Obinna Tony: Making Queer Histories Visible in Nigeria

Last month, we had the opportunity to speak with Obinna Tony-Francis Ochem (Lagos, Nigeria, 1996, pronouns: he/they). Obinna, who lives in Lagos, is a Nigerian writer, human rights researcher, reporter, journalist, and LGBTQIA+  activist with a degree in Marine Sciences. He is currently the community manager for Wiki for Human Rights, Nigeria, a committee member of the Nigeria National Funding Program (Rapid Fund), and a core organizer for Queering Wiki 2026. Obinna first became involved in theWikimedia universe after attending a “Wiki Loves Pride” edit-a-thon in Lagos, in July 2025. While his involvement with the Wikimedia movement is relatively recent, Obinna more than makes up for it with his dedication and enthusiasm for the cause. After his first edit-a-thon, he began participating in global LGBTQIA+ Wiki meetings and groups. In 2025, he spoke at the Queering Wikipedia online conference. In Nigeria, he organizes virtual training on Wikidata for young queer editors and has led campaigns such as the Trans Visibility Challenge (2025).

Our conversation with Obinna was the sixth of a series of interviews with gender organizers for the project Wiki and GLAM: Harnessing Knowledge to Foster Gender Equality. These interviews shed light on collaborative efforts to promote gender equity within Wikimedia through partnerships with GLAM institutions. We have discussed projects in Portugal, Spain, the United States, India, and Argentina; you can find links to our previous Diff posts below.

One issue that appears throughout our interviews is the tension between visibility and erasure that characterizes the construction of collective memory. When we think about queer communities in Nigeria, however, the issue becomes even more pressing, because nowadays it is risky to be openly queer in the country. In 2014, President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan signed into law the Same-Sex Marriage Prohibition Act (SSMPA), which became not “only” a legal obstacle for couples but has made it hard for queer Nigerians to live in peace.  TheSSMPA has entitled law enforcement agents and private Nigerian citizens to harass people because of the way they dress and behave, and it has been used to justify mass arrests on the ground that people allegedly had “the intention to hold a same-sex marriage.” In 2023, the government proposed a bill that would have made cross-dressing illegal. Although it did not pass, it illustrates how difficult it is for queer Nigerians to express their gender identities openly.

Challenges and opportunities

For Obinna, Wikimedia projects offer queer people a way to fight against the erasure of their history and culture. One important advantage of Wikimedia projects, according to him, is that activists can leverage their work there, as articles are protected against misgendering and hate speech, allowing contributors to circumvent the restrictions that limit what Nigerian media can publish about queer people. Nevertheless, like our previous interviewees, Obinna acknowledges the importance of printed media in increasing the visibility of gender minorities, and he is willing to collaborate with queer-friendly outlets in other African countries.

Also like our other collaborators, Obinna and his colleagues have actively sought partners beyond the Wikimedia movement to promote their initiatives. They have collaborated with organizations such as the Goethe-Institut Nigeria and the Improved Sexual Health and Rights Advocacy Initiative (ISHRAI) to hold in-person Wikimedia events centered on queer history and culture. Even though he has not yet organized any initiatives with GLAMs, Obinna believes that they can become partners in the future because, according to him, such institutions in Nigeria tend to be queer-friendly. And although he has not yet spent much time digging through physical archives, his work often relies heavily on historical records. For example, he has investigated the histories of Nigerian traditional cultures such as the Igbo and the Hausa and found that they tend to be more accepting of fluid gender roles than the rigid binary gender identities the government has been imposing. He explored this topic in the presentation “Unmasking Queerness in Igbo Oral Traditions; Artivism and Wiki Documentation,” which draws on historical sources such as photographs.

Moreover, Obinna strongly believes that learning from historical documents should not be the privilege of academics alone, and he sees Wikimedia projects as powerful tools for knowledge dissemination. He intends to make history accessible to as many people as possible, insisting that there is a wealth of knowledge about traditional practices in Nigeria that unfortunately does not always reach wider audiences and remains confined to academic circles. Wikimedia projects can enable people to translate in-depth historical research into more approachable language. They can also function as a shared platform for documenting and organizing knowledge in ways that are more available and accessible than academic journals.

This conversation has opened our eyes to the importance of developing diversified communication strategies in contexts constrained by external conditions. It has also highlighted the need to keep fighting for the preservation of the collective memories of gender minorities, which are always exposed to some level of risk.

Finally, we encourage you to read Obinna’s texts. He is a gifted writer who moves easily across genres, from emotionally powerful personal accounts to humor. You can find his writing here.

Lessons learned

•  If your community is going through particularly difficult times, historical records may help you identify your strengths and find ways to move forward. GLAM institutions hold documents that can reveal aspects of your culture that others do not want you to know. Looking into the past can illuminate the present.
• You do not need to start your research from scratch. Translating academic language into a more accessible language is one way to democratize knowledge. Think about partnering with GLAM institutions to produce Wikimedia articles and data based on research that has already explored their archives and storage rooms.
• Wikimedia can be a tool for circumventing limitations on freedom of expression imposed by local governments. GLAM institutions may be interested in partnering with contributors who are not constrained by unreasonable local media restrictions.
  
  

Learn more

Learn more

This is the fifth blog post in our series for the Wiki and GLAM: Harnessing Knowledge to Foster Gender Equality project.

• Read about the WELx and the Belém Library partnership in Portugal.
• Read about Wikiesfera and their GLAM projects in Spain.
• Read about the Pérez Art Museum, Miami, and their Wikimedian-in-Residence program. 
• Read about the many initiatives led by Medhavi Gandhi in India.
• Read about trans collective memories in Argentina.
• Find out about the project Wiki and GLAM : Harnessing Knowledge to Foster Gender Equality.

Join us!

Want to learn more about GLAM partnerships for gender equality? Join our Telegram channel or send an email to wikiglamgender@gmail.com to learn about our next events.