Using indigenous storytelling and African commission soft law in Nigerian law classrooms to advance queer rights

Abstract

Storytelling has been, and is being used globally as a tool to advance the queer rights cause through diverse media and on various platforms. The rise in queer representation in stories, and shift from negative to more dignifying portrayals have also played roles in the advancement of queer rights globally. Storytelling existing solely within the disciplinary focus of literary, academic or media production serves its disciplinary focus to create, contribute to, change and shift dominant frameworks of knowledge within the academic or socio-cultural context. However, through a transdisciplinary lens and for the purpose of advancing human rights, generally, and queer rights in particular, our expectations of stories may be extended to serve more functions when used jointly with international human rights soft law.

Nigeria is faced with dire queer rights conditions. The hostile queer rights situation in Nigeria exists within the context of several international human rights treaties and other legal instruments that proscribe discrimination and violence on the grounds of actual or perceived sexual orientation, gender identity and expression. One of these instruments is Resolution 275 on the protection against violence and other human rights violation against persons on the basis of their real or imputed sexual orientation or gender identity (Resolution 275), adopted by the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights (African Commission). Being a soft law instrument, Resolution 275 lends itself to be used not only as a persuasive tool for the protection of queer persons on the African continent, but also as an instructive interpretation of the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights (African Charter) in respect of the dignity and eradication of violence towards queer person. Yet, like many other soft law instruments, Resolution 275 lies mostly silent, with its potential largely untapped.

There are queer rights advocacy organisations in Nigeria that carry out commendable work to advance the human rights of queer persons using the tenets of various disciplines including legal advocacy and policy advancements. The Nigerian government has repeatedly demonstrated its hostility towards queer persons and queer rights. However, studies have shown that Nigerian university classrooms afford opportunities for queer-inclusive conversations. It is important, while thinking of state obligations, to conceptualise queer rights advocacy in terms of pedagogies as well.

Written from a practise-based transdisciplinary perspective, this thesis explores the legitimacy of an indigenous storytelling pedagogy, constructed in the course of this study, as tool for the advancement of non-violent attitudes towards queer persons while jointly promoting of Resolution 275. This transdisciplinary intervention involves a legal analysis of the history and state of queer rights in Nigeria, the legal and pedagogical potential of Resolution 275; the construction of an indigenous storytelling pedagogy; an analysis of the technical and theoretical configurations of this study’s indigenous storytelling pedagogy; and the analysis of the reception of the storytelling pedagogy across three Nigerian universities.