contacts an association abroad which helps him to flee to a country in the region. He takes shelter for five months but at the beginning of May, then his mother, who has remained in contact with him, convinces him to return. Since then, Abdou has holed up at home. Fearing for his life, his mother locks him in her room when she hears about an attack…
Have : Senegal: a homophobic attack broadcast on video arouses emotion
When homosexuality is revealed, the entourage often sees in the violence of his reaction the only way to save his “reputation”.
In Senegal, to live with homosexuality is to be in danger from morning to night; it’s a very dark road
Daouda*, a young homosexual Senegalese man.
This is what Daouda*, only son, who led the life of a student, experienced until the day his father learned of his homosexuality. “He then pulled out a gun, he wanted to shoot me (at)…“Daouda fled to a country in the region, where AFP met him, cut off from his family for eight years.”In Senegal, to live with homosexuality is to be in danger from morning to night; it’s a very dark road“Several of his friends committed suicide. They could not manage to live in hiding.
In this context, many gays lead a double life. Until 3 months ago, this was the fate of Khalifa*, bisexual. Married for 4 years, he lived until he was 34 without his entourage suspecting anything. Recently “denounced”, he lost his job and his career. His father threatens to “kill him”, he no longer sees his wife or child and survives in a town far from Dakar.
Khalifa sees no other choice but to seek asylum abroad. He reports that an anti-LGBT movement has identified him and is threatening to track him down or publish his name on the internet.
Abdou would also like to leave Senegal. The young man desires to live in a place where he would be “accepted” and seeks to distance his mother from the stigma. “If I leave, it will be peace for my mother…“, he said, his voice cracking.
In Africa, a “diversity” of contexts for LGBTQI rights.
Due to sexual orientation risks, Senegal was removed from the list of safe countries of origin by the French Office for the Protection of Refugees and Stateless Persons (Ofpra) in 2021.
In its latest report, Amnesty International lists cases of harassment, arrests and legal proceedings related to homosexuality throughout the African continent. This report recognizes more progressive legislation on LGBTI rights in South Africa and several countries on the continent. In several African countries, an LGBT community expresses itself, which is unthinkable in Senegal, according to Amnesty.
To read : Africa: what rights for homosexuals?
In the absence of official data and given the diversity of contexts, experts note that it is however difficult to establish the level of persecution in Senegal compared to other African countries. However, they maintain that the situation remains tense across the continent.
* First names assumed for security reasons.