Richard Akuson is a Nigerian lawyer, LGBT rights activist, writer, editor, and the founder of A Nasty Boy magazine, Nigeria’s first LGBTQ+ publication. He was born on July 26, 1993.
Akuson was recognized as one of Forbes Africa’s 30 Under 30 change-makers in 2019 for questioning strict views on gender, sexuality, and masculinity in Nigeria, where homosexual activities are punishable by a 14-year prison sentence.
He was a nominee for the 2017 New Media Innovation Award at The Future Awards Africa. Additionally, Akuson has been nominated for the Best Fashion Writer Abryanz Style & Fashion Award thrice. He was included on YNaija’s list of the 40 Most Powerful Nigerians Under the Age of 40 after the publication of A Nasty Boy magazine in 2017.
Richard Akuson’s biography
Richard Akuson was born in the Nigerian town of Akwanga, Nasarawa State. He grew up in an upper-middle-class home as the second of three boys, the son of a politician and a college lecturer. He attended Shepherd’s International College, a private, co-educational Christian boarding school, before enrolling in law school at Nasarawa State University, Keffi. After graduating from the Nigerian Law School in Lagos, he was admitted to the Nigerian Bar as a Barrister and Solicitor of the Supreme Court of Nigeria in 2017.
Richard Akuson’s Career
At the age of 18, Akuson began his work as a style intern. He co-founded ILLUDED, an online photo-sharing platform, in 2014. In 2016, he was offered the post of head of BellaNaija’s fashion and style sections, which catapulted his career to new heights. In 2016, his work at BellaNaija got him a nomination for Fashion Writer of the Year at the Abryanz Style & Fashion Awards. Later that year, he left BellaNaija to start The PR Boy, a boutique public relations firm specializing in Nigerian entrepreneurs. While attending Nigerian Law School in 2017, he created A Nasty Boy, a boundary-pushing LGTBQ+ journal that quickly increased in stature and international renown.
Akuson wrote a harrowing, tell-all piece for CNN in April 2019 on the circumstances that drove him to depart Nigeria for safety in America. He penned a heartfelt essay for The New York Times’ “Sunday Review” in July 2019. The essay, “This is Quite Gay,” was widely featured on the Times’ web front page and appeared in print the next day in a similarly prominent position.
Akuson fled to America in 2018 after suffering a brutal homophobic attack in Nigeria. In the United States, he has continued to talk freely about the attack and Nigeria’s pernicious homophobia culture. He has given interviews to OkayAfrica, Very Good Light, and The Black Youth Project, in which he went into extensive depth about the occurrence. Akuson is still a vocal advocate for the LGBTQ+ and asylum populations in America.
