Born This Way: Representing the Struggle to Express Sexual Orientation in Cameroon

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Born This Way is a documentary that takes place in Cameroon and discusses the political atmosphere and social stigma surrounding the LGBT people who live there in hiding. It was directed by Shaun Kadlec and Deb Tullmann and released in 2013. This documentary is important for our French Class, FREN 300.3 “Liberté, captivité, en francais”, because Cameroon is a francophone country, meaning they speak French as a national language. In this class we have analyzed how liberty and captivity are represented in francophone literature and film, and we are using what we found to create a story map with the class. Cameroon has the highest percentage of arrests due to sexual orientation, and this documentary reveals the daily struggles of living in Cameroon as an LGBT individual, hiding from the police and government, not showing affection in public, receiving death threats from others around them, and worse. The documentary also reveals the efforts of an LGBT organization that hides itself from the government by labeling themselves as a health center. However, they focus on the safety of LGBT individuals in Cameroon, HIV prevention and medicine, and helping members of the community hide and live safely without the police knowing about them. They also function as an activist group, seeking to change the way the government of Cameroon treats its LGBT citizens, utilizing advice and aid from foreign nations, and working with Alice Nkom, a lawyer who has been fighting for the decriminalization of homosexuality in Cameroon since 2003. By analyzing the film, we will show via our story map, how the filmmakers represent the social stigma highlighted in the documentary as creating an atmosphere of imprisonment for those within the homosexual community in Cameroon; along with those people simultaneously seeking to liberate and working towards liberation.