Lesbian women say what is the secret language that they use in countries that prohibit homosexuality

The BBC spent months talking to bads in Burundi, East Africa. Interviewees explained in detail their daily lives and explained how they used memes and secret symbols to identify themselves.

In recent months, the BBC has interviewed dozens of young bads in Burundi, a country in East Africa where homobaduality is illegal. When they talk on social networks or chat apps, they use secret symbols and symbols to identify themselves.

For illustrations in this article, we replaced them with a purple-blue so as not to reveal exactly what these codes are, because bad women of the early twentieth century gave their brides violets.

Purple Blue is a metaphor and not a label belonging to this group or, to our knowledge, to any other LGBT group in East Africa or the Great Lakes region.

Nella

Nella sends a photo to the BBC with the help of an encrypted application.

It's a picture of her, sitting on a chair with young children around her.

"My children," she wrote. "They are less than 10 years old."

All pose for the camera, with comic and childish expressions on the face.

Nella is wearing a hijab.

Then another picture arrives.

In this new image wears loose pants and a tight shirt.

You can see her black and curly hair falling on her shoulders.She is sitting at a table in an open-air restaurant, holding her arm around a young woman who has her hair arranged in "crow" braids ( attached to the scalp). .

She is sitting at a table in an open-air restaurant, her arm around the arm of a young woman whose hair is arranged in "cornrow" braids (attached to the scalp).

The two women smile widely.

"My girlfriend," he writes. "Are not we cute?"

It's the first time you can present it this way to someone, she says.

He feels good.

Your family is not aware of your relationship, of course.

But she is not afraid that someone from her community will find them if they end up in the street.

She hopes that they will not recognize her, because when she goes to see her girlfriend, she removes the hijab that she has at her home.

Niya

Growing up, Niya has never been attracted to men.

When he was 22, he met a woman, also 20 years old, through common friends.

United for their love of music, the two women quickly became friends.

"One day, in the middle of a deep conversation, he turned to me and said," I love women, "Niya said.

"I thought" WOW! ".

"I love women".

Niya went home and thought about it.

She realized that she had feelings for her friend.

They started going out in secret. They went to eat, buy, in bars.

For the outside world, they were two close friends who were doing things together.

The relationship did not last long, but at least one thing was already clear.

Niya now knew why men did not attract her.

He felt that he should talk to someone from his close family. He chose one of his brothers.

"He only asked me two questions:" How long have you been aware of? "and & # 39; are you sure?" he recalls.

"I replied:" Two years. "And" yes, I'm sure of it, "he says.

She says that she was safe because, like Nella, she had spent a lot of time researching the subject on the Internet.

Niya had searched YouTube videos of bad bloggers from other parts of the world, watched movies about same-bad couples, and read many stories about bad, bibadual, and queer (LBQ) communities.

As a result, he began to understand the language of the Internet.

"I used a lot of memes, specific memes, to touch other women," he says.

(When the BBC tells Niya that we are going to use purple blue images to illustrate the memes of this piece, Niya replies, "Perfect, this is our secret violet revolution").

A puzzle started to go slowly.

Niya's brother said, "Well, you know I'll always protect you."

The two kissed each other.

It was the last time they talked about this topic.

Leila

At 21, Leila was dating a man.

But something was not right.

"I was not very interested," he says. "I thought it was maybe because the guy was not handsome, so I left him and started going out with a cute guy."

It did not work either.

Then a friend asked her if she was sure she did not prefer women.

Many girls are slow to accept that they do not like men.

It was useless to lie to herself.

I'm a bad, Leila thought internally. But I thought that there was still hope "that there would be a way out".

As a last "attempt", Leila prayed, meditated and even angry with herself.

Then, slowly, his defenses were used up.

Like Niya and Nella, he started looking for contacts with the outside world, watching videos on Facebook and YouTube.

"Maybe I'm alone in Bujumbura (Burundi city) but I'm not alone in the world," he said to himself.

Luck

Lesbian and bibadual women can travel to Bujumbura in two ways: luckily and online.

"I met Leila at work," says Niya. "We started talking at lunch and in the middle of this conversation, we realized we were the same."

There would have been no other way to find us.

Both became friends quickly.

"It's hard to accurately describe the situation of homobaduals in Africa," Leila said. "It's something tacit, you become an expert in capturing the vibrations of others, because a lot of communication is nonverbal, you become an expert in body language, eye contact."

Leila, Niya and later Nella formed a community. "Now we are dozens," they say.

They look like the secret bad group of Burundi.

Dark side

In 2009, the Burundi government enacted a new penal code punishing same-bad relationships.

The penalties include up to two years' imprisonment and / or a fine of up to 100,000 francs.

We know very little about the rights of bads in Burundi.

A 2009 report often quoted by Human Rights Watch indicates that there are only 10 members of the LGBT community, including one bad.

The BBC has spoken to dozens of people.

Is it time to start a "purple revolution"?

"Our community is strong and vibrant," Niya said.

They hope it is only the beginning of the conversation.

The beginning of a "revolution of the violet".