Paper short abstract:

Homosexuality is continuously masked as nonexistent in Africa and discourse which continues to push such narrative is commonplace. However, digital media have become a platform for putting the knowledge straight and further helping us to understand its attending homophobic narratives.

Paper long abstract:

Diverse sexual relationships are masked as nonexistent in Africa and discourse which continues to push such narratives is commonplace. With the internet and social media assuming a veritable platform for the advocacy of the rights of Nigerian LGBTQ persons, it is necessary to examine the language operational in the discourses involving sexual diversity and homophobia. I examine the use of language in the discourse on sexual diversity and homophobic discourse in Nigeria. I focus on 100 manually culled tweets and comments from Twitter using 'Nigerian homosexuals', 'Nigerian homophobia', and 'Naija LGBTQ' as search terms on the subject. I adopt the orientation of discourse stylistics to carry out a qualitative analysis of the data. Linguistic negativity, agentivity and affectivity, and language of silence are the dominant stylistic features identified in the discourse. The study reveals Also, queer sexualities are masked as having no representation in the Nigerian indigenous languages, at least in the sampled tweets. The implication is that homosexuality is objectified in digital media as Western infiltration on African modernity. Therefore while people with alternative sexualities are represented as objects, they are further subjected to verbal cyber-bullying.

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