On Oct 24, 2016 News 24 reported: Kelvin Mazungo is a 31-year-old gay man from Kariba in Zimbabwe, Tiwonge Chimbalanga is a 27-year-old transgender woman from Blantyre in Malawi and Jerryl Mondongo is a 30-year-old gay man from Brazzaville in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).

They have more in common than just being young, queer and African.

They have all faced trauma, and have taken refuge in South Africa to escape persecution at home.

And all of them told City Press that as out and proud lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex (LGBTI) Africans, you can run but you really can’t hide from your homophobic countrymen, even when far from home.

Why they left

Tiwonge talks about herself in the third person. At first, it’s a bit unsettling – as if she’s an outsider looking in on her own hardship.

“Tiwonge was beaten every single day in prison. They took a big stick and hit Tiwonge in the neck and chest area,” she says of why she fled Malawi for South Africa in 2010.

Her story is famous – google her.

She and her late husband Steven Monjeza were arrested in 2009 for holding a traditional engagement party.

They were released and pardoned after a high-level intervention by the United Nations.

In 2012, Malawi would suspend the laws criminalising homosexuality.

But, in 2015, same-sex marriages and unions would be banned again, with the state refusing to recognise gender reassignment surgery and comparing gay sex with rape.

Read more at It’s hard to escape the hate | News24