Queerness, Colonialism, and the Power of Trust in Accra, Ghana

In Ghana, as in the rest of West Africa, queer people are subject to considerable repression, which may assume social and legal dimensions.

Written by Muzz Muhammad

Oct 18, 2019

The Solace Initiative is an LGBTQ+ advocacy organization based in Accra, Ghana. In 2017, I worked with Solace on a research project investigating health risks, experiences of abuse and violence, and general quality of life in the LGBTQ+ community in Accra. This research aimed to help document the experiences of people in the community and to find ways that researchers and other partners could collaborate with the community to improve conditions for Accra’s LGBTQ+ community. Most research about LGBTQ+ people in Africa focuses on Men who have Sex with Men (MSMs) and HIV/AIDS. This research sought to expand that focus, to include people assigned female sex at birth and people of a wider range of gender identities and sexual orientations.

In Ghana, as in the rest of West Africa, queer people are subject to considerable repression, which may assume social and legal dimensions. Ghanaian law, for instance, criminalizes ‘unnatural carnal knowledge’ between consenting adults, and homophobic attitudes pervade Ghanaian society. The Pew Research Centre, in a 2013 survey, found that 96 per cent of Ghanaian respondents thought that society should not accept homosexuality. These attitudes are relics of colonialism, and of the criminalization of homosexuality in colonial-era British law; and these attitudes are reinforced by the hostility towards homosexuality in certain understandings of Ghana’s largest religions, Christianity and Islam. Outed queer people in Ghana face social ostracization, public humiliation, and varying degrees of physical violence.

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About the Author

Muzz Muhammad

is a West African.

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Queerness, Colonialism, and the Power of Trust in Accra, Ghana