Nigerian authors condemn country's new anti-gay law

Author Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie says the new law goes against the 'live and let live' values of many African cultures. Photograph: David Levenson/Getty Images

Leading authors including Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie and Jackie Kay have condemned Nigeria's harsh new anti-gay law in the strongest possible terms, with Kay comparing the situation to Nazi Germany and Adichie calling for the "unjust" law to be repealed.

Kay, the Scottish-Nigerian poet and winner of the Guardian fiction prize, told the Guardian that "it is dangerous for any country to legalise a witch-hunt of an already oppressed minority; it will lead to an unprecedented hysterical homophobia that will set the clock back in the fearful past. It is reminiscent of Nazi Germany. It will lead to people fleeing for safety, to informers, to pitting one African citizen against another." Adichie, writing in the Nigerian paper the Scoop, called the recently passed law which criminalises homosexuality "un-African", saying that it "goes against the values of tolerance and 'live and let live' that are part of many African cultures". The Nigerian government has not responded to a request for comment.

The interventions from Adichie and Kay follow the Kenyan author Binyavanga Wainaina's public declaration of his own homosexuality in response to the new anti-gay laws. The new laws in Nigeria criminalising same-sex marriages and membership of gay rights organisations were signed in January, a move echoed earlier this week with the adoption of a harsh anti-homosexuality law in Uganda.

Award-winning author Bernardine Evaristo added her voice to the chorus of writers protesting the legislation: "As someone with a Nigerian father I am particularly incensed by Nigeria's recent anti-gay legislation, but also the terrible increase in persecution of homosexuals across the African continent," she said. "The way in which both church and state are now inciting homophobic hatred to curry favour with their constituencies is abhorrent to me. It's just plain backwards when in some parts of the world many nations are moving forwards in their acceptance of homosexuality."

http://www.theguardian.com/books/2014/feb/27/nigeria-anti-gay-law-critic-adichie-kay-habila