It is a win for me if people can meet somewhere where they will feel safe.” - MAYA ANGELOU
described “anti-oppressive, inclusive, supportive, dynamic, anti-racist, trans-positive, queer-positive framework” is a healing, transformative, empowering beam of hope in the darkness. For Kakyo, it is no longer just about the KAKYO Project. The space she created, where queer people gather to celebrate and be their mighty selves, or sometimes to find the love of their life, is about a whole lot more. “It is about creating a rainbow explosion within the region where more and more organizations sprout every day.” Beyond East Africa – From Israel to the Pacific Islands To better understand Kakyo and her projects, we must travel back to a time she spent in Israel. There, as a Bezalel resident artist at the CoCuDi Center, she relied on her passion for product design and background in textiles to create the first version of what became KAKYO’s chest binders. These binders, designed with the diversity of African bodies in mind, were just the start. Sign Up Over time, Kakyo’s project evolved into a comprehensive, interconnected strategy, to combat threats of violence and prosecution for the LGBTQ community throughout East Africa. Today, queer individuals from around the world can purchase her binders and anyone may donate to the KAKYO Project through the program’s “Duka” (its online store). There’s also the option to donate through a GoFundMe page. Transitioning from a creative to a managerial role has allowed her to help hundreds of queer creatives in Uganda, Kenya, and far beyond East Africa. For example, she answered my video call from Fiji, where she is currently contributing to the Pacific Human Rights Film Festival. As far as Fiji may be from her home, there is a close parallel between the two regions’ long, ongoing struggle for equality. Both have a rich, turbulent history, marred by colonization and its aftermath. Kakyo tells me how local languages accounted for queer terminology long before the colonizers arrived, bringing along a religion that would trigger, catalyze, and perpetuate homophobia in East Africa and the Pacific region. “Queerness precedes colonization,” she says. In Tonga and Papua New Guinea, it is currently illegal to be queer. In Uganda, an Anti-Homosexuality Act passed in 2023 prohibits LGBTQ people from even gathering. Clearly, the fight for equality is a global phenomenon of unparalleled urgency, and Kakyo is one of the mightiest warriors in this fight. Already have an account? Sign In
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