Matthew Blaise Stars on the Cover of Modaculture’s February Issue

For its February 2023 issue, Modaculture shines the light on activist Matthew Blaise for championing social justice in Nigeria and globally through “Òbòdò Nigeria”, a youth-led organisation that is focused on advancing queer rights and education in Nigeria.

The activist talks about their journey as a global activist, how their activism started, dealing with bullies, learning the act of self defence, the #EndSARS movement, plans with “Òbòdò Nigeria” and lots more.

See excerpts of the interview below:

Coming to the Spotlight During the #EndSARS Movement of 2020 by Championing the #QueerLivesMatter Protest.

“The #EndSARS for me was a very significant moment in my life because it presented a space for me to just voice it all out; years and years of this accumulated pain, anger, and frustration. It just presented me with the space to do it.

“And being a victim of police brutality and the then SARS violence was just really the T in all of this; because my own anger, my own frustration, and everything I had experienced inspired what I did during the #Endsars protest. And also the experiences of other people. So I’ve been in spaces where queer people talk about their own encounters with SARS, and after listening to some of these stories, you just don’t know what to do, you just start crying because of how very traumatic they are.”

Founding “Òbòdò Nigeria” and Plans for the Future

“My plans with Òbòdò is really to focus on queer youths and explore our full potential, especially when it comes to art. So with Òbòdò, we want to create a system where queer artists can lead queer African conversations with their art and the various mediums of their various artistic practices. We also want to open this space to queer scholars from every part of the world who are interested in documenting and archiving queer history.”

Read the full interview here.