Nigeria's underground queer ballroom scene

The situation of the celebratory ball needed to be saved a secret.

This was a queer occasion and in Nigeria, the place same-sex relationships or public shows of affection are unlawful, something that’s devoted to embracing this tradition is in peril.

Marking Satisfaction month in any approach right here is an act of defiance.

The organisers of the Fola Francis Ball – named in honour of a transgender girl who died final 12 months – solely launched the venue particulars with simply hours to go earlier than it opened.

However this didn’t deter the greater than 500 individuals who turned up in a district near the thriving waterfront space of Nigeria’s industrial heartland, Lagos.

Across the gated venue have been deserted automotive components and warehouses recognized for rave events.

A thumping bassline could possibly be heard by way of the door and crossing the edge felt like moving into another actuality.

Inside was Lagos’s queer group, the venue, a cloak shielding them from the world outdoors.

For security causes, many LGBTQ+ Nigerians use the phrase “queer” as a broad time period to embody their identities.

Excited chatter and laughter coursed by way of the air. This was the enjoyment of shedding worry.

Everybody was dressed to suit the neo-gothic theme.

Within the dimly lit corridor, strobe lights painted the pores and skin of attendees in numerous colors. The flashes caught figures in numerous poses – a kaleidoscope of motion.

Androgyny and eccentricity reigned supreme. A girl with a shaved head and glowing make-up strutted confidently subsequent to a person in a flowing black costume.

Individuals who, past the partitions of the occasion, needed to conform to a view of how a person ought to look felt empowered to put on wigs and bodycon clothes, and use their faces as a canvas for glitter and daring hues.

The artistic duo behind the ball – Ayo Lawanson and Uyaiedu Ikpe-Etim – have been impressed by an analogous occasion they’d been to.

“We thought we have been very queer and really on the market, however going to expertise a ball actually modified our perspective of what it’s to be queer and what queer pleasure actually is,” Lawanson instructed the BBC.

Final 12 months’s first version of the occasion was held to have a good time their queer-themed film 14 Years and a Day, however this 12 months they wished to honour Fola Francis.

Till she drowned near a Lagos seaside on the finish of final 12 months, she had been on the coronary heart of the burgeoning underground ballroom scene.

She hosted, organised and invited queer individuals to all the foremost events.

For a lot of, the Fola Francis ball was a chance to pay their respects.

“I need to have a good time Fola,” mentioned one of many platform-heeled revellers, who was sporting a black choker, a darkish corset, and lace leggings beneath a pink checkered mini-skirt that matched her nails.

“Once I first began going out, she was all the time telling me: ‘You look so good’, and it bought to my head. It made me assured in being myself,” she mentioned.

Fola Francis had a huge impact on the whole queer group within the nation. However for a lot of trans and non-binary individuals, her demise was private, and honouring the life she lived was necessary.

A trans, non-binary individual sporting an African-print robe mentioned that Fola helped them realise the significance of displaying up authentically. “Her existence gave me freedom,” they added with a way of delight.

One other of the trans girls, who was attending her first ball, instructed the BBC that the occasion was a “dream come true”.

She was pressured to relocate to Lagos after going through transphobic violence in northern Nigeria and Fola Francis had provided to assist her discover secure housing.

The LGBTQ+ ballroom tradition will be traced to the US and underground African-American drag occasions within the mid-Nineteenth Century. It has since blossomed throughout the US, and past, with a well-developed infrastructure together with “homes”, which offer help networks and the premise for competitions.

TV exhibits like RuPaul’s Drag Race, Legendary and Pose have additionally introduced the idea into the mainstream.

On the Fola Francis Ball, a few of those that got here competed in opposition to one another in a number of classes – butch queen realness, femme queen realness, physique, face, voguing and best-dressed.

The viewers chanted and clapped as individuals danced and walked on the stage.

For the organisers, the aim of a ball in Nigeria is evident: to be an area for self-expression and to have a good time the great thing about variety, even within the face of worry.

And that worry isn’t distant because it feels just like the 2014 Identical-Intercourse Marriage Prohibition Act criminalises who they’re.

“I’m not 100% relaxed or safe. One minute you will be secure, and one other minute you’re busted,” a homosexual man on the venue instructed the BBC, citing instances prior to now the place the police arrested individuals at an all-male occasion.

Amid the enjoyable he mirrored on those that didn’t need to flip up.

“A variety of my mates would have been right here tonight, however due to that worry [of arrest], they selected to not come.

“It makes me unhappy as a result of ballroom tradition, queer tradition, is our approach of celebrating who we’re,” he added.

“I don’t get to expertise it absolutely with them. It additionally makes me offended as a result of there’s no cause why we must be dwelling in worry once we can simply specific ourselves, be ourselves, and simply stay and be completely happy.”

However the organisers did all they might to create a secure setting.

Among the security measures included offering altering rooms for many who wished to decorate as their most genuine selves however wanted to keep away from homophobic and transphobic violence on their approach to the venue.

Additionally they labored with a non-public safety agency that was dedicated to inclusion.

There was some criticism that the organisers have been permitting cisgendered and straight individuals to come back into queer areas however they insisted they wished allies, households and mates to attend.

“Queer pleasure is without doubt one of the greatest types of resistance,” Ikpe-Etim mentioned, they usually wished individuals to expertise the tradition.

“We need to push the narrative that queer individuals exist. Altering the narrative of what queer persons are seen as in Nigeria.”

Creator Eloghosa Osunde, who was one of many judges, noticed the Fola Francis Ball and others prefer it as “areas the place individuals really feel much less disgrace”.

“There’s nobody id that’s better than the opposite simply because it’s validated by the legislation. I actually imagine we will create legitimacy for ourselves, and that’s a method for our world to develop.”

And the underground ball scene appears set to increase additional in Lagos as extra queer individuals really feel the help from the group.

“Areas like this are so necessary,” mentioned one other of the judges, designer Weiz Dhurm Franklyn.

“Figuring out you even have area you possibly can name house, and be free, and be your self with out judgement, with out prejudice. It’s completely necessary not only for the sake of getting enjoyable, however for the sake of dwelling.”