Interviews
None on Record: Seeking Asylum Project
The Seeking Asylum Project collects the stories of LGBT Africans who left their home countries to seek asylum or refuge due to persecution because of sexual orientation or gender identity.
Dakar, Senegal
Pape Mbaye: Seeking Asylum interview
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“The president in Gambia said, ‘I know the gay is in my country. I give them 24hours to leave’. He said he would slaughter us like lamb.”
Pape Mbaye talks about being outed in the Senegalese newspapers and the countrywide manhunt that ensued.
Pape Mbaye is a popular singer from Senegal. In 2007, he was outed by a gossip magazine in Dakar, Senegal. He currently has refugee status in the United States. He lives and performs in New York City.
Recorded in New York City.
Read more about Pape in this New York Times Article.
Ivory Coast/ Canada
Carlos Idibouo: Seeking Asylum interview
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“I’m here but still thinking about Africa. I’m still thinking about the Ivory Coast.”
Carlos Idibouo talks about his HIV/AIDS organizing in the Ivory Coast and his decision to seek refugee status in Canada.
Carlos Idibouo is originally from Ivory Coast where he worked in the field of HIV/AIDS prevention for several years. In July 2003, he helped to create the first gay and lesbian organization in Ivory Coast. Due to homophobic persecution and threats by authorities, Idibouo immigrated to Canada in 2006.
Recorded in Toronto, Canada.
