[Article to be found in the summer magazine, on stands or by subscription.] In Senegal, the law has criminalized homosexuality since 1966. This has not prevented the emergence of an LGBT community, today a victim of state persecution. In this Francophone West African country, homophobia has become a proud religious and sovereigntist battle against the West.
Photography : Élodie Martial
When Senegal came under French domination in the 19th century, homosexuality was no longer criminalized in France. Private same-sex relations have been decriminalized since the Revolution of 1791, and the Napoleonic Penal Code of 1810 did not reintroduce any anti-homosexual provision. If the colonial administration imposed its moral order, it did not import, like the British Empire, sodomy laws criminalizing same-sex relations. It was only in 1960, six years after the end of colonization, that Senegal settled into state homophobia. Enduringly.
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Sophie Brennan