Sally contemplates her future after being released from Bafoussam Prison in Cameroon. (Photo by Jean Jacques Dissoke)
PROJECT NOT ALONE
The story of Martha and Sally has a happy ending.
Sort of.
A lesbian couple, they had been living together peacefully in their African nation of Cameroon for three years.
Martha, 21, worked as a seamstress. Sally, 25, was a nurse. (For their safety, both are identified here with pseudonyms.) Then, in January 2023, neighbors in their housing development in the Bafoussam area of western Cameroon complained to police about them.
At first, police took no action. But next-door neighbors were frustrated by repeatedly hearing the moans of love-making coming from the couple, so the neighbors pleaded with a municipal official to intervene. Police opened an investigation and called Martha and Sally in for questioning.
When they refused to cooperate with that interrogation, police raided their home and arrested them on charges of homosexuality.
This sketch of a lesbian couple was used in May to illustrate the article about Martha and Sally (Donated illustration by Vincent Kyabayinze of East Africa Visual Artists / EAVA Artists.)
The next thing they knew, they were put on trial, convicted, fined 198,000 CFA francs each (about US $333 at the time), and sentenced to a year in Bafoussam Prison. They had no money to pay the fines, which, in Cameroonian prisons, meant that they would have to spend an additional three months behind bars — unless generous donors intervened.
Because they were locked up for no crime other than whom they loved, they qualified for assistance from the Erasing 76 Crimes news site’s Project Not Alone, which helps imprisoned victims of Cameroonian and Nigerian homophobia.
The project depends on donations from readers to help LGBTQ prisoners.
These groceries were delivered to Martha and Sally in Bafoussam Prison in October 2023. (Photo courtesy of SOS Solidarity)
During the spring of 2023, the project agreed to take on the cases of Martha, Sally and 11 other innocent prisoners who qualified for the program. In May, the project published an article about them and invited readers to donate to help pay their fines and purchase supplemental food, which is needed since prisoners in Cameroon are fed only one meal a day.
Readers responded generously enough that Project Not Alone was able to pay their fines in July. That qualified them for release in December 2023 instead of in March 2024.
By October, an additional donation of $3,553 had arrived from the UK-based Attitude Foundation, which allowed Project Not Alone to accomplish many more of its objectives.
Bafoussam’s local LGBTQ rights group, SOS Solidarity Rights and Health, used $120 from us to buy and deliver food and hygiene items to Martha and Sally in prison, including cooking oil, rice, bouillon cubes, cassava, sugar, chocolate and hygienic soap.
The couple was due to leave prison Dec. 11, but that date came and went with no change. After SOS Solidarity and attorney Mbatat Stevins intervened, Martha and Sally were released on Dec. 27.
By that time, the strain of life in Bafoussam Prison had taken its toll on the couple’s relationship.
Sally recalled, “On the eve of our release, an argument broke out between us about our future together. According to Martha, I’m an unlucky person and I’ve ruined her life because, thanks to me, she’s been in prison. During the release formalities, Martha was released about an hour before me and she disappeared.”
Martha hasn’t been seen since.
Sally, on the other hand, was available to talk last month. She said, “I’m doing well and I’d like to thank you once again for your support. I’m currently living with a new friend, and I haven’t heard from Martha. I don’t know where she’s gone to this day. I went to see our old friends to see if they had seen her, but there was no trace of her. I haven’t had the courage to go and see her family, but I’ve been told that she’s not there either.”
Sally is currently unemployed and is considering signing up for training as a hairdresser.
Source: African Human Rights Media Network member Erasing 76 Crimes.
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