Category: Africa

The Scars That Opened the Way

Written by Joseph K (He/Him)

AI art

Today marks exactly seven years since I took a stand for my community. On this day, as an LGBTIQ+ refugee who had fled persecution from my country, and after my own family excommunicated me because of my sexual orientation, I began advocating for more than 300 LGBTIQ+ refugees from Kakuma Refugee Camp: people who had endured violence, threats, and suffering for decades, simply for being who they are.

On December 11, 2018
fear filled the air,
hate wrote death threats on walls,
and even places meant for protection
could not keep us safe.

Yet we stood.
Twenty-one were moved first —
injured bodies, trembling spirits —
to receive medication, shelter,
and a chance at life beyond the camp.
That moment opened the path
to mass resettlement,
to survival beyond Kakuma.

I was the chairman.
So I became the target.
I paid with my body —
my hand, my index finger, gone.
When I see the scars,
my memory runs back to that day,
to pain that carried purpose,
to sacrifice that saved lives.

Three hundred souls
pulled back from violence.
Three hundred futures
no longer written in fear.

Today Joseph lives in Nairobi: alive, displaced, homeless and unbroken.

“If these words reach you, I humbly ask for support for safe shelter, for dignity, and for the chance to celebrate Christmas not on the streets, but in safety and peace.” These scars are my testimony. They tell the world that courage has a cost and that love, even in exile can rescue hundreds.

Anyone who wants to help Joseph is welcome to contact me, and we can arrange for help to be sent directly to him. His immediate need is for $100 AUS, which would see him get shelter into the New Year, plus an asthma inhaler.

This blog ©2025 Geoff Allshorn. All rights hereby returned to the poet.
I show my respect for Elders past and present and acknowledge the Wurundjeri-Willam people, the Traditional Custodians of the Land on which this blog was prepared.

Love without a Roof.

Introduction:
This poem was written in reflection of my own eviction — an experience shared by countless LGBTIQ+ individuals across the world who are forced from their homes simply for being themselves.
After homophobia, homelessness remains one of the greatest challenges queer refugees and individuals face.
This piece gives voice to that pain, resilience, and the hope that love, even without a roof, can still endure. – Joseph
Rainbow Sanctuary in Ruins (AI art)

They brought knives in the form of eyes,
Whispers that sliced like sharpened sighs.
My humanity — gentle, small, and true —
Branded sin on their wall anew.

The key that once unlocked my door
Now hangs useless, meaning no more.
I stand in the night with memories bare,
The stars my ceiling, the cold my prayer.

Homophobia turned my home to ash,
Hatred cloaked in holy wrath.
They called it “order,” they called it “law,”
But I saw fear, and nothing more.

I am not the only one in this storm-battered street —
There are countless others with tired feet.
Brothers, sisters, souls without a name,
Each carrying love the world has shamed.

No roof for the rainbow, no bed to lie,
Yet still we breathe with defiant chests.
Our hearts will not lose their colour’s shine —
For every colour is holy, blessed.

One day, this earth will build anew:
A world where rainbows shine right through.
Where love is home, and home is kind,
And no one’s truth is left behind.

AI art

Written by Joseph K (He/Him)
If this poem moves you, please consider helping me rebuild what hatred took away.
Your support, even a small contribution toward rent, can give an LGBTIQ+ refugee like me a safe place to call home again.

This blog ©2025 Geoff Allshorn. All rights hereby returned to the poet.

I show my respect for Elders past and present and acknowledge the Wurundjeri-Willam people, the Traditional Custodians of the Land on which this blog was prepared.