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Colin Stewart is a 45-year journalism veteran living in Southern…

Talks are under way on behalf of two innocent lesbian prisoners held for 10 months without trial

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Two faces behind bars represent Katie and Mimi innocent lesbian prisoners in Cameroon whom the Not Alone Project aims to get out of prison early. Click the image to donate.

Ten months have passed without a trial since Katie and Mimi were arrested and imprisoned on charges of lesbianism.

Since January, they have been held in Cameroon’s grim, unsanitary Mfou Prison, where they are fed only one paltry meal a day.

They are two of the 13 innocent victims of Cameroonian homophobia that this site’s Project Not Alone 2023 began working to set free, starting last May.

Fundraising is under way for this site’s activist journalists, whose hands-on work provides the foundation for Project Not Alone’s advocacy on behalf of innocent LGBTQ prisoners such as Katie and Mimi.

PLEASE DONATE so we can continue this work.

Katie and Mimi’s troubles began last January in their home in the small town of Mfou just east of Cameroon’s capital city of Yaoundé. Accusations of infidelity turned into a loud argument, which caught the attention of neighbors. Suddenly realizing that Katie, age 27, and Mimi, age 34, are lesbians, the neighbors notified police, who arrived at the house and arrested them. Under Cameroonian law, same-sex intimacy is punishable by up to five years in prison.

They were thrown into the local prison, where they have been held without trial ever since.

Logo of Project Not Alone (Otavio Zuni illustration courtesy of the artist)

In May, those two innocent lesbian prisoners were accepted into Project Not Alone 2023 along with 11 other imprisoned victims of homophobia, none of whom have been charged with anything except homosexuality. Fundraising for the project began in May. Donated money went first to pay fines of prisoners who could be set free immediately — gay men Otto and Alan and trans women Helen and Uchechi. (All names in this article are pseudonyms for the prisoners’ safety after their release.)

The project also paid the fines for innocent lesbian prisoners Martha and Sally at Bafoussam Prison in western Cameroon, which makes them eligible for early release in December rather than having to wait their full sentence ends next April. By late summer, generous donors had given enough money to Project Not Alone to pay the legal expenses of lawyers working pro bono for the remaining seven detainees who had all been incarcerated for months without trial. Those seven are Katie and Mimi, plus five young gay men at Bafoussam Prison. Our attorney in Bafoussam recently succeeded in winning the release of the remaining Project Not Alone detainees there. (An article about their release will be published soon.)

That leaves only Katie and Mimi.

A pro bono attorney from the legal aid group Défenseurs Sans Frontières has been negotiating with the judge and prosecutor in Mfou — so far without winning the women’s release or even a trial.

One complicating factor for Katie and Mimi is that the prosecution lost Katie’s file. If the couple was in the United States, such a misstep could promptly lead to their release. In Cameroon, it has led to additional delays as the prosecution works to reassemble the lost file.

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Groceries delivered to unjustly imprisoned lesbian couple Katie and Mimi included food to supplement their meager prison rations. (Photo by Steeves Winner) — Groceries delivered to innocent lesbian prisoners Katie and Mimi included food to supplement their meager prison rations. (Photo by Steeves Winner)

In the meantime, reporter Steeves Winner visited them in Mfou Prison with a delivery of food and hygiene items paid for by Project Not Along donors. He reports that both Katie and Mimi are doing well and are in high spirits. They are eagerly awaiting their release from prison so they can return to their daily lives.

Winners delivery to the prisoners consisted of a bag of rice, a tub of butter, milk, salt, chocolate, cooking oil, sugar, detergent and anti-bacterial soap.

Work such as that is made possible by this news site’s financial sponsor, the St. Paul’s Foundation for International Reconciliation, which is seeking donations to continue the work for LGBTQ+ rights, equality and acceptance, especially in Africa and the Caribbean.

Please DONATE to help us reach our fundraising goal of $5,000, which will allow the advocacy journalists whom we support to continue their work into next year. They are active in Nigeria, Cameroon, Uganda, the Caribbean and in French-speaking Africa. It is an important time for LGBTQ rights, with harsh new anti-homosexuality bills threatened in Ghana and Niger, while court action challenging homophobic laws are under way in Uganda, Tunisia, Malawi and several Caribbean nations.

PLEASE DONATE NOW: Donations are needed to continue supporting our advocacy journalists, including Steeves Winner, and operating the websites that deliver their articles to readers. Here are ways to make a donation supporting LGBTQ rights (tax-deductible in the U.S.):