Statement by Nana Davis Mac-Iyalla
As an intersex person rooted in West Africa and committed to the pursuit of dignity, inclusion, and truth, I issue this statement to mark Intersex Awareness Day—not as a symbolic gesture, but as a call to action.
Intersex people have always existed. Across our continent, our bodies have been part of sacred cosmologies, our lives woven into the ancestral fabric of our communities. Yet today, many intersex children and adults across West Africa continue to face silence, shame, and systemic harm. Non-consensual surgeries, social exclusion, and theological erasure remain widespread.
This is not our tradition. It is the legacy of colonial medicine and imported dogma—forces that taught us to fear what we once honored.
As Executive Director of IDNOWA, I affirm that intersex rights are human rights. We must end medically unnecessary interventions on intersex infants. We must protect intersex people from discrimination in healthcare, education, and religious spaces. And we must ensure that intersex voices are not only heard, but centered in the policies and movements that shape our lives.
Our advocacy is not a Western import. It is a reclamation. A return to the wisdom of our ancestors who understood that life is not binary, and that the divine is not limited by rigid categories of male or female.
We call on governments, faith leaders, educators, and civil society across West Africa and the diaspora to join us in this work. Let us build coalitions that honor bodily autonomy. Let us create spaces where intersex people can live openly, safely, and with pride. Let us teach our children that difference is not a defect—it is a gift.
To all intersex people: you are not alone. You are not broken. You are not a mistake. You are sacred.
This Intersex Awareness Day, we do not ask for permission to exist. We assert our right to thrive.
Interfaith Diversity Network of West Africa 