Items by Mia Nikasimo

Black Looks

• The Oh My God farce!

  Posted: February 4, 2012, 4:36 am by Mia Nikasimo

  The house in the middle of our street is open again… Why are the windows so wide open? Been round back? Why? What’s happened round back? Tell what, Gems? We were hanging out on our veranda trying to see trying What were you trying to see? Happened round back? What? What happened? Laughter, suspense, alright! [...]

• Nothing

  Posted: December 3, 2011, 5:16 pm by Mia Nikasimo

  Nothing happens for nothing happens for nothing happens Nothing happens for nothing happens for nothing happens The call came. My phone registered the dread again & again The dread again and nothing happens for nothing happens. My heart lodged in my searching. What to say now, what? ” You called me a murderer, you called [...]

• Nature aint rigid

  Posted: November 8, 2011, 4:36 pm by Mia Nikasimo

  
  
  

  Spanning the world
  From Africa to Asia;
  From Europe to utopit
  Anywhere you go
  In gender identity
  There are no absolutes
  In gender identity
  There are only relatives
  Forcing absolutes
  Upsets the balance
  Of nature – relativity
  Brings equilibrium

  this is…

  Its natural from birth i was told
  Botherwise; only aged three or four

  Frontier identity gender the is this -
  One are genderqueer + transgender
  You be to fought be to have wars if
  Knot a to up adds this all

  I was a man
  I am now a woman
  I was a woman
  I am now a man
  I was seen as both
  I am neither…
  You are a man, a mob says
  You are a woman, a mob says
  I am a woman, i insist
  I am not a man but some insist
  Now both I am
  Now neither am i
  I am everybody
  I am not everybody
  I stand at the cusp
  Of both and neither
  And so when you
  Say you know all
  All you know is
  Y o u r s e l v e s

  Y o u r s e l v e s
  Is know you all
  Know you say you when
  So and neither and both of
  Cusp the at i
  Everybody not am i
  Everybody am i
  Neither am i
  Now both am i
  Man a not am i
  Woman a am i
  Neither am i
  Both now am i
  Woman a am i
  Man a not am i

  Four or three aged only
  Botherwise; told was i
  Birth from natural its

  So you told me?
  Man a not am i
  Woman a are you
  Woman a not am i
  Man a are you
  Woman a am i
  Man a are you
  Woman a am i

  Equilibrum brings
  Relativity -nature of
  Balance the upsets
  Absolutes forcing
  Relatives only are there
  Identity gender in
  Absolutes no are there
  Identity gender in
  Go you anywhere
  (?) Utopia to Europe from
  Asia to Africa from
  all this adds up to a
  Knot if wars have to
  Be fought to be you
  Transgender + genderqueer
  Are one – this is the gender
  Identity frontier

  Is this

  Cos

  Nature aint rigid

  Mia Nikasimo (c) October 2011

• Mam?

  Posted: October 30, 2011, 2:47 pm by Mia Nikasimo

  
  
  

  “racism, classism, transphobia, homophobia and the internalised dimensions which perpetuates the “order of things”"

  Either someone is feeding Dwayne Ameboman
  Information or he hadn’t gone out all day today?

  “Isn’t it my right to choose?” said Tanya Sea Warrior.
  Defiantly she continued, “it is, isn’t it my right to
  Choosing whether service providers called me “mam”
  Or not. Saying, “please, do not call me mam,” was
  For Tanya, a right to be her own person; no one’s pet.
  Whether Dwayne and co bought it was their business
  Tanya Sea Warrior had reason for her assertive, DON’T!
  She had heard, “mam” and “man” intertwined in jest.
  She wasn’t laughing. Watch Dwayne & co amuse was…
  Objection to being called mam was out, permanently
  Objection to being mammed was a transfeminist stance.
  A glow came over Tanya Sea Warrior smiling to herself.

  Mia Nikasimo (c) October 2011

• Isolation

  Posted: October 19, 2011, 2:46 pm by Mia Nikasimo

  
  
  

  As in isolation, imprisonment by proxy, intimidation,
  Harassment, daily chatter about how much tax is
  Siphooned off, sitting around, lazing around, aground
  As on run aground off the back of a Tsunami, living in;

  Isolated then, living in, working out my next move, work?
  Writing is work. Overtaken by cissexual animosities voiced
  Rolled out when I’m in the bath, while seated on a sweeky
  Settee sweeking every time I shift announcing me: “in!”

  As in isolation, that self-preserving stay in, engineered living
  In order to stay alive, my visibility or the knowledge of me
  Was enough to start a communal war of attrition, ongoing.
  Cowardice augurs them on, courageous voicings and a lack.

  Slack, limited reach is not, can never be a standard space
  Truth is relative, never, never absolute since humanoid
  In the virtuality of its projections cannot fix diversity in
  It’s own image, the absolute, if it exists, is beyond, beyond;

  Isolation as in staying in, living in, imprisoned for survival.
  Transsexual, genderqueer, lesbian just me, condemned,
  Condemned to listening to people’s fears of the unknown:
  “It works,” shouts an in-person (male), “didn’t you hear her?”

  What’s not to live in for, to cause isolation but this blow:
  Mothers pushing their children forward say it now: “man!”
  Said a confused child pointing at obvious men. “Not them!”
  Said the mother, aiming, aiming, aiming, “now!” “Ban!”

  Too late but it didn’t stop the jolting feeling as the door closed
  How do you talk to an Asiatic woman teaching hatred
  Behind the guise of teaching her, teaching kids so narrowly
  We wonder how neighbourhoods spawn bombers were born?

  Do I call the police? Do I stare into the shy wondering sky?
  This is a taint of migration left out of proper media speak.
  Left out even by tight lipped politicians eager to be in step.
  Left out even by police: “keep a diary, keep a diary,” laughing.

  As in isolation. Don’t ask. You played your part, pandering
  To the democratic whim in the name of “freedom of speech”
  “Old woman, you talk too much. List-ten to me first, list-ten”.
  Deepening my pain, intimidating, imprisoning, belittling, see?

  Mia Nikasimo (c) October 2011

• Sane Sex Mentality [4] – a response to the Nigerian SGMB 2011

  Posted: October 11, 2011, 5:02 pm by Mia Nikasimo

  
  
  

  This is the last in the series of poems in response to the Nigeria Same Gender Marriage Bill 2011

  Putting food on the table was his role now it’s anyone’s
  Sane sex mentality; lure me close with seductive smile
  Sane sex mentality; watch me as I smile back, friendly

  A feral pack explodes again loud of voice and laughter
  Sane sex mentality; the streets and alleyways battle thru
  Sane sex mentality; “you are not a woman” walking by

  The prey rabbits scared silly wondering how far safety?
  Sane sex mentality; sharpened beastliness runs riot, hiss!
  Sane sex mentality; chatterers loose proportionality too

  The critter the from on high leaps it will an arm break
  Sane sex mentality; social construction gone mad
  Sane sex mentality; a leg will break too diversity lost

  Wonderments persist. Can we stand posted, Lion of Africa?
  Sane sex mentality; insane daily stalkers, lynchers, abusers
  Sane sex mentality; in beer parlours on every street corner

  Broken by imported moral tissue fervently against us
  Sane sex mentality; hyper congregation junkies, crazy
  Sane sex mentality; empowered idlers, alarmists touts

  Against our spiritual well being imprisoning us in its own
  Sane sex mentality; thieving rascals draft injustices
  Sane sex mentality; you’d no intention of being friends

  We no more know the landedness of nature, of bodies,
  Of fluids not to speak of the phenomenology of orificial .
  All cleansed away in alien concortions from unknown lands.

  Adalapa =breakanarm but the pieces are nowhere in site
  Stowed away in cavities long buried by fathoms upon fathoms
  Of disrememberment, fathoms of miscognisance until no more.

  So planting Adam and Eve and Eden, and the gate, and the fall
  And then theperpetuity of original sin to keep us from asking:
  “What happened to our sexual & gender identity pre-Yourstory?”

  Now when they no longer pursue us our own brothers & sisters
  Have taken up your pseudo magical languge of erasure to us.
  “Let them take themselves out to our sane sex mentality or die!”

  But how can we submit to fathoms of pathologisation for you?
  How can we lay down and die so you may sleep easy at night?
  How can we say greatest of Africa when we are so denied?

  For this, I became a bullfrog myself, in order to learn I had to.
  Ajantala -mad bullfrog, body of bodies least mentioned
  I sprang the globe looking at gender identity. A populace

  Of antiquated skeletons of long burned “witched and wizards.”
  Sane sex mentality; even the morning run lost its way
  Sane sex mentality; but not us alone oppression impacts us all

  Mia Nikasimo (c) October 2011

• Sane Sex Mentality [3]

  Posted: October 5, 2011, 3:50 pm by Mia Nikasimo

  
  
  

  A bill built on spurious lies cosied up to the old world order
  Funny that, bearing in mind the fact that, this is a hold up
  Laughter always fails me just about now: 2011, stitched up

  This is what persecution felt like for a cornered atypical gal
  This could small town anywhere but it isn’t; shame of shame
  It is Nigeria. We still hail thee even to our cost at times

  The “who am I to talk?” of self-denigration is not entertained.
  With snap voice taking potshots in the dark is it any wonder?
  The hate merchants have gained free reign; all streetlights off

  Don’t venture insane voices when you are out and about
  Don’t propagate your ill concealed secret in “decent” parts
  Don’t expose our children to un-african, insane taste, don’t

  Even your body language is loud and clear for all who care
  In my wake you laugh ridiculing laughter daring my reply
  When I don’t answer you bash my head in with shopping

  The police are hard at work celebrating the dumb bill
  The arrest me on your say so and beat the shit out of me
  Their explanation: “we couldn’t explain it. What is it?”

  They claimed, “your lot is at fault for remaking yourselves!”
  They put me on trial on the streets. Harmattan notoriety
  They laughed at my swollen lips, “you did that to yourself!”

  Negotiating ways to love in dark times is rife with burden
  Whether I speak or not my body speaks via its very visibility
  51 years on repressively with all the same double standards

  Is it a surprise? Hardly. Graduate running around on empty
  Seeking out the saviour in every nook and cranny against
  The heavy hand of proliferating juju and unprovoked curses

  These are but only a few of the debris of sane sex mentality
  Nigeria we love thee, our disowning native land exiled
  As we are by state sponsored hatred enshrined. Until free

  Mia Nikasimo (c) October 2011

• Sane Sex Mentality [2]

  Posted: October 4, 2011, 4:21 pm by Mia Nikasimo

  
  
  

   

  If hell didn’t exist how could  heaven? Think awhile?

  Show us what goes on between your legs, you freak?

  What is it to you what abides between my legs?

  Now I get it. I understand the fear that sacks you  so.

  “Come to church with me,” you said offering redemption

  As if it were yours to give? As if it were a lifetime freedom?

  Then  as I took momentary contemplature, realisation

  Sprang  on me like a feral feline on the prowl, claws out,

  Ready, steady while I gyrated along unknowingly.

  “] know what I want and that’s that!” you said in sane

  Sex finality like something out of the middle ages, growling.

  Your claws sank in deep. Everything went dark & knot.

  In a thrice you put legislation through; no consultation.

  Not short of misrepresentation you went to work.

  My sisters, my brothers and the rest of us still pay the price.

  That makes believers uncertain. Their fears spiral out,

  Uncontrolable, faster that the blink of an eye, even faster.

  Outrage on the scale of Malawians panto-ing 2 gay accused,

  Outrage on the scale of Nigerians ridiculing all people lgbtiq,

  Outrage on the scale of mime – ing Ghanaians pointing us out,

  Outrage, outrage on the scale of warmongers globally not

  To mention even in his wake, Adolph Hitler; as frenzied

  Did it in one swift. movement,  see? That’s how to deal

  With vermin. Whom are you calling a vermim? Whom?

  Let me try & illustrate how this is  so. Watch the sulk’s

  Face go into a paroxym of negative emotions, they say:

  “I’m not an alien I’m just attracted same sex not sane sex.

  I’m so aware of the perpetual proliferation of sexed sanity

  I’m a human being not set apart like a super being or a deity,

  I won’t sulk with you. All I’ll do is educate through visibility.

  Sulking behind the guise of “righteousness” shows you up.

  Stop pathologising me my sexuality and/or gender identity.

  Sexual attraction irrespective of taste is the personal itch.

  Gender identity relative to individuals is the personal switch.

  For you, all I will say is this: “get hold of yourself!

  The world is resourceful enough for you & me.”

   

   

   

   

  Mia Nikasimo (c) October 2011

   

   

• Sane Sex Mentality [1]

  Posted: October 3, 2011, 2:03 pm by Mia Nikasimo

  
  
  

  They started through age old channels of curiosity:

  Obo x oko is said to be equal to ido of pseudo maths.

  How are babies made, mummy? Daddy? Please, tell?

  Who is Adam? Who is Eve and who the absent Lilith?

  Please, please strike the bit from “and” to “Lilith” thru.

  “Put daddy’s bit into mummy’s bit & this equals babies,

  And the rest is an injection of socialised imposition.”

   

  Then they pitted their privilege against the call:

  Culture became the realm of men going out to do.

  Nature, the realm of women in the homestead

  And then the progresses, feminism, the future &

  Much, much more to come: equality of All woman.

  We mean more than the capitalist cosy tag, “help”.

  We are also evolution, progression and proactivity.

   

  They celebrated cis-dome in the face of growing privilege:

  We will use the bible to our ends no primitive counsel be,

  Safe homes, safe jobs, safe gnomes, safe hubs; safe, safe.

  Let them deal with the fallout of our glittering gains.

  Power is ours. We call the shots. We appall their scowls.

  Let no one refer to us as being profoundly paranoid.

  Someone’s got to watch out for our future, our traditions.

   

   

  They started their iconoclastic mantras against the rest of us:

  Same sex? No, sane sex, sane sex for all can be legislated

  At the polling stations remind yourselves, “Sane Sex!”

  You hear of it everywhere these days even Nollywood

  Go see: “Dirty Secret” or “Men In Love,” any lesbian flicks?

  There, “healthy” moral packagings to make our lot “right”.

   

   

  Mia Nikasimo (c) October 2011.

   

• In Disturbia

  Posted: September 28, 2011, 1:14 pm by Mia Nikasimo

  
  
  

  I’ve got to break my mind in like a horse in disturbia.
  Crazy as a hatter. What’s not to be crazy about…
  Even children are given free reign to be indifferent
  Poor things snagged up in viral hand me downs.
  Philip Larkin thought so, “parents, they fuck you up…”
  What do you think of it children? Anything? Anything?
  In disturbia stuff happens. So said Rihanna when in
  Disturbia she showed ways in dingy cellars of bodies.
  I still wonder why you hate Rihanna? Why do you?
  (No, I’m not saying Rihanna is transsexual, she isn’t.)
  I still wonder why you hate transsexuals as you do though,
  I still wonder why voices from outside these four walls
  bring your malicious excesses uninvited but stangely amused,
  I’m still wondering in disturbia where everyone partakes; nobody knows with a dead body dismembered on their doorsteps in rigor mortis where the errant body came from. “It was just, there!”
  I still wonder why you hit me that first day, the second day and then hit me again for staying over.
  In disturbia alkies take part too thinking they matter.
  
  The pest pestering me took his lead yonder where
  Two girls chatter in incessant: “he is, she isn’t” cadences.
  Then came your opportunity: “You are a man, you are a man, you’ve got a dick, you are a man,” he pestered on and on. My attempts to foreclose fell short. He carried on. I got my phone out; dialed 9, 9, 9.
  “So you are calling the police? I’m Anglo Nigerian, living in Jandon.
  I will not spend a moment in custody, can’t one make a mistake?
  You’ve got a dick, you are a man,” said the alkie mega loud.
  “No, I’m not, I’m a woman. No, I don’t & if I did what is it to you?”
  I said still in a state of shock! Tears, tears flow as I breakdown!
  “You’re insane,” was all I could manage before flight.
  “All Nigerians are crazy,” he shouted in my wake.
  The two black girls silenced into cathartic embrace
  As they took stock of what they’ve done, cowering.
  In disturbia I hate that I love you so knowing you
  Admitted you all out hated women like me.
  Only in disturbia can you be asked by a girlfriend:
  “why don’t you get it on with a guy?” she said. “They
  All want you. Everytime we’re out their eyes lock on
  You like you are the precious cargo they’re awaiting.
  The banked up tears began to flow freely.
  I, a lesbian, traumatised by her words; end depressed.
  In disturbia even no response is a response. “Oh he’s
  Sulking!” chipped in a couple as they pass by. What
  Do you say to that on a head filled to bursting?
  That is an uneasy laughing shop of jeers & pokes.
  In disturbia it is assumed my body isn’t mine. I
  Reclaim it mine, my only vessel to the island, “me!”
  I will my own way carve out; mapped for the tour of duty.
  Step away from the gap, step away from the gap, step away.
  Even in disturbia we exist our gender identities:
  Transgender, intersexes, transsexuals, transgenderists, trans everything, we’re all in disturbia loving only as we can in a hateful world.
  We are the tabula rasa of our species, clean slates.
  We can be anything in a quilted bag of identuties even queer is a cauldron called genderqueer & more.
  We are called lazy, we are called crazy in disturbia.
  Working the clubs of Stonewall old and new,
  Working in the forces: army, navy, airforce & police;
  Working the inland revenue for all we can,
  Working pen on paper telling difficult stories,
  Working, working every walk of life; we do our bit.
  Like everyone else before you off in broad daylight.
  There are “decent” folk in disturbia only we get crap
  But somehow we are the only ones still smiling, in
  Disturbia’s disturbing disorder with our scorching tears.

  Mia Nikasimo (c) September 2011

• Fear: An Avalanche of the Frantic

  Posted: September 19, 2011, 1:39 am by Mia Nikasimo

  
  
  

  An avalanche of frantic
  Fear besets the mind &
  The animal called Everyone thinks it has
  Found shared knowledge.
  “Everyone knows,” they
  Said & nobody asked me;
  Robbed of reason they
  To ancient beast of fear
  & Act the part to a tee.
  Fear is God, fear is grim,
  Fear is knowledge, fear!
  The root of all evil is the
  Point where fear robs us
  Of reason, of humanity.
  Nobody cares to uncover
  The disorder of daily life
  Instead they call it “Order” to get by. All
  They need is the petulant
  Voice & they run away all
  Knowing; knowing knot!
  Why? They feel a
  Preponderance of the
  Unknown, they feel the
  Sheer smallness of their
  Place in the universes, They feel a Preponderance of frantic Fear altogether at once &
  Think: Does that mean I’m a lesbian? Does it Mean I’m gay? Does it Mean I’m straight? Damn
  You for making me think
  Hand in hand with you lot Fear follows questioning Silence. Fear becomes God over night, oh my God
  Nothing said About, ‘thou shall not use God’s name in vain’. When
  Fear becomes God every
  Thing is in vain…

  Mia Nikasimo (c)

• On Unpacking the LGBTI Communities: “I matter because I say I do and that all there is to it.”

  Posted: September 8, 2011, 5:28 pm by Mia Nikasimo

  
  
  

  This essay is a response to “Unpacking the LGBTI Communities,” by Audrey Mbugua. I do not know the author of this article personally but I am enamoured by her eloquence with the regards to the positioning of the “tagging” of the “T” onto the LGB. However I do not agree with the exclusions hazarded in the writer’s attempts to unpack the LGBTI community. Sure, according to the author, “[t]he issues concerning LGB people stem from sexual orientation, whereas those of transgender people stem from their gender.^” I almost said as in gender role but no. For me, matters are more personal and so is my gender identity.   I say who I am.  No  matter what the wider communities positions are. I matter because I say I do as an African (Black) transsexual woman (gender identity) who identifies as a lesbian (sexual orientation) and that all there is to it.

  In her article, “unpacking the LGBTI Communities” the writer’s heterosexuality is instantly apparent from the tone of this article but that does not excuse her cavalier attitude towards those transwomen who exercise their choice to be different from the hetero-normative dictat.   Unpacking the LGBTI without considering the fact that some transpeople  do identify as L, G, or B,  is an act of exclusion and the reasoning behind this statement will become apparent in due course. 

  Before we bother ourselves with the confliction of whether we (i.e. the “T“) are lumped together with the LGB or not, we ought to take a mirror, catch our own reflections and ask ourselves: “‘Mirror, mirror, who is the fairest of us all?’ To which our individual response ought to be, ‘Mirror, mirror on the wall; I am the dearest of them all. ’”   A self-referential sense, rather than relegating ourselves as slaves to society’s impositions upon the transgender community by generations of “compulsory heterosexualism” and again within the as in traditional LGB before us.  Perhaps, defining our collective selves as a community and doing so carefully so as to acknowledge the differences at the heart of the transgender communities as opposed to denying its diversity for whatever reason.

  I am aware of the local of the author -Kenya- and that she herself faces a separatist throng within the LGB not to mention the wider community that side steps issues affecting transgender people. I, on the other hand live in London, and trust me when I say that, living in the capital of the United Kingdom is no escape from LGB/heterosexual transphobia be it subtle or otherwise. I am also of the African Diaspora and I have experienced some of the worst instances of discrimination from Africans as well as from Europeans, Americans and Asians of all generations for reasons of my gender identity, my gender expression and my sexuality.
  
  We have to deal with all those transitional issues as the writer catalogues.  We also have lives beyond all those socio-economic determinants and the “go under the scalpel or not” that, the writer claims, members of the traditional LGB do not partake of by choice. This comes as a surprise bearing in mind that drag kings like Ru Paul, Denis Rodman to mention two, became world famous entertainers? Not to mention the throng of straight men that experiment with their gender expression in daily or nightly performance. I am saddened that the only example of a transperson in this article beside the writer seemed to think that distancing herself is sufficient excuse to say the following:

  I am transsexual woman who neither seeks anything from, or gives anything to, the LGB community. As far as I’m concerned, if every LGB vanished from the face of the earth tomorrow, if wouldn’t affect my Transsexualism one iota… I have nothing against LGB people, but their condition has nothing to do with my condition. Frankly, I don’t care what any of these “communities” do. As far as I’m concerned, they’d be better off looking at my example for guidance and support, than I would be looking at theirs. How are communities full of people like this going to benefit me?

  As if the LGB clamour means that the trans “LGB” ought to pretend not to exist. These issues are not up to them nor are they up to the author of this article. One thing I want to get out there if anything is that the traditional LGB possessive defence of the sexuality landscape is redolent with paranoia  that needs to respectfully ask when they do not understand the phenomenology of transsexuality or transgenderism. Striking self-righteous poses without understanding the trans community is as ignorant as a straight mob denying the existential integrity of traditional LGB where even bisexuals can sometimes find themselves grotesquely marginalized within the community.

  I acknowledge the writer of “Unpacking the LGBTI Communities” is Africa-specific. I lend voice to that argument in the sense that I am African too. I certainly don’t have to live my life based on what society, community, neighbour-hood commands members to do, irrespective of which of the many communities I belong to. Why not? I am an individual with a unique ability to make my own choices without having to be force fed by anyone. When a gay man once asked me: “did it hurt?”  I could have been rude but due to passing of time and experience I am beyond being defensive about gender specific curiosities. I faced him calmly in a level headed manner and responded, “No, it didn’t hurt!” He looked puzzled since for him, his penis was his very existence. I had to make him realise that my transition wasn’t just about what genitalia I had but me -my whole person. From the moment I decided to, “go the distance,” pardon the sports-speak it was no longer about personalised pain. As human beings, we give our “pain bodies” too much importance. I can hear that in the “straight transgender-ist” tone of “Unpacking the LGBTI Communities” which itself excludes my trans-difference, threatening to set me of in primordial fear, anger. My right to choose foreclosed in an instance by a presumption concerning how I lead this life of mine. I can also hear my own pain-body but at least I realise it. Not everyone would have the courage to do so with such ill-placed positioning as the writer of “unpacking…” postulates.

  It was about arriving and that arrival wasn’t subject to what my gender expression MUST BE! Apart from the initial “real life test” in which I was required to wear woman’s clothes my choice was for Tran feminism. I chose my position, space and appearances free of “absolutes” and that remains the same as a transsexual homosexual woman. So as transgender people, or transsexuals to be precise, according to the writer, we seem incapable of reason; we are also robbed of our right to make our own choices. She makes the following claim:

  What at times unnerves me is the ridiculous notion that transgender persons are pushing themselves to the homosexual crowd. It needs to be said transgender people are not to blame. It’s the way some gays (especially effeminate gays and butch lesbians) behave that created this problem to begin with… cross-dressing in parties and pride and having boob jobs to get into the she-male porn industry – it was assumed that gay men want to be women and lesbians want to be men. You made transsexuals look like a big joke and as people who capriciously break gender norms for the sake of it.

  This borders on hate speech and I’m saying this as one African transsexual woman to another. It comes across as homophobic and, in trying to defend homosexual transpeople belittles us. Our ability to fight our own fights, make decisions on how we choose to identify, making the assumption that we copy our gay sisters and brothers and in doing so ends up insulting us because of our life choices. That is coming from a transwoman is internalised transphobia. A greater understanding of the issues facing transgender people and how to access transgender resources globally is urgently needed rather than erroneous generalisations that more than likely would lead to confusion. Only last month, I received a hateful comment from a reader who was having difficulties negotiating the difference between transsexuality and transgenderism. The said readers comment went as follows:

  Please do not use TS and TG interchangeably. TSs are mainstream women born with the wrong body and fix it. TGs are men who choose to pretend to be women and love keeping their precious penis for life. TS is a birth defect while TGs are men who lie and pretend to be women and commit sick acts with their penis. Lumping TSs in with TGs is like lumping someone taking pain pills after surgery to a drug addict. TS is a birth defect and a type of mainstream woman, TG is a choice and a type of queer. ALL non-ops MtF TGs are men and NEED to be called male pronouns no matter how much they protest. To call a man who keeps HIS penis for life a she and her is immoral and wrong. ALL TSs need the surgery, while ALL TG men pretending to be women want their penises played with.”

  Did the “TS” in the story have surgery or was in need of it, or were they a TG man living a charade as a woman? If it was a TS, then the gay man was a bigot. If it was a TG, then the gay man did correct in warning the woman about the man pretending to be a woman and was supposed to keep his penis. Of course, any true-TS woman would have punched the f*g, and this person’s “overlooking” is a type of effeminacy – a male homosexual response. A female would have raised hell. But the “TS” must have enjoyed it as the lack of response showed. Any TS who doesn’t speak up EVERY time she is misgendered is not my sister.”

  We do not want to give people confusing information but even with our best efforts some people still have difficulties understanding. According to Emi Koyama quoting Cherrie Moraga:

  In this country, Lesbianism is a poverty-as is being brown, as is being a woman, as is being just plain poor. The danger lies in ranking the oppressions. The danger lies in failing to acknowledge the specificity of oppression

  These days, globally, transgenderism is the new poverty and transsexualism much more so especially if you do not pass. The writer’s failure to realise the diversity of transsexuality and inevitable sexualities of transpeople is such an act. I’m left wondering whether the writer of “unpacking…” fully understands how diverse transsexuality really is and that this goes beyond an assumed “compulsory heterosexuality” that she seems to favour over all else. I have to say that it is unfortunate that she so fleetingly overlooks the diversity at the heart of transsexualism not to mention the greater transgenderism when she claimed that:

  The wanton oversight that defined the LGBTI movement in divisive terms only stands to isolate transgender agency further in a homo-normative enclave. Internalised homophobia is rife but so is transphobia. Passing judgement on transwomen or transmen without fully understanding how gender identity and sexual orientation merge is detrimental to human evolution

  While I believe that subjective narration of transsexual experience is important for a fuller understanding of transsexual individuals and our life experiences in the world I object to sisters or brother who wantonly assume age old compulsory heterosexuality for all. As a transsexual woman who identifies as a lesbian myself I find these implications deeply offensive. The author of  “unpacking…” seems to claim that I do not have freewill or the right to make that choice. Is she saying that any woman has such rights to go outside heterosexuality by the same token or is that particular slur only reserved for transwomen that exercise that right?

  A closer look at “Unpacking The LGBTI Communities” reveals a regressive step backwards instead of encouraging a positive multitude going forward together in her assertions the latter takes precedence. Using the discomfort of a gay man for levity the writer of “unpacking…”quotes the unnamed person as stating the following:

  I dislike transsexuals. I have nothing against them. I just don’t want think they should be put in the same category as the gay/lesbian/bisexual community. Being transsexual doesn’t affect which gender you’re attracted to. I’m not saying they’re bad, I’m just saying that it doesn’t  belong in the classification of sexuality”

  another gay man claimed:

  “Transsexuals being associated with homosexuals make homosexuals look bad.”

  Sexuality fundamentalists or what? And the insults go on. One gay man again, even said, “I hate being put in the same boat as ‘transgender’. However his fears are apparent when he goes to talk about the appearance transwomen, surgical intervention we undergo and his need to keep up with the Joneses as an authentic gay man without noticing the hatred he deplores in the stereotypical view of transgender people. Perhaps all he was saying was like one Nigerian question asked once at an LGBTI conference when he said, “What does transgender mean anyhow?” an opportunity to educate if any but unfortunately the conference ended. We swapped contacts but no comeback took place. Really if people what to know anything about anything transgender include the best route to knowing and then understanding a given subject is to ask questions and follow through. Pandering to stereotypes, assumptions, and swift judgements are founded on dogmatic beginnings and or cultural conditioning. They do not help rather they give way to fascist mindsets where gender diversity ought to reign.

  The writer of “unpacking…” doesn’t specify or directly use lesbian or bisexual voices and at times she seems to stumble into the same stereotyping as the gay men above have done. She does not seem to be able to conceptualise homosexual transsexual women not to mention transsexual men in doing so excludes all other possible ways of identifying as a trans person. If this is the case, what would she make of a gender queer person or an mtf butch or a transdykes? Would she be willing to date an femme ftm, for instance? Trust me, I don’t mean to sound insulting. I am just attempting to map out the landscape that is trans-X-U-all ala Tracy O’Keefe and Katherine Fox of that same title… True transsexuality/transgenderism is about gender identity but everyone also has a sexuality unique to them. In addition, imagine a transwoman and her cissexual woman lesbian partner, do you need to cast aspersions on such healthy relationships because your worldview is so narrow as to recognise such fluidity as diversity is capable of conferring on the human race?

  Nothing is said about the throng of what constitutes transgenderism. Does of “unpacking… ,” for instance, realise that apart from being about gender identity transgenderism actual impacts on the entire human species as in QUILTBAG (coined by Lee Sadie, the interviewer talking to the gender performer, speaker and activist Kate Bornstein) as a featured in DIVA mag where a claim to unify sex, sexuality and gender identities and /gender roles were made in an interview with Kate Bornstein. Diversity comes in different forms and it is not fixed in the way the writer of “unpacking…” and company would prefer. We need to educate ourselves before we can educate others. I so hope she would not want to become the pied piper for the transphobic horde?

  Mia Nikasimo © August 2011

• Cradle nation: An Evolutionary Sigh!

  Posted: July 1, 2011, 6:32 pm by Mia Nikasimo

  
  
  

  “Honestly, I haven’t been any where. I have not worked for a living for four years, now. “We know where it lives,” everyone says in rabid finality, so I took to listening to loud classical music. It has worked for me in the past so it was a sort of back to the grind stone, if you like,” said Orogodogoin as she took stock of the group animosity fuelled by fear that gathered around her.

  The absence of Activism had cost Orogodogoin four years of unemployment while the white LGBTI activists made a living off selective activism. It was not for want of trying Orogodogoin tried. Orogodogoin applied two or three times once to work in a church run bookshop.

  “The job has gone!” said the gay manager of the bookshop on Orogodogoin’s first attempt.

  “Oh, it’s you again,” said the same gay manager of the same bookshop. “Thank you for coming again but we will call you.”

  “Hello,” said the same gay manager to a gay man waiting to try his luck. “The job is yours. Me, employ whatever that thinks it is? It will not happen, the job is yours if you want it, just say, yes, already!”

  “Yes already, then!” said the gay man and he got it just like that and Orogodogoin hadn’t even left the bookshop.

  Activism was necessary. Orogodogoin knew it. Orogodogoin was not going to forget that experience in a hurry.

  It was Saturday, the 25th of June 2011.  Orogodogoin was attending the conference, “Cradle Nation, Exploitation and Resistance” and she had written the following:

  My name is Orogodogoin and Orogodogoin is a writer and a transsexual activist. Orogodogoin felt the conference was a learning curve for me. “Cradle Nation, Exploitation and Resistance” was an invitation for reasons only the organiser, World Peace Path (Development and Justice for the world’s poor) knew.

  The spread of the church venue appeared to be packed until Orogodogoin looked up and saw the seats in the “gods” were hardly taken. Orogodogoin needn’t have worried because no sooner had the first half of the conference ended because then Orogodogoin discovered that the Cradle Nation Sexualities (the striving for liberation) event was tucked away in a back room called, “the Vestry room”. Vestry indeed! The venue space turned out to be a small room but given that it was filled and spilling outside Orogodogoin wondered if a giant monitor was out there to give those that couldn’t get into the room a glimpse of what was going on inside. Apparently no such luck was at hand.

  Given all this, the question was, why did Cradle Nation Sexualities have to be brushed to a side room at all? there was no time to dwell on this as the moderator, Sappho Grant, who due to time constraints opted for a “question and answer” format WHICH that meant we all had sufficient time to do the subject matter justice. Tigersclub, David, and Orogodogoin spoke about Cradle Nation Sexualities, silence, the Western world’s worldview of sexuality, the incursion of sexuality NGOs onto the Cradle Nation stage who thought they could come in and tell us about ourselves using imported labels to remap sexuality in Cradle Nation for us rather than helping us focus on our needs ourselves.

  Orogodogoin had to say, in hindsight, unlike Tigersclub and Kako who preferred to steered clear of the word, activism, Orogodogoin embraced it. Kako rejected it because he had never spoken from an activism standpoint. Tigersclub, because he preferred a more “softly, softly” approach. It is not that Orogodogoin couldn’t talk without taking the standpoint Orogodogoin adopted. on the contrary, owning Orogodogoin’s subjectivities as a transwoman, a lesbian and an Cradle Nation native disenfranchised both in the West and in Cradle Nation, sanctioned Orogodogoin’s speaking out.

  “Activism, of any form was not a curse,” Orogodogoin said. “Because without it different experiences from the cultural constructs would fade into obscurity. Allowing that to happen was not an option for Cradle Nation.”

  It was sufficient for me to talk about Cradle Nation Sexualities without first elaborating, what transgenderism means? Orogodogoin counted the subtleties of  dance forms that could take form in our daily life (whether we are transpeople or otherwise living in Cradle Nation or Cradle nation natives living elsewhere.) After all, Orogodogoin started out as an actor and dancer for part of Orogodogoin’s life. Therein, Orogodogoin explored Cradle Nation’s gender identities and sexualities claiming that, for the same reason most women have had to adopt silence in violent homes or because of their economic dependence on their husbands, “so have we in Cradle Nation as we have done in the Western world!” Conversely, Orogodogoin said, transwomen are subject to similar restrictions and in some situations even worse. To be a transsexual woman in Cradle Nation society today is life threatening. in the west which sees itself as a safe haven from homophobia and transphobia and despite legislation favouring the lgbti and irrespective of what white lgbt activists say, there are still enormous problems to overcome. Orogodogoin should know. As an Cradle Nation native, a transsexual woman and a lesbian living in the West, Orogodogoin has experienced transphobia and internalised homophobia from quarters Orogodogoin wouldn’t have expected it from. Orogodogoin now beginning to think that it is time we started talking about these hate crimes when they happen in the Western world instead of solely focusing on cradle nation and other parts of the global south.

  THIS IS NOT SIMPLY because Orogodogoin is a Cradle Nation native but rather because Orogodogoin is an activist who claims to have expertise in transgender politics. In fact Orogodogoin suggested that naming names of people and organisations that fall short of their remit in conferences like this is a good starting point. Although Orogodogoin mention Bolin Coward and Mahcter Nacthell  because Orogodogoin actually witnessed them abusing a black transwoman at black pride last year but Orogodogoin could have mentioned others like Max Worthash of the Gantry Centre in Woolwich, London, Eulij P. Easton of the Abo Centre in Camden, London and their transphobic acts. Was such silence healthy given the failure these activist deployed in place of the duties they were employed (or self employed) to carry out? Orogodogoin will name names. Holding such information back will not do us any good. We need a proactive approach to address Cradle Nation Sexualities and Orogodogoin contended that recasting an atmosphere of in-fighting as is happening in the West will not be an advancement of this process for change.

  Transgenderism is the dance of diversity and it manifests in the following forms: gender queer, intersex, transsexuals, transgenderist, androgyny, boi, grrl, fag hags, mtf butch, butch, ftm femme, femme, bisexuals, ftm, mtf, straight and much, much more that Orogodogoin may not have mentioned here today. Indeed, a diversity of gender identities which also have and identify their own sexualities. Or, as some of our questioners asked, “why do we need labels?” “Orogodogoin is interested in the situation about the difference between Western sexualities and how Cradle Nation Sexualities are impacted on, can you address these points,” and in that lay broader issues both charted and uncharted which with time we Cradle natives for ourselves to explore and proudly embody.

  Kako spoke of the sexualities of women like his mother for whom silence was a form of self-defence, domestic violence, reproduction and how they were used as control mechanism to keep women in check while the husband ran the roost as they liked almost without any checks and balances at all. He asked, “who is to say whether such women have sexualities other than those made available to them by the patriarchal world that encroached on such women and their needs sexually, economically, socially, culturally or even politically?”

  Tigersclub gave examples of woman in time of war, women like Oya deified, Osun deified, Ooba deified but can one ever forget the like of Efunsetan, Amina of Zaria, Fumilayo Anikulapo Kuti and the vast throng of strong women who speak of sexualities the western world would not have a clue about let alone speak about?

  Olodumare, for instance, is transgender, Sango was transgender, and so are most of the deities abound in Yoruba mythology and worshippers all over Yoruba-land at home or in the Diaspora not to mention their gender identities and or sexualities. Did the sacking of the Sankore University of Timbuktu have something to do with the rewriting of certain parts of that  particular part of his/herstory of Cradle Nation Sexualities? Archaeology and palaeontology have their work cut out in future finds.

  Despite a spoof video on Youtube in which an elder is asked about sexuality and or gender identity one could hardly expect a reasonable outcome. The elder without helpful guidance claimed that the LGBTIQ was aberrant to Yoruba culture. One could hardly confine Yoruba mythology to prescriptions by colonial masters of old, religious leaders and dogma nor those enshrined by their stooges in present day settings and neo-colonialism. To add, one must say, our bodies are not for sale to or for financiers from overseas or religious pundits that force their will on us merely because they do not understand our ways.

  Tigersclub came out again which was a big hit. He said, “It happened on a talk show and nobody had dared attempt to do so since!”

  Sappho Grant, Orogodogoin, Tigersclub and Kako whichever way we were viewed – contributors or activists, whatever way we framed our role, our sexualities and our calls for liberation, what all of us were saying was that, it is no longer enough for us to let those with ulterior motives speak for us be they NGOs from abroad or our leaders with their hands tied behind their backs by financiers calling the shots from abroad. Cradle Nation Sexualities are about Cradle natives speaking up for Cradle natives in ways that speak to us. We are rich enough linguistically, culturally, traditionally, socially and politically to decolonialise our conditioning ourselves. In this, we can find ways to be without the stricture of old colonial keeping us the way they want us rather than the ways we are.

  And now returning to the beginning…

  “What did they expect might happen? Did they think no one was going to be interested in Cradle Nation Sexualities?” Orogodogoin thought looking at the small space allotted. We had just seen and heard the key speaker and editor in chief of Buka Press, Daniel Aran dealing World Peace Path a blow. His fellow panelists rallied to the same tunes. Chika Agbabiaka asked for a volunteer who would write what the audience thought when, “Cradle,” was mentioned and had everyone contributing. Then came another point of contention, “identity grab was new colonialism.” What seemed to be the issue? Well, the word, DEVELOPMENT, as found in grabbing our identity for development (theirs, not ours) given what it now represented was an affront to the poor they purported to bring justice to. For Ijimare I. Iginju, a deeply academic foray into the foibles of development, which was shown to be a throw back from the immediate aftermath of colonialism now conveniently masquerading as progress. The question was how did that equate justice? A further call was sent out to the elusive NGOs and their modus operandi, the same developed nations of the north prescribing to the strategic south about how best to “develop the Cradle Nation” where “helping us to improve ourselves” would have been a good start and then their was the issue of the “global recapitalisation of finance” and the adverse impacts that was having on Cradle Nation. Finally, a high point of sorts came from Aran retort to us all that we are all Cradle Nation natives.

   

  When Awero Guardian, the moderator of the main event and a member of world Peace Path (Development and Justice for the World’s poor) attempted to excuse herself.

  “What, I’m not from that part of the world” she said with an alarmed look on her smiling face.

  Orogodogoin was reminded how even Orogodogoin was a Cradle Nation native in spite of her attempts to suggest otherwise. An example of her compromised country, Israel, was mentioned. Even Awero found that funny.

  “People with a common heritage at each other’s throats, what would you call that? Apart from that we are all human beings irrespective of political borders,” said Aran in what must have felt like a passing shot.

  With all the calls for changes in the way the West approaches the global south can it really be inclusive to hide Cradle Nation Sexualities and gender identities in the backrooms of resistance? Can it be healthy to mention homophobia and remain silent when transphobia is still extremely rampant? Sexuality and gender identity are part of human life and it ought to be heard as such in the main halls of debate where all the other issues of contention are wrestled with and with as sizable an audience to boot.

  Orogodogoin wondered at the long faces afterwards. Why does the truth upset people so? Is this why nobody on the panel embraced activism? Would we be doing ourselves any favours without it? Where would every marginalised section of society be without activism?

  Why is Orogodogoin called Orogodogoin? Phenomenology is not something alien in diverse cultures. Rather it is like an evolutionary sigh. Orogodogoin is an evolutionary sigh. No final note, no giving thanks just those receding glimpses of the long face that couldn’t easily let go of their rank prejudice. Orogodogoin wondered what they would have made of mtf butch had she mentioned that this is how she identified… Long, glum faces and then it dawned on Orogodogoin: the faces before Orogodogoin perceived a Trojan horse in Orogodogoin’s being there.

  Mia Nikasimo (C) June, 2011.

   

• Waow! Parents decide not to coercively gender their child

  Posted: June 21, 2011, 6:41 pm by Mia Nikasimo

  
  
  

  “A tribute to freedom and choice in place of limitation” A Canadian couple make a decision not to gender their child in an act to free zim from coercive stereotyping. This is a brave decision and it’ll be interesting to see whether a precedent has been set and other parents follow in what is a direct challenge to heterosexism and a cis-supremacist agenda.

  Predictably, the backlash against this act that was not in compliance with coercive gendering came to a head and Internet Shitstorm Machine sprang to life.

  As one can imagine in our cis-centric society, the family has received an enormous amount of criticism and little praise for their parenting choices. They have been accused of making their baby in to a “social experiment”, of “borderline child abuse”, and “being amoral hippies” in commentary from a multitude of sources. This fire storm of controversy and personal accusation have all come in the name of the “the good of the baby”.

  But it’s hard for me to believe that any of this criticism can be counted on as being intellectually honest or in the interest of Storm. Storm and zir’s parents are experiencing what trans people are well used to, namely, they’re receiving criticism that is not about Strom at all. Instead, Storm and zir parents are being used by cis people as foils for their own personal conflicts, confusion and stereotypes about gender and gender relations.

  The parental position is remarkable. Against all odds Storms parent are saying an emphatic, “fuck off” to the adversarial socialisation that is cis-supremacy. Touche to them both. Actually, by the time Storm comes of age in Canada bullying zir will be a punishable offence. The paranoia of the press is typical… They offer more scaremongering than substance and that’s a shame.

  I commend Storm’s parents and the attention they have brought to this issue. How many transpeople do you know that are not in hiding? Why do some have to hide? And to what end? Passing is a form of hiding. We must all learn from what Storm’s parent are offering. We also need to accept that we cannot “fix” every aspect of nature using the tools of cultural construction… Nature will have its way whatever paranoid cranks like the press get up to. You do not know how long I have waited for someone to take this very stand. And Canada is the place for it. The spotlight is on how the rest of the world go forward. Waow!

• Commentary: “objectively” less attractive?

  Posted: May 27, 2011, 6:48 pm by Mia Nikasimo

  
  
  

  If as Satoshi Kanazawa’s claim that, “Black women are “objectively” less attractive!” is anything to go by racism in academia is at an all time high and we black women must repudiate this passionately. Over a decade ago, I had the misfortune of listening to a Japanese undergraduate saying of the different races: “There are whites, yellow and then at the bottom, there are blacks!” I was furious as much then as I am faced with this fresh slur. Here we are again full circle. My surprise is that the London School of Economics and Political Science is supervising such racist pseudo scientific tripe in the name of evolutionary psychology. Belittling any race in this manner is tantamount to racism and could be said to be academic racial cleansing. As a black woman, it is deeply upsetting and denigrating to black people and black women in particularly and calls into question notions of beauty.

  Such an infraction academic or otherwise must be petitioned in the strongest terms. Sign the petition to Psychology Today to retract the article, apologise and explain why it was published in the first place.

• Growing Up

  Posted: May 1, 2011, 7:40 pm by Mia Nikasimo

  
  
  

  You shiver not from the ice cold chill of winter white deep in you bones,
  You stand there rooted with eyes wandering lost in their sullen sockets,
  You can’t find words to call me by my name so you call me scores, yours,
  Your fear dances jaundiced jigs across your impassioned face, pace by pace,
  You perambulate in those hood-winked footsteps that defy believe, sore, grief,
  You congregate at every grocery, newsagents, cafés to catch the word, the sword
  You raise your phobic voice four octaves above normal to draw passing attention,
  You loose your tongue by moving so fast as to sink your teeth into me, into me,
  You rally support of like-minded phobics all foaming at the mouth en mass,
  You shout sick vengeance at the amber glow of age old curtains, deranged
  You tear my virgin hair out of my scalp in protest because yours is receding,
  You lump me together with the down and out for daring to be myself,
  You, with pained and questioning eyes, you put out a victory cry to hide your failings
  You cast your eyes inward lost and tormented when I walk by,
  Every time I walk by you hear incomprehension in your mind’s ear: dum, dum, dum!
  Don’t blame me for the unanswered questions nobody answered for you, growing up.

• Black is Black

  Posted: April 25, 2011, 9:01 pm by Mia Nikasimo

  
  
  

  I am proud to be on the margin of gender identity as black is black,
  I am compassionate in the face of abuse & black is black,
  I will rise to the occasion of living a fuller life as black is black,
  I do not know how to bury my head in shame as black is black,
  I will not want in the face of wild threats as black is black,
  I will not kowtow to gain anyone’s approval as black is black,
  I will go wherever I must with head held high as black is black,
  I am a civilian, I fight to maintain the underdog’s decorum as black is black,
  I am not judgemental of your foibles; do not question mine as black is black,
  I was born free and do not go every where in chains as black is black,
  I am a Grace Jones look alike I am told; strong, as black is black,
  I will own my own in front of sad ingrained hatred as black is black,
  I am prove that no one condition is an island as black is black,
  Whatever you think is immaterial as black is black is black is black.

  Mia Nikasimo ©2011

• Mother Africa

  Posted: April 20, 2011, 7:35 pm by Mia Nikasimo

  
  
  

  Mother Africa isn’t the hen that lays eggs only to feed on them:
  Cast in innumerable tongues as she is the picture of oneness; whole!

  Yoruba against Yoruba wrangling over space for homeland, for den,
  Hutu against Tutsi: an orgy of ethnic cleansing for an overlord role,
  Xhosa against Zulu to what effect with the red man’s cracking truncheon,
  In the red people’s world of Europe Africans forget home life; strife,
  For their worth they start other fracas beating each other up on streets,
  For their worth they start mayhem to fall sick for becoming wretched,
  For their worth even more wretched than the wretched; their colonisers,
  Wounds of old are festering in misrule, independent mutants to no where!

  Mother Africa isn’t the hen that lays eggs only to feed on them:
  Cast in innumerable tongues as she is the picture of oneness; whole!

  Some scrape phlegm from the walls of their congealed throat walls
  An almighty guttural oration and splat on the pavement or whatever!
  Some gain more degrees for a bigger share of their national cakes
  They go back home to indulge their skills of embezzlement if need be!
  Some watch day in, day out like neighbourhood watch away from home,
  Take the wrong step and the kiss their teeth at you in a display of contempt!

  Some will go down traditional routes with high embellishment to ruin,
  Some will sleep at night and work at night for madam’s burgeoning empire!

  Mother Africa isn’t the hen that lays eggs only to feed on them:
  Cast in innumerable tongues as she is the picture of oneness; whole!
  

  Others will be programme analysts, doctors, lawyers, engineers and accountants,
  Promising everything when they go back to endless personal entertainment!
  Others will go back to muddy the political climate up that bit more for a piece,
  Promising the world and offering vacuous gifts bought from cuts of
  already low wages!
  Others will worship endlessly awaiting the father of all fathers to
  bring them peace,
  Boasting of the promises their almighty father has promised them in
  the hereafter!
  Others will slovenly descend into alcoholism bearing rotting teeth of
  tar; enjoyment?
  Promising to be there again tomorrow for a top up of owed debts carelessly!
  Others will not write a single letter home to say hello for fear of
  financial help,
  Promising everything and not sending a single thing home to suffering parents!
  Others will try their best only to find their best is never enough:
  send this or that,
  Promising haven and earth and never making enough to live up to their promises!
  Others will merry go round for the sheer pleasure of spraying pounds
  upon pounds,
  Promising stories of exploits and victories to tell friend and
  siblings unable to pay their ways!
  Others will just beg on the way side from the brothers, sisters and
  significant others,
  Promising to go home rich and actually achieving their goal to the fullest!

  When we finish avoiding the issue let us not blame mother Africa
  Mother Africa isn’t the hen that lays eggs only to feed on them:
  Cast in innumerable tongues as she is the picture of oneness; whole!
  We do mother Africa enough damage in our conservative self-righteousness.

  Mia Nikasimo © 2011

• Secrets?

  Posted: December 21, 2010, 5:47 pm by Mia Nikasimo

  
  
  

  Khulisa invites our secrets
  My defences are sawn off
  I have no secrets to keep.

  Khulisa invites our secrets
  I wonder what safe space
  There is for vulnerability?

  Khulisa invites our secrets
  I call friends to do a test run.

  I’m not here laying blame!

  Khulisa invites our secrets
  I’m a woman, a mountain
  An ant & I’m proud to be.

  Khulisa invites our secrets
  Are mission statements
  Protective enough?

  Khulisa invites our secrets
  Out in the open to play
  Who mends our wounds?

  Khulisa invites our secrets
  ‘If you decide to keep Secrets

  ills will surely follow!’

  Khulisa invites our secrets
  I want to tell it as it is
  For this I’m woman enough

  Khulisa invites our secrets
  I will tell the truth if at last
  And still sit with my pain.

  Khulisa invites our secrets
  Can this safe space resist ‘Black & white’
  Traditions so deep and steeped?

  Mia Nikasimo (c) April 2009

• What New World Order ?

  Posted: December 15, 2010, 3:41 am by Mia Nikasimo

  
  
  

  What’s new there then? Every time the powerful dream of carnage They call it, “a new world order!” and the rest of us; Lambs to pots Lap it up double time with “Oh my God” condemnation of dissenters. Homage Africa, what’s new about our this wam-bam-thank-you plots?

  Just this, Just this! The fact that over time it has became fashionable to Call, the name, ‘God’ in vain. How so? Bear with me. How do u reply, Respond when you come face to face with the uncanny? Offence? Homage Africa, I want you all; I want you all to know your mind’s sigh…

  What new world order? Oh yes, is this Europe world without Africa? I don’t want to hark on about that duality. Oh, you mean homo hetero, Then? Yes, yes, what about the rest of us then? What, we don’t fit your Absurd self-narrative? ‘Besides,’ you said in spanglish. ‘I’m numero uno?’

  Stop supplanting God’s name blind as bats with your fixed minds… When faced with lesbian daughters, gay sons, bisexual daughters or Sons; blind rage is no answer. How far into the past must we travel Homage Africa, anger won’t loosen tightened shackles or sooth sore!

  I feel so sore right now, I feel so sore emotionally, Oh my God? When faced with transsexuals, intersexes, queers or question children You scream: “unnatural this, unnatural that, spreading cancerous fear. Homage Africa, stop spreading master norms; our land, our brethren

  Migrant homo/hetero-nationalism came from the same soup exclusion; A mind in turmoil scurries for answers & as ever, ever misunderstand Our failings evoke, “Oh my God!” as if for peace out of complicit moons. Homage Africa, foreign religion, foreign approval; check your hand!

  What world order makes your thrust right, ‘oh my God,’ righteousness?
  When your meaning is, ‘What an affront to all you hold dear, dear?’ This new world order of yours is yours. Invisible shackles, invisible… Homage Africa, don’t prolong this torment; our conditioned minds, our fear.

  Mia Nikasimo © October 2010

• A Prayer for Amy

  Posted: November 6, 2010, 3:08 pm by Mia Nikasimo

  A Prayer for Amy Let us close our eyes in pray for dear Amy, here! We hope the Almighty God in heaven helps her see, We are all well adjusted, heavenly father, please help, We hope she becomes born again in your image? Heavenly father, this is for Amy your prodigal lamb, Father it’s the way she looks at other girls, [...]

• A Beginning…

  Posted: November 1, 2010, 3:44 pm by Mia Nikasimo

  Transitioning is not circumcision, circumcision is not transitioning; One is the beginning of life, refreshing; the other robs one of life. Our innate fears loom on every horizon, a mirage or a starved wolf. Women fear the potential lose of potential husbands, of families, Men fear the potential lose of potential wives, of the idle of home. Diversity is [...]

• A Prayer for Amy

  Posted: October 25, 2010, 4:02 pm by Mia Nikasimo

  Let’s close our eyes and pray for Amy, here! We hope the Almighty God in heaven helps her see, We are all adjusted, father help Amy, heavenly help, We hope she becomes like your image, father? Heavenly father this is for Amy your lost lamb, Father it’s the way she looks at other girl’s father, Father can Amin stop wearing all [...]

• African transgender and intersex activists join “Stop Trans Pathologisation 2012 Campaign”.

  Posted: October 23, 2010, 7:09 pm by Mia Nikasimo

  Stop Trans Pathologization-2012 Campaign is a campaign advocating for the depathologization of the trans identities (transexual and transgender). The main aims of the campaign are the removal of gender identity disorders from the diagnosis manuals (the DSM from the American Psychiatric Association, whose newly revised version is due in 2013, and the ICD from the [...]

• Transgender community face hate speech from Lesbian and Gay people.

  Posted: October 22, 2010, 2:05 pm by Mia Nikasimo

  Transphobia is not something that just happens because of heteronormativity. As we gradually make our way through the end of the first decade of the 21st century this much becomes clear; homonormativity is just as virulent as its sibling. A scenario between two South African activists -one a transsexual man and the other, a lesbian- [...]

• Jacks?

  Posted: October 17, 2010, 6:17 pm by Mia Nikasimo

  Would we see again, jacks? Ops, I meant Sylvia We were going to build an empire together, Weren’t we jacks, sorry Sylvia. Why Sylvia? Sorry I meant Jacks, I meant Sylvia, sod that! I never thought I seen again, Sylvia, darling? I’ve even got your darlng bug right now… Suddenly there you were in that film “Love & Other Disasters” only they [...]

• The Job

  Posted: October 11, 2010, 6:02 pm by Mia Nikasimo

  Change of guards, the nation couldn’t decide yeah or nay. When last week I got a job, or what appeared to be a job Screaming jubilation broke out of me into the open day. Was this the job I was looking for or a flop of a job? Drop! The unemployment figures drop that month was a needle, My gob [...]

• African Woman

  Posted: October 7, 2010, 4:39 pm by Mia Nikasimo

  I’m an African woman whether you perceive me or not… I’m aware of you war speak in the neighbourhoods of our old masters, I’m an African woman whether you able to conceive me or not… I’m aware of your fears in the unsavoury words of soiled plasters Thanks but no thank you… I am the African woman with a deep [...]

• Homo Nationalism

  Posted: October 4, 2010, 7:38 pm by Mia Nikasimo

  Whatever next? No racism, no sexism, no classism, no ageism, nothing that veers on the right or even remotely towards it? Surely the rhetoric of a paranoid community fearful of a breach in its security as homonationalism has become. Why? More often than not because they can and seemingly with impunity. Until Judith Butler’s rejection [...]

• James Baldwin 6: Beyond LGB

  Posted: August 16, 2010, 4:11 pm by Mia Nikasimo

  Via Baobab Graphics As an African seeing James Baldwin’s “Price of the Ticket” fired a life long interest in gender politics in me. Since then I have read Baldwin’s “Go tell it to the Mountain,” “Giovanni’s Room” and “Fire The Next Time” which explore issues of sexuality, race and spirituality. In “Go Tell It To The Mountain,” the unfortunate plight of [...]

• Augmentative

  Posted: August 3, 2010, 4:54 am by Mia Nikasimo

  Lashes of uncontrollable Saliva flies everywhere, Bloodshot eyes brimming A fire all their own. You Harden as anger assails: ‘I’ve watched you all day,’ You offer in a throwaway ‘You said alot I do not agree with. Stop there!’ Leaving me fighting for Dear composure, steady! ‘Opinions are right/wrong They subjective pitches Strewn into each other’. ‘What do you know about Anything athletic genius?’ ‘Nothing, i watch without Colleric attachment. I [...]

• Quasi Intellectuals

  Posted: July 28, 2010, 1:13 am by Mia Nikasimo

  Quasi intellectuals are Only interested in their Annual take home & knot. If they happen to be gay Only men seem to count Cruising benefits apply The petit b’jois with bowls On the ready, handouts Are always welcome, see. You black shit you ranted Storming on gale force Wind. My brethren Slumbered wide awake. You, a coolie watched for An endless while, while I Picked up my pieces [...]

• Transphobic Britain

  Posted: July 28, 2010, 2:01 pm by Mia Nikasimo

  How, given the history of the black community in Britain after centuries of slavery, do Black people explain the rampant transphobia that they accord black transgender/transsexual people? Indeed, how does anyone who has ever or still suffers oppression, whatever form it takes? These were the question that assailed me for the best part of ten [...]

• Fear!!

  Posted: July 15, 2010, 7:59 pm by Mia Nikasimo

  A driver fucked up with Fear; he just started, Today & all, the poor imp. Happily, he brought into it -A neighbourhood’s illness They call you man, miss All cower what will come? So when he broke hard Spilling me forward & then blaming my lack. An explosion of laughter ‘Wait,’ commanded the Terrified driver, ‘until we Reach the bus stop! You A big man’ How Convenient for [...]

• Intersexuality – XXY

  Posted: July 12, 2010, 6:52 pm by Mia Nikasimo

  In XXY, a film from Argentina, Alex, the film’s protagonist, is a 14 year old intersexchild who comes face to face with society’s prejudice.1 The close knit community of this small fishing village is populated by people this child would have viewed as neighbours. However because of the child’s intersexuality which in this case shows a [...]

• Gender Supremacy

  Posted: March 7, 2010, 12:04 pm by Mia Nikasimo

  While a lot of consciousness raising activism for the well being of the LGB community exist in the West similar actions for transsexuals and intersex people is sorely lacking. Personally, I have observed the lack of activism in these groups first hand. The fact that certain activists literally thrive on ignoring transsexual or intersex issues [...]

• I’m reminded…

  Posted: November 20, 2009, 5:00 pm by Mia Nikasimo

  Violent suppression of initiatives we cannot understand or even deaths in the African Diaspora as well as the African LGBTI set us back for generations but worse still is the hypocrisy and corruption that blinds us to this fact. Why? When you kill a living being because of their gender identity or whatever reason, you [...]

• Fighting Oppression 3

  Posted: October 7, 2009, 9:38 pm by Mia Nikasimo

  Recently, I remembered helping a friend, Susan Giwa, work on a piece about activism, oppression and separatism amongst women’s groups. I found myself pondering the backlash that could arise as a result of criticising the work of such reactionary enclaves. Susan, a citizen of Mushin Oloosha is a photo-journalist, transgender rights [...]

• Levels of Ignorance & other transphobic activities

  Posted: September 15, 2009, 2:51 pm by Mia Nikasimo

  The act of being Ignorant does not arise out of thin air but when a person from any enclave latches onto the words of a drunk and uses those words as an excuse for his or her agenda their integrity becomes questionable no matter what the person’s personal status happens to be. In pandering [...]

• Foraging

  Posted: September 6, 2009, 6:43 pm by Mia Nikasimo

  Foraging Who will marry a dog? A Yoruba woman said. That very morning it was dicey. Straits start out the Same way daily like putrescent corpses wallowing in Excremental death of Stunned minds. Their minds are frozen in the grasp of antediluvian Paws Fearful of preceding ancestral, natural laws. The fearful forage feverishly like Inheritors since infancy -cursed. Nobody cared to warn [...]

• Frisked by Frisker

  Posted: August 20, 2009, 2:09 pm by Mia Nikasimo

  Dear Frisker, So why the frisking, my darling frisker? You size me up as I approach your citadel; Your mind cannot withstand my masculine; You frisk me as rough as I have ever experienced How could you then question racist next door? So why the frisking, my darling frisker? Did you enjoy yourself while you were at it? You were no better [...]

• Naija Nymph

  Posted: August 10, 2009, 3:25 pm by Mia Nikasimo

  You won’t hear of mermaids in folklore Not to mention in naijan Daily life. “It a western thing. It’s not for us,” Said my naija nymph Sweet as fleshly harvested honey. I smiled. If only that were true? “Naija isn’t impervious to Evolution like the West it Will break free of itself,” I Said savouring sanity over delusional desires to Be pure, secure, never ever [...]

• Vanishing Point

  Posted: July 18, 2009, 8:11 pm by Mia Nikasimo

  VP is boxing smart VP is shadowboxing, start VP is docking in person Smtms u’r just a version VP is speaking your heart VP is speaking without word [...]

• Gratitude 1

  Posted: June 28, 2009, 12:49 pm by Mia Nikasimo

  Here with gratitude to All transgender, gender -Queer & gendered Alike, Listen up people: nobody Knows anything they do Not acknowlegde out of Fear. Do not judge Anything from a position Of fear. There is always Something new beneath The face of heaven, Always, always, always. Here with gratitude to Say what we have all Long suspected but darn’t Openly or outwardly Speak lest we are found Wanting & undesirably so. Under the [...]

• Living Ancestors

  Posted: June 25, 2009, 6:31 pm by Mia Nikasimo

  Gabrielle’s centenarians Brings our ancestors to us What can I say? wow I think of growth and hope Dignity wisdom and love I feel the forays In road from the Impasse Of youth caught up In stuff, caught up in stuff I thought about folk, my Grandparents, ancestors I heard all the unvoiced calls in our minds as we revelled in their sharing If only we can [...]

• Two poems: Gender…. Mirrored….

  Posted: June 21, 2009, 11:27 pm by Mia Nikasimo

  Gender… A single beer was all It took the throbs set in. Pounding headache. Gender is not sexuality Paranoid community Leaders hide behind a finger. It is always, always nice To meet old friends after Moments of idle asides Perhaps I should pipe Down in insipid isolation. Barking, backing up Not wanting out, stay put Ride the tidal wave of Vituperative avalanches Run, run, run for dear life Isn’t that trying [...]

• Heckism!

  Posted: February 1, 2009, 1:40 pm by Mia Nikasimo

  Snow White’s slap stung! Not of The Seven Dwarfs, Hell no! Far older than that. What did I do? Nothing short of saying, ‘Sorry doll, I don’t do shipwrecks,’ & heck like a Bad rash SD flared up! ‘If it took shackles to drag you out, I would!’ said SD, her head of bleached out blonde hair making of her a [...]SHARETHIS.addEntry({ title: "Heckism!", url: "http://www.blacklooks.org/2009/02/heckism_.html" });

• A fixture

  Posted: January 14, 2009, 2:28 am by Mia Nikasimo

  The shady figure there Hopping from one foot The other can’t wait A fix or something? There’s a shadow there Barring the doorway ‘Sorry mate!’ he said. ‘I’m not your mate!’ Lead weight of words. Albion is dingy dark A frozen gauze of fog The shadow disappeared. Consa haunt dealer’s den The time night itself Smoking reef in the path ‘You alright?’ said a sleeper The next thing the possy No home [...]SHARETHIS.addEntry({ title: "A fixture", url: "http://www.blacklooks.org/2009/01/_a_fixture.html" });

• The Hatchet Job

  Posted: January 8, 2009, 12:57 am by Mia Nikasimo

  EB is the hatchet job If you don’t know better You would mistake EB for a goddess When you are not looking EB’ll stab you in the back EB will laugh. “Cant you take a harmless joke? You’re too sensitive, pet! BD turns her back & EB Pounces - the rabid cat: “You know BD don’t you, the same BD? & smirks BD didn’t miss [...]SHARETHIS.addEntry({ title: "The Hatchet Job", url: "http://www.blacklooks.org/2009/01/the_hatchet_job.html" });

• Transgender 101: Transsexualism

  Posted: January 4, 2009, 2:16 pm by Mia Nikasimo

  Transsexualism is the ism at the point of treatment for a condition referred to as “gender dysphoria” which crudely means, “an extreme discomfort with birth sex”. This can affect male, female or other bodied people. Transsexuals as a result come in MTF (male to female) which means the individual’s sex preference is female or to [...]SHARETHIS.addEntry({ title: "Transgender 101: Transsexualism", url: "http://www.blacklooks.org/2009/01/transgender_101_transsexualism_.html" });

• Intersexuality - XXY

  Posted: December 15, 2008, 2:35 am by Mia Nikasimo

  In XXY, a film from Argentina, Alex, the film’s protagonist, is a 14 year old intersex child who comes face to face with society’s prejudice.1 The close knit community of this small fishing village is populated by people this child would have viewed as neighbours. However because of the child’s intersexuality which in this [...]SHARETHIS.addEntry({ title: "Intersexuality - XXY", url: "http://www.blacklooks.org/2008/12/intersexuality_-_xxy.html" });

• Transgender 101

  Posted: November 16, 2008, 3:54 pm by Mia Nikasimo

  Although transgenderism is an umbrella term for a cross section of identities, I want to use a series of articles to illustrate what this means in a sort of transgender 101 sense; basic transgenderism, if you like. This is also an attempt to dispel some of the myths around gender ambiguity or variance in order [...]SHARETHIS.addEntry({ title: "Transgender 101", url: "http://www.blacklooks.org/2008/11/transgender_101.html" });

• For Humanity’s sake?

  Posted: November 2, 2008, 10:12 am by Mia Nikasimo

  Putting the human back into humanity is something worth exploring especially if you happen to be of the LGBTI and have at one time or the other suffered the indignity of having your very humanity questioned. I remember some of the comments one of my posts provoked especially one that came with the suggestion that [...]SHARETHIS.addEntry({ title: "For Humanity's sake? ", url: "http://www.blacklooks.org/2008/11/for_humanitys_sake_.html" });

• Pandering Prejudices?

  Posted: October 26, 2008, 5:42 am by Mia Nikasimo

  You would think a bookshop such as is Waterstones is an institution that encourages the attainment of knowledge and you would be right to think so. However what would you make of the same institution used by some of its workforce as a platform for their prejudicial wiles? Do they (transphobic staff) act this way [...]SHARETHIS.addEntry({ title: " Pandering Prejudices? ", url: "http://www.blacklooks.org/2008/10/_pandering_prejudices_.html" });

• Relationships

  Posted: October 20, 2008, 4:04 pm by Mia Nikasimo

  For some people relationships are paradise but for others, they could be dire warnings of frayed emotions to come. As a translesbian of African descent I am an avid “people watcher” and if I watch anyone, I watch women in particular as a lesbian and I have found that anything that happens in the straight [...]SHARETHIS.addEntry({ title: "Relationships", url: "http://www.blacklooks.org/2008/10/relationships.html" });

• Where Africa?

  Posted: October 2, 2008, 10:26 am by Mia Nikasimo

  Africa, my Africa! Where are the people of the LGBTIQ of African origin be that Africans in Africa or those in the Diaspora? Wherever you are, this clarion call is what has led me to create the trans-group known as, “Transafro,” which can be found on Facebook. Although the continent of Africa [...]SHARETHIS.addEntry({ title: "Where Africa?", url: "http://www.blacklooks.org/2008/10/where_africa.html" });

• What Cost Reproduction??

  Posted: September 14, 2008, 12:26 pm by Mia Nikasimo

  Childbirth in transgender circles has made it into the headlines yet again. This is no quip about whether transpeople should be allowed to have children or not. Rather, it is about the fact that with Thomas Beatie (a transsexual man) giving birth to a baby girl on the 4th of July 2008, precedence was set, [...]SHARETHIS.addEntry({ title: "What Cost Reproduction??", url: "http://www.blacklooks.org/2008/09/what_cost_reproduction.html" });

• Make amends now or fall!

  Posted: September 7, 2008, 2:44 pm by Mia Nikasimo

  When the acronym LGBTI hit the headlines the first thing a friend’s sister said was, “I don’t give a toss about all that Lesbian, gay, transgender, transsexual stuff if you ask me. We are all human, all that is about identity”. I wasn’t asking her but she said it, anyway. When I [...]SHARETHIS.addEntry({ title: "Make amends now or fall!", url: "http://www.blacklooks.org/2008/09/make_amends_now_or_fall.html" });

• On being transgender

  Posted: August 31, 2008, 9:50 pm by Mia Nikasimo

  My name is Mia Nikasimo. As a volunteer for Changing Attitudes at the Lambeth Conference I found myself in an opportune position to reflect from a translesbian (i.e. a transsexual woman who identifies as a lesbian not to be confused with above or beyond “lesbians,” or a transgender man) standpoint on the Anglican Communion and [...]SHARETHIS.addEntry({ title: "On being transgender", url: "http://www.blacklooks.org/2008/08/on_being_transgender.html" });

Blah blah blah

Fish cakes

Alas a fish cake.

Yet more fish cakes

Guess what ... yeah ... fish cakes.

The end of the fish cakes