Nigerian American journalist Chike Frankie Edozien left Nigeria to go to university in the United States at age 19, he came out not much later and has become of the few voices speaking up for LGBT communities in Nigeria and the rest of Africa. During his travels as a journalist and director of the Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute’s ‘Reporting Africa’ programme based in Ghana, he became convinced it wasn’t enough to simply report about LGBT issues on the continent, he needed to provide some context to the conversation and dispel all the religious propaganda and misinformation that suggested homosexuality was some scourge that was brought into Africa by Colonialism. This is why he has written a memoir of his life and travels.

His new memoir ‘In the Lives of Great Men’ is being published globally, and with a tentative Nigerian publisher to be announced soon, covers the span of his life and the things he has learned. He sat down with the team at the BBC, to dish on the new memoir, his experiences in Nigeria and how his work has allowed him explore first hand LGBT life on the continent. It is very revealing, especially if you care about Lagos.

Listen to the interview here.

and preorder the book here. 

Editor