Vasilis, I came to the U.S with my parents when I was 17 years old and it was almost a seamless transition. I got my social security and other immigration benefit from my parents, although I had found out about my sexuality from a young age in boarding school back in Nigeria.

I could not accept my queerness in Nigeria, I only able to do so in the U.S, because in Nigeria is was very difficult to be open about your identity.

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Growing up in the diaspora is not as easy as people make it seem, even living in the diaspora was like living in little Nigeria, very homophobic, very sexist and gender. “It feels like you live in this country where there is freedom but you can’t access it”.

I’m lucky to have been able to break free from my parents and community influence and find a new community in the United States.

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Community is very important, as creatures there is need for connecting with one another. As I became very comfortable with my sexuality the queer community became a place where I realized my potential.

Community makes you realize you are not unusual, neither are you weird, community have made me realize we can be struggling and still overcome together.

Edafe Okporo has always been a leader in time of difficulties, migrating from Nigeria to the United States as a refugee, overcoming great obstacles and now leading a movement of building a compassionate society.   To learn more please visit my website: https://www.edafeokporo.com  Join my mailing list http://eepurl.com/gYm1Fv

The first interview of the series aired last week and here is a link to it. https://www.edafeokporo.com/blog/nonisalma

Ucheckuwu Onwa left Nigeria because of the threat towards his life as a gay man and a gay rights activist in Nigeria. He spoke about the law that criminalizes same sex relationships by 14 years imprisonment.

Uche said “he left the country for his safety” but looking back to his first traumatic experience of his friend who was raped by five men and tested HIV positive. This led him to fighting for gay men in Nigeria, to prevent the same experience his 14 years old best friend had.

His experience of coming to the United States with the expectation of being accepted in welcoming arms. Uche had a high expectation before leaving Nigeria but had an unforeseen challenge: he was detained at the airport and was taken to a detention center.

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His time in the detention center and how difficult it was for him at the detention centers, being handcuffed hands and shackles on his waist. His life at the detention center was categorized by traumatic experiences he would not want to talk about but shared some of the painful experiences with us.

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Today Uche works as the co-director of Queer Detainee Empowerment Project QDEP, advocating for the right and dignity of detained LGBTQ immigrants.

Coming to the United States as an asylum seeker is not as easy as it may seem on social media and the internet, Uche Onwa personal account detail his life experience as an LGBTQ asylum seeker.

Edafe Okporo has always been a leader in time of difficulties, migrating from Nigeria to the United States as a refugee, overcoming great obstacles and now leading a movement of building a compassionate society.   To learn more please visit my website: https://www.edafeokporo.com  Join my mailing list http://eepurl.com/gYm1Fv

In 2010 Obama said “One of my favorite pieces of literature is letter from Birmingham jail, and Dr. King had to battle people counseling patience and time. And he said time is neutral and things don’t automatically get better unless people push to try to get things better. So, I don’t begrudge the LGBTQ community for pushing.

There has been an issue with visibility of LGBTQ people from Nigeria, when then president Goodluck Jonathan passed the same sex marriage prohibition law in 2014 he said gay people do not exist in Nigeria. In 2020, the conversation is still ongoing do LGBTQ people exist in Nigeria?

I too have been trying to answer this same question, coming out has a gay Nigerian man has made me feel like living on an island, people get confused when I say am a gay Nigeria! The fact that am gay is not even as troubling as the conception of being gay and a Nigerian. It is a strong taboo to be gay and also Nigerian, religious leaders have over used the scripture to demonize LGBTQ people as a separate people that would riot in the lake of fire.

So, I set on a quest to find out if other LGBTQ Nigerians exist in the diaspora and what made them to come out and fight for the right to be themselves.

I spoke with Noni Salma, who uses gender pronouns she/her an MFA candidate at the Vermont college of fine art studying writing and publishing. Interviewed was conducted at St. Mary in Harlem in January of 2020. Noni was the first self-identified Nigerian Transgender person I heard a first-person account of, who identifies as trans and Nigerian. Her interview was very emotional, she narrated her journey to the United States.

Noni migrated to the United States in 2014 because home was not safe anymore and the country is just too much for her to handle, issues with family, people getting attacked and she said emotionally, there wasn’t any home for me anymore. She said she migrated to the United States so she can find her tribe. There was nobody when she started transitioning that could tell her where to go and who to go to, as a trans person in Nigeria you are at the mercy of the people.

I spoke about courage and ask her do you consider yourself courageous and how do you muster the courage to be yourself in a world that constantly set to marginalize you and she said. That is just who I’m, there is not just this or that option, the other option is me back home in Nigeria, I was just punishing myself. Pre transition in Nigeria, I was just punishing myself, struggling with it every day.

She made a case for her love for Nigeria and it hurts her to see that one of their own is being abandoned and pushed away. She said in her words “were not going to be a great country by we all being the same” We should acknowledge the beauty in our difference.

She also said she wished people did not ask the question “why did you transitioned?” I embraced people having strong opinion about me. She read a piece of her writing and it was so heartwarming. Full conversation on the interview.

For most of America’s history, we simply did not lock people up for migrating here. Yet over the last thirty years, the federal and state governments have increasingly tapped their powers to incarcerate people accused of violating immigration laws. As a result, almost 400,000 people annually now spend some time locked up pending the result of a civil or criminal immigration proceeding.

Further readings

César Cuauhtémoc García Hernández Author of Migrating to Prison

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/02/opinion/immigration-detention-prison.html

https://www.amazon.com/Migrating-Prison-Americas-Obsession-Immigrants/dp/1620974207

To learn more about my work please visit: www.edafeokporo.com

Edafe Okporo has always been a leader in time of difficulties, migrating from Nigeria to the United States as a refugee, overcoming great obstacles and now leading a movement of building a compassionate society.   To learn more please visit my website: https://www.edafeokporo.com  Join my mailing list http://eepurl.com/gYm1Fv

This is a podcast on how to seek asylum in the United States based on my experience as an asylum seeker and refugee in the United States, I work as the executive director of RDJ refugee shelter in Harlem. 

Edafe Okporo has always been a leader in time of difficulties, migrating from Nigeria to the United States as a refugee, overcoming great obstacles and now leading a movement of building a compassionate society.   To learn more please visit my website: https://www.edafeokporo.com  Join my mailing list http://eepurl.com/gYm1Fv

This lesson is centuries old, this philosophy has been popularized and sometimes mistaken for narcissism on social media. The core idea is to stop waiting for someone to choose you on their subjective list, learning to pick yourself. 

Edafe Okporo has always been a leader in time of difficulties, migrating from Nigeria to the United States as a refugee, overcoming great obstacles and now leading a movement of building a compassionate society.   To learn more please visit my website: https://www.edafeokporo.com  Join my mailing list http://eepurl.com/gYm1Fv

I’m joined today by someone who is no longer new to this journey. Mikael Owunna a photographer and Engineer. His debut art book Limitless Africans, is finally out. He joins me to discuss the journey of publishing is debut work and to inspire you to believe in your identity as authentic .

To get a copy of his book or learn more about his work please visit https://www.mikaelowunna.com/

Edafe Okporo has always been a leader in time of difficulties, migrating from Nigeria to the United States as a refugee, overcoming great obstacles and now leading a movement of building a compassionate society.   To learn more please visit my website: https://www.edafeokporo.com  Join my mailing list http://eepurl.com/gYm1Fv

LGBTQ equality fight is a global fight, this episode of the podcast I spoke with two of the finalist who qualified for a fund I created, here is the response. Thank you for listening and for supporting our show.

Edafe Okporo has always been a leader in time of difficulties, migrating from Nigeria to the United States as a refugee, overcoming great obstacles and now leading a movement of building a compassionate society.   To learn more please visit my website: https://www.edafeokporo.com  Join my mailing list http://eepurl.com/gYm1Fv

In our modern day society we need to recognize that strength does not co-relate to our ability to keep quiet when we need help on any particular issue we are facing. This podcast discuss about the importance of asking for help!

Edafe Okporo has always been a leader in time of difficulties, migrating from Nigeria to the United States as a refugee, overcoming great obstacles and now leading a movement of building a compassionate society.   To learn more please visit my website: https://www.edafeokporo.com  Join my mailing list http://eepurl.com/gYm1Fv

Not profit are messy but a leader openness to learn from his team, creates trust and changes the internal culture of the organization. To learn more please visit: RDJ refugee shelter

Edafe Okporo has always been a leader in time of difficulties, migrating from Nigeria to the United States as a refugee, overcoming great obstacles and now leading a movement of building a compassionate society.   To learn more please visit my website: https://www.edafeokporo.com  Join my mailing list http://eepurl.com/gYm1Fv