*Weaponising Digital Architecture: Queer Nigerian Instagram Users and Digital Visual Activism DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.108760*

Although the image in the post is not of the account handler, its use, alongside the deeply emotive hashtags, is critical to and crucial for queer activism in Nigeria. This becomes striking when one connects it to the larger context of queerness and queer visibility. Subsequently, one can interrogate the visual realisation as a node 'in the becoming of distributed discussions in which their very materiality as performative utterances is deeply implicated' ([62]: 3). This is because having celebrities come out and visually acknowledge their sexualities and gender identities serves as motivation to the disadvantaged masses and defuse queerphobic reactions. Consequently one can assert that visual social media practices offer an important perspective on how photography both shapes and is shaped by mass practices. Notwithstanding the resort to elitism and the publicity accorded to an individual with celebrity status as a ways of acknowledging queer visibility, the digital visuality of queerness 'highlights how social media is modulating the relations possible between the self, the viewer, ambient audiences, and the ambient publics' [50]. This reality occasions the celebration of Niecy Nash's and Jessica Betts' front page appearance as a lesbian couple on the highly-rated celebrity magazine, Essence (**Figure 7**).

Considering the widespread systemic oppression which is visited upon Nigerian queer people, they are also subjected to significant discrimination in terms of

**Figure 7.** *Publicising opportunities for Nigerian queers.*

economic and social opportunities. To combat the recurrent marginalisation and attempts at rendering them invisible in view of their sexual orientation and gender identities, members of the Nigerian queer community make available liberating programmes and opportunities to help less fortunate members. In this, Bisi Alimi is a household name within Nigerian queer advocacy and outreach circles. Indeed he is recognised as the first Nigerian to out himself on a national platform. While he eventually had to flee from the country in view of threats to his personal safety, he has sustained his support for queer livability and visibility in Nigeria. A main front for his activities has been through the Bisi Alimi Foundation.

Across the images discussed in this section, it is obvious that the handlers and users as post-creators recognise the affordances of Instagram and use those to their information dissemination. Handle-tagging and image-hashtagging facilitate dialogic exchange and social bonding which, within the context of queer visibility and advocacy, constitute vital resources for digital visual activism especially in line with the potentialities available on Instagram.
