Push and pushback: Feminist-queer tensions and African diasporic possibilities in #EndSARS discourse

In October 2020, the #EndSARS uprisings against police brutality shook Nigeria and reverberated globally. As anti-feminist tensions formed within the resistance movement, LGBT Nigerians articulated the feelings of solidarity through #QueerNigerianLivesMatter. Editorialised in independent digital spaces, #QueerNigerianLivesMatter became a discourse which addressed LGBT Nigerian identities through an economy of intensified feeling. This study takes up #QueerNigerianLivesMatter within this contextual field of diasporic digital space, closely reading eight textual artifacts from three Nigerian digital magazines focused on LGBT visibility: The Rustin Times, Minority Africa, and Kito Diaries. The #QueerNigerianLivesMatter discourse collated by these publications featured a digital witnessing of embodiment, intensified boundaries and bonds of identity, and historic desire for the African diaspora beyond the continent.