Gay Chief stripped …Paramount Chief was not aware he likes ‘Trumu-Trumu’

The Nigerian gay-Christian and LGBT campaigner, Davis Mac-Iyalla who recently was honoured with a chieftaincy title in the Central Region of Ghana has been stripped off the royal honour after authorities who installed said his LGBT lifestyle came to them as belated information.

“It was during the process of installation as the Amankrohen (Nkosuohene) that information came that Kweku Adu is also known as Mr. Davis Mac-Iyalla and has been supporting LGBTQI+ and its related activities. Immediately this information came to our attention, we called for the whole process [of installing] Mr. Davis Mac-Iyalla to be halted”, the Paramount Chief of the Nkusukum Traditional Area, Nana Okese Essandoh IX told journalists on Tuesday, January 31.

Nana Okese Essandoh IX continued: “We wish to state that no title has been conferred on him as Amankorehen of Yamonransa in view of the latest information that reached us about him, and he does not carry any title as Amankorehen”.

Nana Okese Essandoh IX said he got to know Davis Mac-Iyalla through some mutual friends from Cape Coast who attested to his love for charity and funding of developmental projects for deprived societies.

Apparently Davis Mac-Iyalla has been living in Cape Coast for some 10 years plus and has even adopted a Ghanaian name.

Nana Okese Essandoh IX said the Traditional Council decided to honour this development oriented foreigner now turned a friend of the community with the title of a ‘Development Chief’ which can be rightfully bestowed on even non-indigenes but his pro LGBT alliances made them halt the process.

On the day of the installation of Davis Mac-Iyalla, there was a rather heavy police presence to ensure the ceremony went on smoothly.
Though there was a long break midway and the traditional authorities recoiled into a rather long meeting, the ceremony went on anyway and the newly installed chief, Davis Mac-Iyalla even addressed the crowd at the durbar grounds.

On the day of his coronation, the LGBT activist turned chief was also seen being carried shoulder-high in a palanquin and dancing on a tour across the major streets of the town.

During the palanquin ride, the newly installed-chief fell off and landed on the ground before he was quickly bundled together and flung back into the palanquin to continue the ride. When he fell, and was still scrambling on the floor, onlookers were heard shouting, “awww, awww, awww, Yesu! Nana has fallen down”.

It is said that under indigenous traditional practices, a chief cannot fall from his palanquin and remain chief.

News of his reported installation sparked mixed reactions of which most people expressed disappointment and called for a revocation of the title.

Davis Mac-Iyalla is the Executive Director of the Interfaith Diversity Network of West Africa (IDNOWA), an organization with the mission to build bridges across all faiths and change attitudes towards LGBTQI people. They have an office at Nungua in Accra.
He is an Anglican Christian, a Nigerian by birth and currently a British citizen after he fled his home country in 2006 to escape homophobic attacks.

“I am not the first Nigerian gay man to be in the media, but I think I am the first openly homosexual man to appear in a printed newspaper saying that I am gay and proud. Most times what we read in the papers is the press outing someone who doesn’t want to be outed. In my case it was a matter of speaking out without thinking of the implications.

“The reason I decided to go public with my sexuality was because of the increasingly dysfunctional attitude of the Nigerian Anglican Church,” Davis Mac-Iyalla is quoted in a write up titled “Changing Nigeria’s Anti-LGBT Approach” that appeared under his name and published by The Center for Transatlantic Relations.

Many published journals speak to his pro-LGBT activities.