Rotimi Fani-Kayode’s Transsexual African Priests

Nigerian-born photographer Rotimi Fani-Kayode was a groundbreaking figure of the 1980s whose work is permanently exhibited at museums in London, New York, Helsinki and Sydney. It has, however, taken 25 years for the first gallery in Africa to showcase his thought-provoking work and, sadly, Fani-Kayode — who died in 1989 at the age of 34 — will not be able to witness the reaction. Although he predicted that if he managed to get an exhibition in a place like Lagos riots would break out, he did wish for his work to reach the African people. Shortly before he died he wrote:

Sometimes I think that if I took my work into the rural areas, where life is still vigorously in touch with itself and its roots, the reception might be more constructive. Perhaps they would recognise my smallpox Gods, my transsexual priests, my images of desirable black men in a state of sexual frenzy, or the tranquility of communion with the spirit world. Perhaps they have far less fear of encountering the darkest of Africa’s dark secrets by which some of us seek to gain access to the soul.

Inspired by the Yoruba priests’ ‘technique of ecstasy’, a collection of his spiritual-symbolism charged images — which he said he made ‘homosexual on purpose’ — will be exhibited as Traces of Ecstasy at Iziko South African National Gallery until 15 May 2014. For more on onesmallseed.com on a related topic, click here for our article on the most influential LGBT people in pop culture.

Image: stevenson.info

I make my pictures homosexual on purpose. Black men from the Third World have not previously revealed either to their own peoples or to the West a certain shocking fact: they can desire each other … But in spite of all attempts by church and state to suppress homosexuality, it is clear that enriching sexual relationships between members of the same sex have always existed. They are part of the human condition, even if the concept of sexual identity is more of a recent notion. – Rotimi Fani-Kayode