2023-05-20 05:59:00
Shakiro fled his country of origin, Cameroon, after going through hell there. Bullying, public humiliation and imprisonment, this influencer finally reached Belgium where she intends to resume law studies to defend her peers.
It’s sunglasses with sequins on the nose and fringed jeans that Shakiro arrives in our studios. An exercise to which she is accustomed by her appearances on social networks. However, Shakiro seems stressed, moved. She settles in and tells us her story and we will quickly understand why.
“Hell on Earth”
In Cameroon, Shakiro received a prison sentence for attempted homosexuality and indecent assault. “I do not count the number of times I have been raped in prison. I hardly left my cell – even to take a shower – I was so scared”, she explains to us before bursting into tears. She still has no news from her friend Patricia, with whom she was arrested in February 2020, in a beauty salon where they worked. A long legal battle ensued before being conditionally released in July, thanks to the help of her lawyer and a mobilization of sympathizers. Because Shakiro is very well known on the African continent. She regularly posts videos on the networks to defend the LGBTQIA+ cause. Upon her release, a refugee in Nigeria where she spends her days locked up in a hotel room, Shakiro decides to write her story; since the beatings, the excommunications from his village, his church, and those months spent in Douala prison. She sends her text to dozens of people who can help her around the world.
“Belgium, the place where I had to be for a long time”
Last January, she received a response from the Belgian Embassy in Nigeria. His application for a humanitarian visa is accepted. Since then, Shakiro has lived in Brussels where she intends to resume the course of her life, while continuing to fight against the unacceptable. “In September, I will enroll in law school and hope to take over from my lawyer who has specialized in defending the rights of LGBTQIA+ people for more than 20 years. Homosexuality is not a mental illness! It must be decriminalized everywhere in the world. Love is love.”
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