A journey worth taking: language and migration narratives in Nigerian queer X (Twitter) discourse

The demonstrative endangerment scenario of queerphobia manifests in diverse nuanced ways in Nigeria, culminating in closeting, restricted livability and, in the case of the focus of the present study, migration to queer-enabling spaces. Interests in queer-migratory trends continue to swell in existing literature, foregrounding the critical role mobilities play in queer identities, especially when situated post-2014, after the Same-Sex Marriage Prohibition Act. In this study, I interrogate digital narratives from Nigerian Twitter with focus placed on the role of language in establishing identity and ideological constructs within the context of queer migration. Two main dichotomies are established – individualized/personalized narratives and group/communal narratives. Individualized narratives provide positionality by locating the individual within the multidimensional challenges to queer livability. The group narratives, however, draw attention to institutional and governmental complicities in the structures that continue to inhibit queerness. A major identification is that the restrictions to queer livability exist in both Nigeria and in perceived queer-enabling spaces, although their manifestations differ.