Growing up in Otse in Botswana, Iranti’s new LBQ Rights officer – Matlhogonolo Samsam, has always had an interest in human rights issues and saw herself growing up to become a diplomat. To her surprise, she found herself working at a rugby club for the first four years of her career. It was only when her friend applied on her behalf for an administrative job at Lesbians, Gays and Bisexuals of Botswana (LEGABIBO), a human rights advocacy organisation focusing exclusively on issues related to sexual orientation, gender identity and gender expression, that Matlhogonolo’s advocacy journey began.  

After some time at the organisation, she moved from administrative duties and was promoted to a role in media advocacy which was strengthened by the qualification she had obtained in Media Studies. Her increased involvement in the movement was motivated by her experiences in the work environment.

“Prior to working at LEGABIBO I had never been in a working environment that made me reflect on who I am as an individual, where I felt like these are my people and these are the things that I need to be talking about, she says. 

Through this new role she began doing more advocacy work which required engaging community and government stakeholders on various issues that impact the LGBTIQ community. Matty, as she is affectionately known, says that this work has given her an opportunity to deepen her understanding of human rights – even those that might have not directly impacted her.  

She later joined Black Queer Docx, where she continued to advocate for human rights- including increasing accessibility of LGBTIQ friendly resources on sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR). Matty has advocated against the maltreatment of LGBTIQ+ students in school environments, striving towards more inclusive curriculums, comprehensive sexuality education as well as capacity strengthening for guidance counsellors so that they would be equipped to assist queer students.  She has also participated in hosting feminist camps which focused on adolescent girls and young women with the aim of introducing them to feminism through exploring themes of consent, body positivity and safe sex.  

 “In the context of Botswana, when you say feminism, people view it as an anti-men, western/white women’s agenda. We were bringing feminism down to terms that they could understand”, Matty explains. 

This work also extended to working with healthcare workers, who attended capacity strengthening sessions with the aim of fostering less hostile healthcare facilities for young queer people who wanted to access these services.  

In the last decade, Botswana has had a number of landmark cases pertaining to the legal rights for the LGBTIQ persons such as a ground-breaking 2019 high court judgment decriminalising same-sex sexual conduct between consenting adults, the registration of LEGABIBO, a crucial Legal Gender Recognition case which ruled that the applicant, a transgender man, should be allowed to hold official documents that reflect his gender identity, as well the celebration of Gaborone Pride which began after the decriminalisation case. Whilst celebrating how far Botswana has come, Matlhogonolo says that progression towards recognizing LGBTQI+ rights has been slow, if steady, and she hopes to see the legal recognition of more rights in her lifetime. 

With much of the funding in Botswana having been health-focused, with most LGBTIQ funding directed towards MSM (men who have sex with men) – LBQ women, their needs and their organising, often fall through the cracks. This is part of the reason why Matlhogonolo’s focus shifted towards highlighting the specific needs of LBQ women – having noted that their health needs were either neglected or insufficient (for example difficulty with accessing dental dams and challenges with its use).  

In her role as LBQ Rights Officer at Iranti, Matty hopes her work can contribute to cultivating a world that is more understanding of the intersecting issues that black, queer women and nonbinary people face.  

“I just want to see a world where being lesbian, transgender and nonbinary is considered to be normal. Where you’re not fighting for anything; you get to just exist.”