Time Line of Events

The travestis* of Ivory Coast was a prominent group, recognized and documented from the early 1990s and most probably were active even before the 90s.   Their leader was Barbara and they formed the Ivory Coast Transvestites Association (IVTA). We are not completely clear on the founding date, but according to different sources, the association has existed definitely since the early 1990s.

It is for example recorded that in 1994 after journalists were quite sarcastic and used derogatory tones in their reporting in printed media, a militant group of transvesti activists stormed the building where the newspaper’s offices were located, broke some windows, and assaulted some of the journalists. According to this document this 1994 incident and similar occurances during the same time, lead to the forming of L’association des travestis de Côte d’Ivoire (Travesti Association of Cote d’Ivoire)/ IVTA. 

*Travestis is the French word for transvestites.  

The documentary Woubi Chéri was released in 1998.  The topic of the film is the lives of woubis (1), yossis (2),  Travestis and other members of the branché (3) community.  The award-winning documentary was globally featured in various film festivals and documentary platforms. 

Shortly after Woubi Chéri’s release, Barbara emigrated to France. Slowly the energetic drive for the L’association des travestis de Côte d’Ivoire (Travesti Association of Cote d’Ivoire)/ IVTA dwindled down and no more signs of the militant activism were seen. It is speculated that the later generations of “men who have sex with men” (MSM) activism in the context of attracting funding for HIV/AIDS erased all the efforts made by the woubis, a result of the nonprofit industrial complex. 

1)- Woubis are effeminate boys who play the role of women in the relationship

2)- Yossis are the men, the husbands. They can be bisexual and/or married with a family while in a relationship with a woubi.

3)- Branché: a coded, local term used by sexual and gender minorities to describe themselves and one another.

It should also be noted that woubis (and cross dressers or transvestites /travestis) are not automatically assumed to be transgender or specifically claiming the Western terminology. Woubis existed long before any information was available on the internet and social media. Through research and the documentary Woubi Chéri it became quite evident and very clear that the branché community and woubi ascribe to a much larger range of genders and sexualities than the Western binary system. They are gender outlaws, so to speak. 

South Africa hosted the 2003 Cricket World Cup. During the Parade of Nations, as part of the opening ceremony, the event’s organizers appointed models to walk in the parade, holding banners to represent each participating country. Senegalese-born model Barbara Diop had done modeling work in South Africa and on international runways in Italy prior to this event and she was appointed to carry the banner for the cricket team members from Zimbabwe.

A few days later rumors started circulating that Barbara was a transwoman.  She initially denied the rumors but eventually corroborated the claims.

Zimbabwe’s President Robert Mugabe responded with anger and said that it was done in a deliberate act to embarrass Zimbabwe.  This sentiment by President Robert Mugabe is one of the many homophobic anecdotes he has expressed in the past about LGBTI persons, including publicly expressing that ‘homosexuals’ are worse than pigs and dogs. He threatened to withdraw the Zimbabwean team from the Cricket World Cup but did not have to follow through with his threat as Zimbabwe was eliminated from the competition early. 

Transgender Education & Advocacy (TEA) in Kenya was established by Audrey Mbugua, working to defend the human rights of trans persons in Kenya.

The Promotion of Equality and Prevention of Unfair Discrimination Act (sometimes known as the Equality Act) was passed by the South African government in 2000 to prevent discrimination, hate speech, and harassment.  Following the work of activists, in 2005 PEPUDA was amended and became the first legislation in the world to include “intersex” within the legal definition of “sex” as “a congenital sexual differentiation which is atypical, to whatever degree.” This definition of intersex reflects activist work as it is almost identical to the recommendation submitted to the court by Intersex South Africa.  Sally Gross, advocated and worked passionately towards this inclusion. One of the major activist accomplishments of this legislation was to insist that intersex be self-defined, removing it from medical oversight or forced surgery that often accompanies legal definitions of “sex.”