Having had enough of being stereotyped and not having their voices heard, four friends, Kevin Kwame, Damilola Adejonwo, Junior Joye and Tochi Nwozuzu, took to Youtube to share the experiences and struggles they face as Black gay men living in London.
They say, stereotypes of gay men representing them only as “camp” and “feminine” and lack of prominent, black gay role models in British media are few of the ways mainstream media inaccurately portrays their lives. Nwozuzu said the poor portrayal of gay men has affected his personal life.
Adejonwo reflected on his experience of coming out to his Nigerian family. “I knew the consequences,” he said, adding that he has had a “bad relationship” with them since he came out, but hopes it will gets better with time.
He blames the reaction on what he called a common assumption among some African communities that homosexuality is a white, Western phenomenon. Nwozuzu said he also faced problems when he came out as a gay Nigerian. He was threatened by a relative, he said, and many of his bad experiences “surprisingly came from my family”.
The four friends decided enough is enough, that they need to take matters into their own hands. Setting up a YouTube channel, they shot their first video on February 9th, titled “Gay Issues in London” and it became so popular that they turned it into a series.
They didn’t expect their videos to go viral, but the video series gained thousands of views and positive feedback that it turned the four friends into YouTube stars…. God works in mysterious ways….
