Exploring African and Diasporic Queer Archiving

Join us online for a special event as part of our LGBT+ History Month programme with The Africa Centre. Please note this event is for Black LGBTQ+ people.

An online event and discussion highlighting queer African archives and heritage projects led by practitioners who research and document LGBTQ+ histories on the continent.

Speakers include Awo Dufie and the archives Arquivo de Identidade Angolana and Kyky Archives.

About the speakers

Awo is a decolonial and interdisciplinary curator and scholartivist. Through a decolonial lens, her work seeks to:

• Research, curate, and document the history of queer (nonheteronormative) people in Africa

• Document the present experiences and lives of queer (nonheteronormative) Africans
• Reimagine an equal society and future for gender-diverse, queer, and non-heteronormative Africans.

Arquivo de Identitade Angolano is an Association of feminist LBTIQ+ women (Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender, Intersex and Queer), created in 2017, in order to celebrate the multiple identities of Angolan women.

They are socially known as the Angolan Identity Archive and obtained their legal registration in 2021.

Their mission is to promote public dialogue about sexual identity, sexuality, and sexual orientation, as well as to raise awareness of the rights and legal protections of LBTIQ+ women in Angola.

Líria de Castro is the Director of the Angolan Identity Archive (AIA). Líria is a social activist, feminist, Middle Business Management Technician, International Relations Analyst and former ambassador of the African Youth Charter 2020-2023.

KyKy Archives is a digital archive and educational resource for lesbian, queer, gender non conforming, and trans people of the African Diaspora. They collect, document, and preserve historical records of the Black Lesbian, Queer, Gender non-conforming, and trans community.

Their aim is to create accessible tools for education to enable and empower our communities to invest into the histories that have brought us to our current moment.

Siddisse (she/they) is a first-generation Oromo Ethiopian- American creative researcher, visual designer, writer, and archivist born and raised in the D.C. metro area, currently based in Philadelphia.

She is a graduate of the Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies program at the University of Maryland, College Park with an emphasis in Black queer studies.

Their work is focused on creating a vast web of interconnection between and within the stories of Black people globally, and their multiple expressions of gender and sexuality through storytelling, artistic practice, and creative preservation methods.

They love cooking, karaoke, live music, 2010s Tumblr nostalgia, their partner and chosen family, and communing with spirit.

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