Between area boys and the elite: On the necropolitics of queer safety in Lagos, Nigeria

Queer advocacy in Western contexts, such as the UK and Europe, often involves collaborations with the State to secure protection, rights and recognition. However, how does this manifest in a space where the State is actively criminalising queer people? This paper explores the paradoxical dynamics of queer liberation in non-Western spaces, where the state still criminalises queer people, with a focus on Lagos, Nigeria. Through participatory observation and semi-structured interviews, I explore how queer people in Lagos, in their pursuit of and desires for safety and legitimacy, recognise that the state cannot offer these desires, and so, instead, collude with the elite to access these desires. In particular, queer people attempt to separate themselves from the criminality and otherness associated with their identities by reinforcing the criminality and otherness of others perceived as abject, framing them as deserving of punishment and exclusion. This safeguards their position among elite frameworks. This paper critically interrogates these dynamics through queer people’s relationships to area boys, and the spaces they occupy. It explores how necropolitical frameworks shape the experiences of queer people in Lagos, who is afforded safety, visibility, and life, and who is consigned to exclusion and precarity.