FannyAnn Eddy

Biography

Trigger warning: this article mentions lethal violence against LGBTQ+ individuals.

FannyAnn Viola Eddy was born in Sierra Leone on June 14, 1974. She came of age during one of the darkest periods in the country’s history: the civil war from 1991 to 2002. This war forced many people to flee, including FannyAnn. She spent part of the war in a refugee camp.

A safe haven

In 2002, shortly after the war ended and Sierra Leone had started its slow recovery, FannyAnn and others founded the Sierra Leone Lesbian and Gay Association (SLLGA). The first of its kind in the country, this organization provided social and psychological support for a community that often lived in the shadows. In a country where homosexuality was criminalized and where LGBTQ+ people regularly faced harassment, discrimination, and violence, SLLGA offered a safe haven.

Sierra Leone’s laws that criminalize sexual acts between men are a legacy of colonial rule. They date back to the British colonial period and are based on the Offences against the Person Act of 1861. This legislation was introduced by the British and remained in force after Sierra Leone gained independence in 1961. Sexual acts between women are not criminalized, likely because it was considered inconceivable that two women could have a sexual relationship. This does not mean that lesbian, bisexual, transgender, queer, and intersex people in Sierra Leone can live freely and without fear. Like gay men, they also experience violence, scapegoating, and exclusion in their everyday realities, fueled by rigid interpretations of culture, tradition, and religion. This pattern is not unique to Sierra Leone or Africa in general but exists worldwide in varying degrees.

International influence

FannyAnn’s work focused not only on support for the community, but also on human rights activism. She documented violations such as arbitrary arrests and abuse.

Her influence reached beyond the borders of her own country. In April 2004, she was part of a delegation of activists who attended the annual session of the United Nations Commission on Human Rights in Geneva. There, she spoke words that would leave a lasting impression:
“Silence creates vulnerability.”

With these words, she called on the international community to take action against the oppression of LGBTQ+ people in Africa. Her voice was not only her own, but that of thousands who dared not speak out for fear of reprisals. She stood up against a male-dominated, patriarchal, and homo‑ and transphobic society. She demanded protection, recognition, and justice:

“We live in fear in our communities, where we are constantly harassed and subjected to violence by neighbors and others. Their homophobic attacks go unpunished and only encourage further discriminatory and violent behavior towards LGBTQ people.”

A tragic end and a powerful legacy

Not long afterwards, on September 28, 2004, her life was brutally cut short. Late at night, while she was working alone in the SLLGA office in Freetown, attackers broke in and ultimately killed her. Her violent death shocked the world. It drew international attention to the dangers that LGBTQ+ activists face in sub-Saharan Africa.

Official investigations did not classify the murder as a hate crime against an LGBTQ+ individual. Accounts differ between an “official” and an “unofficial” version regarding the extent of the violence she endured. Her murder remains unpunished to this day. Nevertheless, for many it is clear that her activism and her open support for the community played a role in this horrific act.

Her death was an immense loss not only for her son and her partner, but also for the LGBTQ+ community in Sierra Leone and beyond. Yet FannyAnn’s courage lives on. The international and LGBTQIA+ communities have given her the recognition she deserves. The Hirschfeld‑Eddy Foundation—established in Germany in 2007 to protect and promote LGBTQ+ human rights worldwide—was named after Magnus Hirschfeld and FannyAnn—each a pioneer in the fight for LGBTQ+ rights in their own context and time. In 2008, the FannyAnn Eddy Poetry Award was established in Sierra Leone to promote queer poets and their work.