Nigeria | OutTales around the Fire

The dilemma of Lot’s Wife – To look back or not!

17 Jan 2015 4 Comments

by OutTales in Courage and Vulnerability, Faith, Holding On and Letting Go Tags: Coming Out, LGBT, Lot’s wife, Nigeria

One of the tales that has always stayed with me from the “Sunday School of my childhood” is the story of “Sodom & Gomorrah”. Now, it would be easy to base this on the fact that I am gay, and that the story of Sodom is often used by fundamentalists to chastise gay people. But, that is not the case. Long before I knew for sure that I was gay, I knew about the story of Sodom.

More specifically, I knew about the story of Lot’s wife. It was a story that our Sunday School teachers would come back to, time and time again, and it was certainly the most haunting of the bible stories from that period of my life. I was fascinated by the story of this woman who was turned into a pillar of salt! I guess the story felt like it was straight out of 1001 Arabian Nights or Greek Mythology – two other delights from my childhood. More

In conversation with Davis Mac-Iyalla about being Gay, Christian and Nigerian

30 May 2014 2 Comments

“There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you” Maya Angelou

OutTales: Davis congratulations on your recently published book. You chose as its title “Fiyabo“, which I understand in your native Nigerian language means ‘Survivor’. What made you decide to go with that title?
Davis Mac-Iyalla: I choose that title as a reminder that no matter the persecutions LGBTI Nigerians are facing, we will not give up hope. We are a survivors who will achieve victory in the end.

OutTales: During your time in Nigeria you went through periods of imprisonment, torture, violent attack, and a string of death threats. What stopped you from taking the path that many other same gender loving people have taken, which is to get married to the opposite sex and thereby conform to the expectations of family?
Davis Mac-Iyalla: Those who take those paths do it for social and family acceptability. The reason that people do that does not matter to me, but for me I will never live a lie. Being gay is in my nature, I will never try to pretend to be something that I am not. More

Aside by OutTales

The Past Is A Foreign Country

08 Apr 2014 4 Comments

by OutTales in Short Film Tags: Ade Adeniji, Francois Lubbe, Gay, Nigeria, The Quest

My talented friend Francois Lubbe made a short film about my journey with storytelling, the piece is titled ‘The Past Is A Foreign Country’.

This short film takes a brief but in-depth look at the positive impact and healing power of storytelling, and how its application and practice can transform lives.

The Past Is A Foreign Country from Little Red Shoes on Vimeo.

“Sometimes, the best way to move forward in life is by looking back—even if the story of our past is one we want to forget”

Love Letter to my Ugandan and Nigerian LGBTI Brothers and Sisters

16 Feb 2014 2 Comments

by OutTales in My Sexuality is a Human Right Tags: LGBT, Nigeria

Love and I, repeat again, Love and I.
Love is termed as the greatest of it all,
because any kind of Love is better than all kinds of hatred.

Though we are faced with greater challenge today, but am sure we shall conquer it all.

Though we live in a continent
where hatred is now perpetually the message we hear, by the people around us, in the media, and every corner we turn our ears. More

Now is not the time to hide our heads in shame

17 Jan 2014 8 Comments

by OutTales in My Sexuality is a Human Right Tags: Anti-Gay, Gay, Homophobia, LGBT, Nigeria

During a visit to Nigeria in 2004, my mother told me about a massive row she had recently had with her neighbour. The row had started because the neighbour had put up some cables in front of my mother’s apartment without her permission. My mother in anger had pulled down the cables and hence this massive row – during which they shouted and called each other names. It went on for ages. My mother said, out of nowhere the neighbour shouted “Don’t take your frustrations out on me, just because your son is a homosexual”. My mother said “that just destroyed me and I went inside and started crying”. More