Queer Empathy in Contemporary Nigerian Literature
Queer Empathy in Contemporary Nigerian Literature: Religion and Intersex in Buki Papillon’s An Ordinary Wonder
By Elizabeth West
For several decades, the Nigerian literary scene has been one of vibrancy and prominence with the likes of globally recognized authors, such as Chinua Achebe, and prize winning novels, including Chimamanda Ngozi Adiche’s Half of A Yellow Sun (2007). However, within the last ten years, the landscape of literature in Nigeria has been rapidly changing as authors are using their novels as platforms to speak about a hitherto taboo issue: LGBTI (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender & Intersex) experiences, identities and rights.
Whilst Nigeria is one of thirty-three countries on the African continent which criminalizes homosexuality (Amnesty International, 2018), and a place steeped in religiously fuelled homo/queer phobia, this has done little to deter Nigerian authors from writing about the LGBTI community. In the last few years alone, an abundance of novels which centre on queer Nigerian experiences have been published. This includes Akwake Emezi’s The Death of Vivek Oji (2021), and Eloghosa Osunde’s Vagabonds! (2022), with more on the horizon, such as Chukwuebuka Ibeh’s Blessings (2024).
Collectively known as ‘Queer Nigerian Literature’, these literary works seek to portray the challenges, experiences and realities of LGBTI people across the country. Although purely fictional, novels can be used “to think about or think through the real” (Adebanwi, 2014:408). Fictive works therefore have the ability to depict authentic and truthful elements of social reality, and writers often use real events to shape their narratives. Many queer Nigerian authors often critique the intertwining religious and political forces which are responsible for anti-LGBTI rhetoric. For example, they frequently reference bible verses (such as Leviticus 18:22), and/or political legislation, (such as the 2014 Same Sex Marriage Prohibition Act) within their novels.
Consequently, these literary works provide more than mere entertainment. Likewise, they are being used to reshape and redefine ideas around gender, sexuality and the LGBTI community, and challenge harmful assumptions, such as the idea that “religious commitment conflicts with sexual [and gender] identity” (Van Klinken, 2017).
But how do authors achieve this? Arguably, as I have demonstrated in my MA Thesis, through ‘Queer Empathy’.
Queer empathy is based on the similar notion of feminist empathy, which is derived from feminist literary studies. It is a tool used by African women writers to “draw attention to the condition of women in their societies and elicit responsibility from their readers” (Eze, 2016:6). By sharing stories of women’s pain, suffering and injustice, it allows readers to “put themselves in the position of women” (Eze, 2016:7), empathize with them, and provoke a response to help address these struggles.
Subsequently, queer empathy achieves something similar through stories about LGBTI people. These novels are particularly harrowing and often depict graphic incidents of discrimination, abuse and violence towards LGBTI persons. However this is done intentionally to provoke an empathetic response from the reader. Provoking empathy here is key because it draws on the human abilities of reasoning and decision making, especially where the social and political are concerned (Wariboko, 2023:163). As a result, queer Nigerian literature encourages readers to reflect on the treatment of the LGBTI community, particularly when it offers new ways of thinking to challenge anti-LGBTI discourse.
One fascinating novel which achieves this is Buki Papillon’s An Ordinary Wonder (2021) which follows Nigerian teenager Oto, who is born as intersex. Although Oto’s mother has raised them as a boy, Oto wishes to live as a girl, and over the course of the novel we see Oto come to terms with both their gender and religious identity.
For the majority of the novel, Christianity is portrayed in opposition to Oto’s identity. Their mother - a strict, conservative Christian - openly calls Oto “an abomination” due to their indeterminable sex, leading Oto to have an incredibly strained relationship with her. Additionally, the Pentecostal church Oto attends with their family believe Oto to be possessed by the devil and therefore in need of ‘delivering’. This results in a series of incredibly traumatic deliverance rituals, involving Oto being taken against their will, held under water and essentially tortured (2021:149). These elements of strained parental relationships and aggressive deliverance rituals are common experiences amongst the LGBTI community. Papillon utilises them to provide points at which readers can both empathise with and relate to.
The inclusion of this story from traditional Yoruba cosmology therefore affirms Oto’s intersex identity and experience of gender ambiguity.
However, Papillon also uses religion as a way to affirm Oto’s identity. Towards the beginning of the novel, Oto visits a Babalawo (Yoruba priest/healer) who recounts an indigenous creation myth. Subsequently, Oto is told that whilst they are intersex, embodying “both male and female facets of life”, their “destiny in this lifetime is female” (2021:30), thus supporting Oto’s wishes. The inclusion of this story from traditional Yoruba cosmology therefore affirms Oto’s intersex identity and experience of gender ambiguity. More broadly, it also challenges the popular idea that queer sexualities and identities are ‘unAfrican’ and ‘western impositions’. Papillon also later expresses the possibility of acceptance within Christianity through the character of Sister Angelica, the nurse at Oto’s school. When Oto asks her if she thinks they are “the devils work” she reminds them that “God created us all in his image and the devil does not create but destroy” (2021:73) - again offering the reader an alternative line of thinking.
Both these examples therefore highlight how literary works depict the lives of the Nigerian LGBTI community and how novels are helping to redefine social and religious attitudes towards gender and sexuality. Not only does Papillon open up readers (both in Nigeria and beyond) to the harsh realities of the LGBTI population, but she also offers new ideas which challenge the deeply entrenched hetero/cis normative binaries within Nigerian society. Readers are pushed to consider their own personal views through queer empathy and question the way in which they treat others. After all, Papillon herself says that the book is designed to encourage greater inclusivity (Long, 2021).
**Elizabeth West recently completed her MA in Religion at the University of Leeds. This blog post is based on her MA dissertation.**
References
Adebanwi, W. (2014). The Writer as Social Thinker. Journal of Contemporary African Studies. 32(4), pp405-420.
Amnesty International. (2018). Mapping anti-gay laws in Africa. [Online]. [Accessed 20th October 2023]. Available from: https://www.amnesty.org.uk/lgbti-lgbt-gay-human-rights-law-africa-uganda-kenya-nigeria-cameroon
Eze, C. (2016). Ethics and Human Rights in Anglophone African Women’s Literature: Feminist Empathy. Springer Berlin, Heidelberg.
Long, S. (2021). Buki Papillon’s ‘An Ordinary Wonder’ is anything but Ordinary. [Online]. [Accessed 20th October 2023]. Available from: https://www.refinery29.com/en-gb/buki-papillon-an-ordinary-wonder-interview
Papillon, B. (2021). An Ordinary Wonder. Dialogue Books. United Kingdom.
Van Klinken, A. (2017). Queer Studies and Religion in Contemporary Africa: Decolonizing, Post-secular Moves. The Scholar & Feminist Online. 14(2), pp1-2
Wariboko, N. (2023). Social Ethics and Governance In Contemporary African Writing: Literature, Philosophy, and the Nigerian World. Bloomsbury Publishing. USA.