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AHRC REFUGEE PRIDE 2023, By Melanie Nathan June 18, 2023

None of this would have been possible without you, AHRC donors, and our co-sponsors ALL OUT and DREAM OUT LOUD FILMS.

African Human Rights Coalition is so PROUD of all AHRC ambassadors, leaders and refugee community members who worked so hard to ensure THE AHRC PRIDE MEAL was an amazing success.

PRIDE MEAL DAY happened in Nairobi at a safe shelter, in separate small groups in Kakuma Camp delivered to compounds by more than fifty leaders, Kenya, and in Dzaleka Camp, Malawi and Makeni Transit Center, Zambia, resulting in a total of over 600 LGBTQI+ refugees covered by the event. People remained in separate small groups for safety, in private venues and compounds.

We wanted to celebrate PRIDE. To create a festivity our AFRICAN way. We had to take serious account of the fact that we are refugees in hostile host countries, which criminalize us in the same way as our countries of origin. We are surrounded by our fellow African refugees who demonize us for our sexuality and gender identity.

The safest way to express our PRIDE and participate in global PRIDE MONTH, turned out to be a way we could embrace our own culture. A way we could tell AFRICA and the WORLD – “PRIDE is AFRICAN” too and there is nothing UN-AFRICAN about us and our SOGIESC.

We expressed our PRIDE through traditional feasts. We found so much joy and excitement in the preparation of this day, from choosing the goats and chickens to all the preparation. All of this was a much needed boost to our morale. For this we thank all donors and cosponsors and all protection officers and UNHCR staff and contractors. We realized we did not need a parade or a march, born from Western culture. We could do it our own way and we did!

We proved that we can have a safe PRIDE in these environments if we invested in self security. We proved that PRIDE is AFRICAN, and that no-one can tell us LGBTQI+ Africans are UN-AFRICAN. We also proved our resilience and our refusal to give up who we are.

At the same time we cannot forget and express that our day to day lives are so hard, and our futures are uncertain. We all long for the day that we can be free to fully express ourselves without limitation or worry about basic safety.

One of the highlights of the day was our Zoom across the continent, connecting several of the groups, – U.S.A., Nairobi, Kakuma, Malawi, and Zambia, all from Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, DRC, Burundi, and more. The joy, gratitude and pride reflected the historic moment when LGBTQI+ refugees from three host countries shared their events with each other over Zoom. All the while we spoke too many languages to count,…. from French to – Lugandan to – Arabic to – English and more…. there we were – our commonality one big LGBTQI+ family celebrating PRIDE.

 

Many thanks to all who helped along this path to PRIDE- our donors are greatly appreciated. A special thanks to Matt Beard and Team from ALL OUT and Louise Hogarth from DREAM OUT LOUD FILMS.

 

UGANDA: AHRC EXPRESSES SOLIDARITY WITH UGANDA’S LGBTQI+ COMMUNITY, given the heightened persecution resulting from passage of the ANTI-HOMOSEXUALITY ACT of 2023.

We anticipate food shortages for JULY as we are unable to fill growing needs of arrivals due to the many LGBTQI+ fleeing the country. PLEASE DONATE HERE

© COPYRIGHT – PICTURES – AFRICAN HUMAN RIGHTS COALITION. Request written permission for use of individual pictures at AHRC, C/O – commisisonermnathan@gmail.com This article can be reposted with full permission, as long as attributed to AFRICAN HUMAN RIGHTS COALITION-  PLEASE NOTE ALL PICTURES ON THIS PAGE ARE SUBJECT TO COPYRIGHT:

© COPYRIGHT – PICTURES – AFRICAN HUMAN RIGHTS COALITION. Request written permission for use of individual pictures at AHRC, C/O – commisisonermnathan@gmail.com

TEAM AFRICAN HUMAN RIGHTS COALITION
& MELANIE NATHAN, Executive Director
commissionermnathan@gmail.com