Those are great pictures and brief stories. It's interesting how many ground/defend their queer identities as coming from indigenous cultures and heritages. (Not everyone - JP doesn't lean on Indigenous identity and mentions that it wasn't a strong connection.)

Interesting how it keeps referring to them as "Indigenous." I wonder if that has a specific meaning in Nigerian society (some of the quotes suggest it may) or if it's a frame imposed by National Geographic.

In context they seem to be using it to mean something like "prioritizing traditional culture rather than trying to emulate Western norms." I'm wondering if that's a widespread use in Nigeria or something they came up with in response to prompting by the reporter. Could go either way.

Could go either way.

That's the literal translate of the Igbo word for "bisexual".

That was me.

I wonder how much of what they mean there is about being outside of Christianity and Islam?

Now having actually looked at the article at a minimum you see that usage pretty clearly in:

"Writer Ayodele Olofintuade is training as a Yoruba traditionalist, a process that involves learning the ways of Yoruba spirituality and its connections to one's ancestry. "Indigeneity is not conferred; it's who you are," she says. Olofintuade, who is a queer woman, says the guidelines of Yoruba traditions are more accepting of nonconformist identities than Western religions."

Also "I am Indigenous in the sense that I am interested in traditional spirituality."

I think the read that this is about Christianity and Islam being an imposition of homophobia from the outside is very well supported here.

6-8: Yeah, that's quite possible. That's the only writeup in this piece that I think supports it very directly though.

I guess those are two different writeups. Still, the others don't seem to really clearly support that read. They're not incompatible with it, though. Just focusing on different aspects of culture.

The other big thing that seems to come up repeatedly is that indigenous means not Lagos.

Also " "I have never specifically felt a sense of belonging thoroughly to my Hausa identity, and neither have I felt the same for my Ijaw identity," she says. "I've always grown up and just thought, I'm Nigerian." " seems a pretty clear sign that the interviewer was specifically asking about indigeneity.

Yeah, it definitely seems like the interviewer was asking about indigeneity and they were interpreting it different ways.

Also interesting is that the reporter and photographer are Igbo living in Lagos (which is within the Yoruba culture area although it's a huge city with people from all over).

More here.
https://www.nationalgeographic.com/culture/article/interview-emezi-thompson-artists-nigeria
It seems these are from a whole issue of stories about "Indigenous" various. So the terminology at least presumably is flowing from the editorial level down.

The interview in 14 is really interesting and does suggest that the "indigeneity" concept is primarily editorial. The interviewer uses the term several times but the interviewee doesn't use it at all.

Also this part:

An artisan from his team sits at a large table, using a feather to paint careful lines of cassava paste on a sea of white fabric, creating àdìre cloth with a traditional Yoruba technique.

Cassava paste, you say? Very traditional. (But this is of course one of the points they discuss in the interview, that "traditional" doesn't necessarily mean "pre-colonial" and that societies change and adapt.)

Speaking of colonies, there's a funny story on twitter today:

"Yesterday a girl at work said "I just don't want the colonisers to win. Go Spain!" about the Euro final [against England] this weekend"

https://www.nationalgeographic.com/magazine/article/indigenous-futures-july-2024-report

Editor's Note: The July 2024 issue of National Geographic is a special single-topic issue titled "Indigenous Futures," focused on how Indigenous communities around the world are charting a new tomorrow, from conservation to culture. Find stories from the issue here and the Editor's introduction to the issue here. Aware of National Geographic's imperfect history covering Indigenous communities, as well as the limited representation of Indigenous peoples on our own staff, we convened an advisory board of four Indigenous journalists and creators

15: Ibo and Hausa Nigerians can't be indigenous because you need to be a non-dominant or marginalised group in society to be indigenous.

I mean, this is why their answers do focus on ways that they are non-dominant or marginalized (namely, that indigenous religions are marginalized, and that Lagos is dominant).

19: Yorubas can though, because fuck those guys.

I know that in Central America at least it's pretty common for queer and gender-nonconforming people to claim a continuity with indigenous cultures (and of course it's a tendentious and constructed account of those cultures, but why wouldn't it be). I guess National Geographic is just being promiscuous with that framing?

The magazine wants what the magazine wants.

"Yesterday a girl at work said "I just don't want the colonisers to win. Go Spain!" about the Euro final [against England] this weekend"

Nico Williams, the 22-year-old who scored Spain's first goal against England, was born to Ghanaian parents who had entered Spain by climbing the border fence into the Spanish enclave of Melilla