Joel Gustave Nana Ngongang - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Joël Gustave Nana Ngongang (born 1982), frequently known as Joel Nana, is a leading African LGBT

LGBT

LGBT is an initialism that collectively refers to "lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender" people. In use since the 1990s, the term "LGBT" is an adaptation of the initialism "LGB", which itself started replacing the phrase "gay community" beginning in the mid-to-late 1980s, which many within the...

human rights

Human rights

Human rights are "commonly understood as inalienable fundamental rights to which a person is inherently entitled simply because she or he is a human being." Human rights are thus conceived as universal and egalitarian . These rights may exist as natural rights or as legal rights, in both national...

advocate

Advocate

An advocate is a term for a professional lawyer used in several different legal systems. These include Scotland, South Africa, India, Scandinavian jurisdictions, Israel, and the British Crown dependencies of Jersey, Guernsey and the Isle of Man...

and HIV/AIDS activist. Nana's career as a human rights advocate has spanned numerous
African countries, including Nigeria

Nigeria

Nigeria , officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a federal constitutional republic comprising 36 states and its Federal Capital Territory, Abuja. The country is located in West Africa and shares land borders with the Republic of Benin in the west, Chad and Cameroon in the east, and Niger in...

, Senegal

Senegal

Senegal , officially the Republic of Senegal , is a country in western Africa. It owes its name to the Sénégal River that borders it to the east and north...

and South Africa

South Africa

The Republic of South Africa is a country in southern Africa. Located at the southern tip of Africa, it is divided into nine provinces, with of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans...

, in addition to
his native Cameroon

Cameroon

Cameroon, officially the Republic of Cameroon , is a country in west Central Africa. It is bordered by Nigeria to the west; Chad to the northeast; the Central African Republic to the east; and Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, and the Republic of the Congo to the south. Cameroon's coastline lies on the...

. Currently the Executive Director of the African Men for Sexual Health and Rights (AMSHeR)an African thought and led coalition of LGBT/MSM organizations working to address the vulnerability of MSM to HIV, Mr Nana has worked in various national and international organizations. Mr Nana worked as the Africa Research and Policy Associate at the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission(IGLHRC), as a Fellow at Behind the Mask, a
Johannesburg

Johannesburg

Johannesburg also known as Jozi, Jo'burg or Egoli, is the largest city in South Africa, by population. Johannesburg is the provincial capital of Gauteng, the wealthiest province in South Africa, having the largest economy of any metropolitan region in Sub-Saharan Africa...

-based non-profit media

News media

The news media are those elements of the mass media that focus on delivering news to the general public or a target public.These include print media , broadcast news , and more recently the Internet .-Etymology:A medium is a carrier of something...

organisation publishing a news
website

Website

A website, also written as Web site, web site, or simply site, is a collection of related web pages containing images, videos or other digital assets. A website is hosted on at least one web server, accessible via a network such as the Internet or a private local area network through an Internet...

concerning gay

Gay

Gay is a word that refers to a homosexual person, especially a homosexual male. For homosexual women the specific term is "lesbian"....

and lesbian

Lesbian

Lesbian is a term most widely used in the English language to describe sexual and romantic desire between females. The word may be used as a noun, to refer to women who identify themselves or who are characterized by others as having the primary attribute of female homosexuality, or as an...

affairs in Africa

Africa

Africa is the world's second largest and second most populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km² including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area...

, he has written
on numerous topics in the area of African LGBT and HIV/AIDS issues and is a frequent media commentator.

The 'Yaoundé Eleven'

Following a raid on a bar in Yaoundé

Yaoundé

-Transportation:Yaoundé Nsimalen International Airport is a major civilian hub, while nearby Yaoundé Airport is used by the military. Railway lines run west to the port city of Douala and north to N'Gaoundéré. Many bus companies operate from the city; particularly in the Nsam and Mvan neighborhoods...

, the capital of Cameroon, in 2005, eleven men were arrested and imprisoned on charges of suspected homosexuality

Homosexuality

Homosexuality is romantic or sexual attraction or behavior between members of the same sex or gender. As a sexual orientation, homosexuality refers to "an enduring pattern of or disposition to experience sexual, affectional, or romantic attractions" primarily or exclusively to people of the same...

. Nana has been particularly engaged in this issue, dedicating much of his work to publicising the plight of
the arrested men. Partially as a result of his efforts, on October 10, 2006, the United Nations

United Nations

The United Nations is an international organization whose stated aims are facilitating cooperation in international law, international security, economic development, social progress, human rights, and achievement of world peace...

Working Group on Arbitrary Detention

The Working Group on Arbitrary Detention is a UN-mandated body of independent human rights experts that investigates cases of arbitrary arrest and detention that may be in violation of international human rights law....

declared that the detention of the 11 Cameroonian men on the basis of
their presumed sexual orientation

Sexual orientation

Sexual orientation describes a pattern of emotional, romantic, or sexual attractions to the opposite sex, the same sex, both, or neither, and the genders that accompany them. By the convention of organized researchers, these attractions are subsumed under heterosexuality, homosexuality,...

constituted an arbitrary deprivation
of liberty

Liberty

Liberty is a moral and political principle, or Right, that identifies the condition in which human beings are able to govern themselves, to behave according to their own free will, and take responsibility for their actions...

contrary to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights

International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights

The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights is a multilateral treaty adopted by the United Nations General Assembly on December 16, 1966, and in force from March 23, 1976...

Career with African LGBT organisations

Nana's career as an LGBT human rights advocate began when he worked
with a Cameroonian gay association called AGALES from 1999 until 2001. He later spent time in Nigeria, where he founded an African LGBT advocacy web site, returning to his native Cameroon in part to
organise communication and assistance for the imprisoned
men. In the spring of 2005, he co-founded, together with two gay
activist colleagues, Alternatives-Cameroun, a Cameroon-based human
rights organisation working to address homophobia

Homophobia

Homophobia is a term used to refer to a range of negative attitudes and feelings towards lesbian, gay and in some cases bisexual, transgender people and behavior, although these are usually covered under other terms such as biphobia and transphobia. Definitions refer to irrational fear, with the...

and end
discrimination

Discrimination

Discrimination is the prejudicial treatment of an individual based on their membership in a certain group or category. It involves the actual behaviors towards groups such as excluding or restricting members of one group from opportunities that are available to another group. The term began to be...

and abuse against lesbians, gay men, bisexual, and
transgender

Transgender

Transgender is a general term applied to a variety of individuals, behaviors, and groups involving tendencies to vary from culturally conventional gender roles....

individuals.

Colonialism and an African voice

Although much of his career has been spent in West Africa, Nana's
concerns extend to the whole continent of Africa. "As Africans,
we feel the vestiges of the long Europe

Europe

Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...

an colonial

Colonialism

Colonialism is the establishment, maintenance, acquisition and expansion of colonies in one territory by people from another territory. It is a process whereby the metropole claims sovereignty over the colony and the social structure, government, and economics of the colony are changed by...

presence in our
continent," he has said. "We feel them when other -- Western

Western world

The Western world, also known as the West and the Occident , is a term referring to the countries of Western Europe , the countries of the Americas, as well all countries of Northern and Central Europe, Australia and New Zealand...

,
European, 'international

International

----International mostly means something that involves more than one country. The term international as a word means involvement of, interaction between or encompassing more than one nation, or generally beyond national boundaries...

' -- LGBT organisations speak on our behalf
and we are left unheard. Only Africans can speak for Africans."

On the other hand, Nana also bristles at the oft-cited notion that
homosexuality is a foreign, colonial import alien to Africa. In a
recent interview with a US-based journalist, Nana noted that
"Homosexuality is not a colonial heritage. The ... evil that is part
of the colonial heritage is homophobia and hatred."

Nana is a frequent media commentator on LGBT and HIV/AIDS matters,
appearing on media outlets ranging from Radio France Internationale

Radio France Internationale

Radio France Internationale was created in 1975 as part of Radio France by the Government of France, and replaced the Poste Colonial , Paris Mondial , Radio Paris , RTF Radio Paris and ORTF Radio Paris...

(RFI

Radio France Internationale

) to Chicago Public Radio

Chicago Public Radio

WBEZ is a noncommercial, public radio station broadcasting from Chicago, Illinois. Financed primarily by listener contributions, the station is affiliated with both National Public Radio and Public Radio International; they also broadcast content from American Public Media...

Fighting HIV/AIDS

His work in the field of HIV and AIDS has paralleled his LGBT human
rights endeavours. In Cameroon, he has been active in various HIV
prevention efforts targeting gay and bisexual men—a high-risk group
roundly ignored in official Cameroon government HIV prevention
campaigns. Focusing on World AIDS Day

World AIDS Day

World AIDS Day, observed December 1 every year, is dedicated to raising awareness of the AIDS pandemic caused by the spread of HIV infection. Government and health officials observe the day, often with speeches or forums on the AIDS topics. Since 1995, the President of the United States has made an...

-- December 1 -- Nana
coordinated a letter-writing campaign to the health
ministries and national AIDS committees of all African countries,
encouraging them not to ignore gay and bisexual men in their work.

Education and personal

Nana, who is fluent in English

English language

English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...

in addition to French

French language

French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...

,
Banso, and Medumba, has also studied German

German language

German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....

and Estonian

Estonian language

Estonian is the official language of Estonia, spoken by about 1.1 million people in Estonia and tens of thousands in various émigré communities...

. Nana obtained his LLM (Master) in International Human Rights Law from the University of the Western Cape and is now studying towards an LLD.

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