The African Queer Youth Initiative team consists of young leaders from diverse backgrounds across Africa. With our experience, diverse skills and knowledge, we advance the mission and vision of AQYI. We are youth leaders, young professionals, grassroots activists, artists and above all, human beings passionate about human rights. The team consists of a volunteer network of youth from Botswana, Burundi, Democratic Republic of Congo, Egypt, Kenya, Liberia, Morocco, Nigeria, Republic of Mauritius, Togo, Tunisia, Uganda, Côte d’Ivoire, Burkina Faso, Namibia, Tanzania, Madagascar, Cameroon, Ethiopia, Zambia, Mali, South Africa, Rwanda, Ghana and Zimbabwe.
Amanda Bosco
Country: Uganda
Pronoun: She, Her
Amanda is a youth activist and human rights defender. She is a peer educator for the Uganda Youth and Adolescents Health Forum and is currently a part-time advocacy officer at Transgender Equality Uganda. Amanda is also a civic YALI graduate. She also volunteers with the Youth Coalition for Sexual and Reproductive Rights and the UN women informal reference group on LGBTI issues.
Amavi Ayité Sitou (Jean Paul)
Country: Togo
Pronoun: He, Him
Jean Paul, based in Togo, is a young activist and independent consultant in project management. Jean Paul is the executive director of the Togolese Association for Abandoned Women (ATFA), an association for the prevention of STI/HIV where he coordinates all the projects. AFTA intervenes in the field of art and culture as an advocacy tool for the defence of women’s rights and in particular key populations.
Wiem Askri
Country: Tunisia
Pronoun: They, Them, Their
Askri self-identifies as a non-binary person and has been volunteering since a young age. Askri was able to work with several national and international association and is currently working on transitional justice in Tunisia advocating for human rights, gender equality and LGBT+ rights with the aim that one day, people would be able to enjoy freedom and equality without having to leave their country.
Boye Black
Country: Nigeria
Pronoun: He, Him
Boye is the founder of The Rustin Times, an online publication aimed at changing the narrative around LGBT persons on the continent. He is an experienced broadcast journalist with vast experience in online media. He is passionate about equality and continues to not only write about LGBT issues but volunteers with organisations dedicated to the fight for equality.
Dumiso Gatsha
Country: Botswana
Pronoun: They, Them
Dumiso is the founder of Success Capital Organisation, an emerging grass-roots, nationally operating young sexual minority led NGO in Botswana. Dumiso has served in multiple civil society roles with focus on HIV Prevention, youth LGBTIQ+ representation, advocacy and research. Dumiso’s experience includes working for PWC, GIZ, Zurich, UNDP and as a national consultant under the regional SOGIR Project.
Abongile Matyila
Country: South Africa
Pronoun: They/Them
Abongile finds meaning in the collective spaces that challenge and embrace the queer individual. As a South African born youth, African values have rooted the understanding of the world and the need to find a voice for the people, while theology and philosophy as hints in the scholarly background, have helped understand the voices better. Inspired, energetic and ready to learn, they are currently working on republishing a collaborative piece called Stabanisation: Responding to the Backlash, and are currently researching their Masters in Theology.
Fokeerbux Najeeb Ahmad
Country: Republic of Mauritius
Pronoun: N/A, He, Him
Najeeb, a young, queer activist from Mauritius, has worked with the African Queer Youth Initiative since 2016. Najeeb is also the founder and president of the Young Queer Alliance (YQA), a NGO working for LGBT youth in Mauritius. Previously, Najeeb held positions of responsibility in various organisations and has recently joined the Youth Reference Group (YRG) of the Men who have Sex with Men Global Forum (MSMGF).
Ifeatu Nnaobi
Country: Nigeria
Pronoun: She, Her
Ifeatu combines digital media and technology to challenge social inequality. She does this through new media projects, including short impact films, mini-documentaries, text, and Video Art. She has an LLB Law with International Relations degree from the University of Sussex and a Masters in International Public Policy from University College London. She is very passionate about LGBT rights and is a Campaigner for All Out.
Junior Basosila
Country: Democratic Republic of Congo
Pronoun: He, Him
Junior is an activist, researcher and human rights defender who works on LGBTI, gender and youth issues in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. As Executive Director of the Movement for the Promotion of Respect and Equality of Rights in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, he covers a number of LGBTI-related areas through the research, documentation and advocacy and leadership development.
Sibo Oliver King
Country: Burundi
Pronoun: He, Him, They, Their
King is a community development advocate with a focus in support of human rights and youth empowerment. He is currently engaged with MOLI as the communication officer and the program officer for Atelier AGACIRO and Action MENYA Plus. King’s relationship with the creative industry is evolving by stepping in as a designer and entrepreneur. He enjoys development related discussions, visual arts, drag arts and travelling.
Lasavanne Jürgen Soocramanien
Country: Republic of Mauritius
Pronoun: He, Him
Jürgen is a gender studies graduate from the University of Mauritius. He is passionate about human rights with a strong interest in LGBTQIA issues, women rights movements and ethnic minorities. Jürgen is currently serving at the Young Queer Alliance, a youth-led and LGBT organisation. Jürgen has been advocating for LGBTQIA rights at 121st UNHRC session during the fifth periodic review of Mauritius in Geneva.
Mahmoud
Country: Egypt
Pronoun: He, Him
Mahmoud is a medical student from Egypt. He finds his passion through advocating for diversity and inclusion, raising awareness about health issues and being a leader of change in his community. Mahmoud is also a trainer on sexuality and gender. He loves art and music. Mahmoud also practices as a graphic designer.
Mariyem Gamar
Country: Morocco
Pronoun: She, Her
Mariyem, is Founder and executive director of Kasbah Tal’fin. She is a Human Rights Activist, focusing strongly on women’s rights, LGBTQ rights, and youth empowerment. She’s also a citizen journalist and blogger, writing about issues related to the causes she advocates for. She is currently pursuing her bachelor’s degree in English Literature, and is the founder and co-manager of SCTGR Sip a “Coffee and Talk About your Gender Roles” project.
Qwin Fiona Mbabazi Nabagereka
Country: Uganda
Pronoun: She, Her
Qwin is an affirmative Feminist and is passionate
about Human Rights Activism in Uganda. Qwin is also an Alumni of Human Rights Campaign Global Innovators Summit of 2016 and was also part of the team that planned, organized and implemented the 1st Queer Kampala International Film Festival. Qwin also serves as Board Member of Equality Hub, a LBT organization based in Nigeria.
Shamim Salim
Country: Kenya
Pronoun: She, Her
Shamim is a Queer, Muslim, feminist and a human rights activist. Shamim currently works at Church World Service advocating for the rights of LGBTIQ refugees as well as inclusion of LGBTIQ persons in places of worship. She is also a Board Member of UHAI-EASHRI, an indigenous activist fund providing resources to support civil society activism around issues of sexuality, health and human rights in the East African region.
Orneill Latiyah
Country: Ivory Coast
Pronoun: She, Her
A young trans activist-feminist, Latiyah is the founder and Executive Director of Transgenres et Droits a young organisation based in Ivory Coast. She is passionate about human rights, social justice, and transgender legal recognition. She is also a part of different initiatives working to strengthen the work of West African LGBTIQ+ organisations, and the community’s life conditions.
Tshegofatso Senne
Country: South Africa
Pronoun: She/Her
Tshegofatso is a Black, queer, feminist writer, speaker and communications consultant. She is currently the Communications and Media lead at Johannesburg-based youth think tank Youthlab. Senne does youth work across the country and hosts workshops focusing on consent and rape culture as well as kink and BDSM. Her TEDx talk ‘Reimagining BDSM’ takes a look at the tenderness and love that reveals itself in a lifestyle often only seen through an extreme lens.
Dongmo Theo
Country: Cameroon
Pronoun: He/Him
Theo started his activism journey in the year 2010. Driven by the thirst for justice and concern for establishing respect and gender equality, he participated in the creation of the first associations of lesbian in Cameroon. A trained business administrator. He is one of the founders of the Trans African Forum in West Africa and Cameroon. He organised a National consultation of the Trans * organisations in Cameroon, which formed a network (RITA) and named him, Coordinator.
He is passionate about transformational leadership, changing mentalities, gender equality in his community in Cameroon and throughout West Africa.
AMUTWENDIZE Rodgers
Country: Rwanda
Pronoun: He/Him
AMUTWENDIZE is a lawyer by training and human rights activist. He works as Programs Assistant at Human Rights First, Rwanda. Participated in the 65th Ordinary Session of the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights in Banjul the Gambia, where he raised the concern on the discrimination of LGBTIQ community and attack directed to the LGBTIQ rights activists in Africa. He has worked as a consultant for Rwanda Gender Pride, a Trans led organisation in Rwanda, training them on security measures and rights-based approach. Rodgers also designed an LGBTIQ rights brochure and drafted a position paper on the rights of LGBTIQ community which focused on eliminating stigma for sexual minority groups. Since 2017, Rodgers has been providing pro bono legal aid services to the LGBTIQ people in Rwanda.
Clara Shuma
Country: Tanzania
Pronoun: She, Her
Clara is the Executive Director- TACEF, Steering Committee member at EATHAN, Transgender representative to IBBS – Tanzania, and Barack Obama African Leaders Program 2018 Alumni. She is an activist and human rights defender for transgender, gender non-conforming and sex workers’ rights in Tanzania. Clara was able to work with several national and international association and is currently working on advocating for human rights, health rights, socio-economic empowerment, safety and security, gender equality and LGBT+ rights in Tanzania and East African region, with the aim that one day LGBTIQ+ people will be able to enjoy freedom and equality without having to leave their country.
Evane Yamamoto
Country: MALI
Pronoun: They/Them
Evane is a non-binary gender fluid activist from the Trans Umbrella whose activism began in April 2014 as a volunteer sexual health worker. After learning how to better advocate while working with the LGBT EVENT Association from 2015 as a volunteer, Evane has since created AREFM – the very first Trans Association. They are sharpening their skills as a Communications Officer at CAS since 2019.
Nalumino Likwasi (Mino)
Country: Zambia
Pronoun: She/Her
Mino is a project management and programming specialist focused on advocacy and service delivery for LGBTIQ+ groups in Zambia. She is the co-founder of Women’s Alliance for Equality (WAFE), the first LBQ led and focused NGO in Zambia and currently works as the City Programme Coordinator under Hivos on the Strong in Diversity, Bold on Inclusion Programme. Mino has previously worked within the local LGBTIQ+ organisations in Zambia, Panos Institute of Southern Africa, the Population Council of Zambia and most recently, Family Health International (FHI360). She currently serves on the board of trustees of The Other Foundation and the management board of Friends of Rainka Zambia. She holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Economics from Cavendish University in Lusaka and is currently pursuing a Masters Degree in Public Health and a Masters Degree in Development Studies.
Obsé
Country: Ethiopia
Pronoun: She/Her
Obsé is a queer activist and artist from Ethiopia. She is strong believer that art plays a role in society and contributes to the overall development of communities by providing a commentary on the way things are vs. how things should be. In her opinion, art in its essence is a tool to challenge a way of thought by allowing an idea to exist in a space autonomously, regardless of its place in society’s reality. She believes that art-based activism is able to transcend the boundaries of concept and actually reach the realm of practicality. That her work is able to give viability to other queer people and herself. She believes that she can showcase the diversity in self-expression, boosting communication within societies at large, to deliver new ways of understanding the fabric of the communities we exist in, and their interactions with one another.
Lix
Country: Burkina Faso
Pronoun: He/Him
Lix, young activist and human rights defender living in Burkina Faso. First a peer educator in an association to fight against HIV, he became interested in the fight against social inequalities. Because the health of others makes him happy, his ambition is to facilitate access to this precious good that is “well-being” for all sexual minorities.
Sandra Nafula (Sandy)
Country: Kenya
Pronoun: She/Her/They/Them
Sandy is currently a Medical Data Officer at Access Afya, Kenya with a solid background in health informatics. She has had vast experience working with PEPFAR funded programs on HIV/AIDS care and prevention interventions in Kenya. She has supported research studies into key populations, facilitated focus group discussions and worked on capacity building through training on reporting practices. With a deep passion in data science, Sandy is keen on supporting inclusive leadership and activism which is backed by hard data coupled with intuition. This, she believes, will give rise to new social practices rooted in technology and data, otherwise named ‘‘Data Activism’.
Emmanuel Asabre
Country: Ghana
Pronoun: He/Him
Emmanuel is a trained basic education teacher. He is a motivational speaker, an event M.C and a writer. He is currently the guidance and counseling officer in the institution where he has been teaching for the past three years. One of his core philosophies in life is doing your best, being your best and being responsible at all times. As a queer man he seeks to achieve justice for LGBT people on all levels championing the cause against injustice, hate crime and segregation against LGBT people living in Africa, and to provide guidance and counseling on Awareness, Acceptance and taking action to help make the right and informed choices in life.
Terrence Moyo
Country: Zimbabwe
Pronoun: He/Him
Terrence Moyo, is a gay man from Zimbabwe with a Bachelor of Pharmacy from Rhodes University, South Africa, A PrEP champion, HIV/AIDS and LGBTI+ advocate. He is an MPact fellow, former EPM from the Sexual Rights Centre in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe. Currently serving as a Key Populations DSD Assistant.
Thangeni Potsane
Country: Namibia
Pronoun: She/Her
Thangeni is a Public Health and Health Promotion – A rights Based Approach Certified Trainer. He is also a very Qualified Facilitator/ Trainer, who possesses a great deal of Knowledge and Skills in the field of Public Health and LGBTIQ+ issues. Most importantly she is very knowledgeable on Topics such as Sexual Reproductive Health Rights & Wellness (SRHR). Thangeni is a self-starter and has been actively involved with Society for Family Health during their recent IBBS Studies.
Thangeni also uses most of her time Educating young girls on the usage of Sanitary Pads and adolescent hygiene.
Rado Nandrasana
Country: Madagascar
Pronoun: He/Him
Rado is a trained business manager and administrator, started his activism work in 2015 as communication and technical support manager of the Solidarité MSM network and The Ezaka Association, He served as peer educator MSM at the NGO PSI Madagascar, Supervisor of MSM peer educators at the Association Aide et Soins aux Malades ASM, responsible for monitoring and evaluation of investigators at Médecin du Monde Madagascar. He is currently the Response Technical officer at NGO network Solidarité LGBT and Web animator for an online page intended for LGT at the OG PSI Madagascar.