“If being homosexual was not a crime in Africa, we would not be in Spain”

Author and photographer: Sou Harris

At the age of 10, Ali Useni, who prefers to be called Alex, was forced out of school so as not to “infect” his classmates. He had told his aunt, who he lived with after his mother passed, that when he grew up, he would like to marry a man. This confession would be the beginning of years of physical and psychological abuse that pushed him to embark on a dangerous journey from Cameroon, across North Africa and the Mediterranean, until arriving in Spain in search of safety.

Cameroon is one of 64 countries that, according to the International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Association (ILGA), criminalises homosexuality – almost half of these countries are in Africa. Prison sentences can vary between six months and five years for those who have consensual sexual relations with another person of the same sex.

While Sudan repealed the death penalty for consensual same-sex sexual acts in 2020, there are countries where existing laws outlawing homosexuality have been tightened, including Nigeria and Uganda. Uganda’s parliament recently passed a law to crack down on homosexual activities, prompting widespread condemnation.

In February last year, Kenya’s highest court ruled that it was wrong for authorities to ban the gay community from registering a rights organisation but stressed that gay sex remains illegal. Only 33 countries in the world recognise same-sex marriages, and 34 others provide for some partnership recognition for same-sex couples, according to ILGA.

The association also says the death penalty is the legally prescribed punishment for same-sex sexual acts in Brunei, Iran, Mauritania, Saudi Arabia, Yemen and in some northern states of Nigeria. In five countries – Afghanistan, Pakistan, Qatar, Somalia, and the United Arab Emirates – there is no legal clarity, and the death penalty could be applied. But sentences do not come exclusively from the law.

The first punishment Alex suffered was being denied the right to education. “I was a child. They took me out of school because they said I might ‘infect’ others as though [being gay] was a disease from the devil that was in me.” Alex had been living with his aunt since his mother died. One day, she asked him about girls; he replied and said that he preferred boys.

“My aunt would tell me off, hit me, insult me, cut me…”. I lost her trust, and my own,” says Alex. “She took me out of school and made me sell juice on the street.”

Alex ran away from home at the age of 13 to escape the physical and psychological abuse he was subjected to by his aunt. He travelled to Douala, Cameroon’s most populous city and the country’s economic centre, where he lived in an abandoned house and had to beg on the streets to survive. He eventually found work in a restaurant, but it only lasted two months. However, it was at the restaurant where Alex met a boy who offered to let him live with him. “He was my great love,” says Alex, and they began saving up for a trip.

Alex and his partner decided to embark on a journey to Europe to live their love in freedom. Their goal was to reach France, where his boyfriend had some family. However, Alex was having some doubts. “My mother appeared to me in a dream. She told me to stay, that the sea was dangerous, so I told my boyfriend.” Without knowing, his boyfriend tried to cross the Strait on his own. “After two weeks without hearing any news, I found out that he’d died on the journey,” said Alex, who did make it.

At 17, he arrived in Spain with a book of the Koran – his only possession. “My faith is the only thing that has kept me going,” he says. Alex asked for asylum and spent some time in a juvenile centre in Almería. The first words he learned in Spanish, he remembers, were ‘negro’ and ‘maric*n.’ Later, he arrived in Madrid with the support of the NGO Rescate, an association active since 1960 dedicated to helping LGBTQ+ refugees.

Now 21, Alex, lives in Madrid, where he works as an actor and is starring in the film El Salto (Jumping the fence), which premiered earlier this year. However, this story is not one Alex feels should have been his.

“It is important to understand that, if being homosexual was not a crime in Africa, we would not be in Spain,” says Alex.

Sou Harris is a Saharawi photojournalist based in Madrid. Follow her on IG at @sou_harris.