Not bisexual enough: Nigerian faces deportation from Sweden

Edosa, a bisexual Nigerian man living in Sweden, is currently facing deportation by the Swedish government, which doubts his account of his sexual orientation.

Thirty-three-year-old Edosa (not his real name), who is an orphan from Edo State in Nigeria, told NoStringsNG in a chat that while growing up in Nigeria, he knew that he was not heterosexual.

Location of Edo State in Nigeria. (Map courtesy of The Nation)

“As a child, I sensed I might not be heterosexual, with sexual attraction on same sex. I remember questioning my sexuality around the age of 9 when I started seeking intimacy with other male kids,” he said.

Edosa left the country at the age of 23 in 2007 because in Nigeria he couldn’t live his life freely as a bisexual man. He tried having a relationship with a man while he was in Nigeria, but the relationship was brief.

“I now have permanent residence in Sweden. I moved to Sweden in 2007 and, until then, I was unable to freely explore my sexuality as a bisexual,” he said. “I could not have done otherwise in Nigeria because of fear, shame and the consequences of being stigmatized and eventually subjected to torture and persecution.

“I had some childhood friends. We were emotionally attached to each other, playing with each other privately, but couldn’t foster anything promising, because we were both scared.”

Edosa said that he married a bisexual woman in Sweden in 2009, but things became complicated and the marriage ended.

“We parted ways due to irreconcilable differences,” he said.

Location of Nigeria in Africa

Because he is no longer married to a Swedish woman, Edosa is currently facing deportation charges in court because the Swedish government does not believe that he is bisexual and therefore does not believe that returning him to his native country would put him in danger from homophobic and biphobic Nigerian society.

“Right now as I am talking to you, the Swedish government wants to send me back home [to Nigeria] because my marriage with the bisexual woman failed since 2012,” he said.

“I am bisexual, but they don’t believe this. According to them, no one was aware in Nigeria about my sexuality before I left the country. But nevertheless, this is whom I have been and who I am.”