episode 6:
jo munkombe
(they/them)
“I don’t think I know an African Queer immigrant who I went to school with in undergrad that wasn’t fleeing their country so they could be Queer…The thing that kept me going was that I could see other African Queers living.”
Jo Munkombwe Photographed by Niyah Shaheed (2025).
“The country I’m from, about 96% of the population is Christian. And being Christian is very important to cultural identity.
So being told that being gay is not Zambian and being gay is not Christian is almost interchangeable.
It kind of detaches you from accessing any kind of identity. And that was hard to figure out as a kid.”
Left: Church of Christ’s first church in Sinde, Zambia. Courtesy of Zambia Mission.
Right: “Faith Baptist Church of Riverside in Kitwe, Zambia” (2007). Courtesy of Zambia Hunt.
“Our first president, Dr. Kenneth Kaunda, pioneered Zambian humanism, which was a philosophy that he intended to reunite Zambia, reignite Zambian culture, and reunite tribes. But the problem with it, I think, is it used a lot colonial logic to reunite Zambia. It repackaged things like being Christian, being patriotic, being pure of body and mind as something authentically Zambian - when in fact it was a colonial project to instill those things into Zambia… That really enshrined a particular kind of mindset into Zambian public life.
So, those are the things I think about when I hear “being gay is a sin” in Zambia, or “being Queer is not Zambian.” I think about the British colonial project in Zambia.”
Kenneth Kaunda. Courtesy of Trevor Grundy Archives.
Zambian asylum seeker in South Africa holding a Zambian flag at Pretoria Pride (2021).Photographed by Guillem Sartorio.
“Even with the little understanding I had of myself, I knew I could not stay in Zambia and I could not live there with how - virtriolic is an understatement - the homophobia is…
The last thing on the news before I moved to America was the American consulate to Zambia sat down and had a conversation with our president at the time, Edgar Lungu. They were talking about Africans’ cruelty towards LGBT people. And this was at the time when people in East Africa were literally being hunted down and killed for being gay.
Zambia doesn’t have laws that protect Queer people - in fact it had laws against just the existence of Queer people…
I remember clear as the day the president saying, ‘Not even animals do it. Why would I let Zambians do it?’ - in regards to be being gay.”
Edgar Lungu Photographed by Gulshan Khan of Agence France Presse.
Jo Munkombwe Photographed by Niyah Shaheed (2025).
Christopher Liberation Day - New York City- Photographed by Meryl Meisler (1977). Courtesy of @lgbt_history.
“Once I realized I was a lesbian and started understanding butch/femme culture and he/they, he/him lesbians…understanding Black masculinity in that way has made it a lot easier to connect to myself.
Because the answer kind of is lesbianism. I heard this in a book? In a tweet? Who knows. But it was someone saying, ‘My gender is lesbian.’... That’s kind of how I’ve come to understand myself, and it’s something I’m still working through.”
“I love Atlanta….I discovered myself here. I love all the beautiful Black people in Atlanta, and the person that that this community has allowed me to become.”
Jo Munkombwe Photographed by Niyah Shaheed (2025).
Courtesy of Southern Fried Queer Pride.
“I love Southern Fried Queer Pride… I go to a bunch of their open mics…There was a lesbian open mic night. There’s a Queer Black open mic night next week.
Oh how I will miss that if I leave Atlanta.”
Courtesy of Southern Fried Queer Pride.