So, Nnedi Okorafor’s “Lagoon” was a good read. Extraterrestrials coming onto the beaches of Lagos, blending in with fantasy creatures and superpowers of West African legend, human characters carving their own pathways in a changing Nigeria.

The one sticking point I have with the novel is the tragic fate of LGBT and gender-nonconforming characters in the novel. If you’ve read it, you know who and what I’m talking about.

I don’t know if anyone has brought it up yet with Ms Okorafor. But basically, ALL of the Nigerian LGBT characters met tragic fates or disappeared for some inexplicable reason at some point in the novel. The cross-dresser Jacobs, the LGBT activists Rome and Seven of the Black Nexus, every gender-nonconforming character.

Yes, Jacobs was unfortunately tied up with trigger-happy 419-scamming types like Moziz, but his entire experience in the novel feels like he played no further role than a dream deferred, a tragic sideshow who would needlessly die at the hands of his homophobic colleague Moziz in order to justify Moziz’s brutal death by extraterrestrial intervention. And the Black Nexus LGBT organization disappears as quickly as it appears.

If there was anything more that I wished from this novel in finishing it, I wish that queer African folks could survive and play a larger role in the unfolding drama.

I think Ms Okorafor made an unfortunate choice in burying her queer folk in the rubble of homophobia rather than letting them see the new day in Nigeria.