Tag: People and Life

Irving Seidmon Docktor (July 10, 1918 – February 14, 2008) was a prolific artist and educator best known for his work as a book and magazine illustrator in the 1950s and 1960s. His psychologically arresting and aesthetically distinctive style, featuring angular often overlapping faces executed with a moody palette, made him one of the most instantly recognizable illustrators of his era. An early work on the history of paperbacks identified Docktor and Edward Gorey as executing some of the most interesting and appealing cover designs in the field.

Early life

Irving Seidmont Docktor was born and raised in Philadelphia. He graduated from Central High School in Philadelphia, and won a scholarship to the Philadelphia Museum School of Industrial Art (now the University of the Arts) and the Barnes Foundation in Merion, Pennsylvania. A weight lifter in his youth, Docktor performed in walk-on roles with Mary Binney Montgomery’s ballet troupe while he was in college as a supernumerary actor, a job he obtained one day while sketching the dancers during their rehearsal. When Docktor noticed the male lead had trouble lifting his partner, he stepped in and was offered a position on the spot.

Career

Illustration

After graduating from art school, Docktor entered the army and was trained in photography. During World War II, he served as an aerial photographer in a map-making unit in the Technical Intelligence Team based in Australia and the Philippines. The sketches he made during this period served as visual referents for some of his later work, such as his illustrations for a book on the Battle of Bataan.

Upon his discharge, Docktor moved first to Flushing, Queens, New York, then to Fort Lee, New Jersey, and entered the commercial art world, producing illustrations that graced the covers and interiors of many novels, children’s books and record albums. Much of his early work was for Grosset & Dunlap. His dark palette and sense of the macabre led him to paint a number of covers for mystery novels and collections of supernatural fiction. He illustrated a number of books in the “Lookouts” juvenile mystery series by Christine Noble Govan and Emmy West in the late 1950s and early 1960s, and he executed cover paintings for five science fiction novels by Robert A. Heinlein. He used his children and neighbors as models. His cover for Govan and West’s Mystery of Rock City, for example, pictures his two sons and their playmates scrambling on the hillside near their house in Fort Lee.

He also did work in a brighter vein, including fashion illustrations, a luminous cover for a book on Bergdorf Goodman, and a richly illustrated book of American Folklore, which he counted among his best of his commercial work. Docktor contributed to innumerable magazines, and he painted posters for Broadway plays, including Tea and Sympathy, Long Day’s Journey Into Night and Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. Whimsical drawings of dogs were featured in the advertising brochures and other products of the Docktor Pet Centers, a franchise founded by the artist’s brother Milton. For this endeavor, Docktor expanded his range of technique to include photo collage, an approach he would occasionally use in other illustration work—in his covers for albums by The Serendipity Singers and the Dixie Double-Cats, for instance. His cover for an album by Art Tatum is an exercise in synesthesia, suggesting through strokes of color the tones of the pianist’s music. Similarly, his cover for Stories of Suspense, an anthology published by Scholastic Books, evokes the mounting horror of Daphne du Maurier’s story The Birds by including shadowy images of birds as a hidden visual motif.

Fine art

During this fertile period, Docktor also pursued a separate career as a fine artist. A mural commission in 1960 led him to relocate temporarily from Fort Lee, New Jersey, to New York City, and eventually to shift his emphasis from commercial illustration. By the late 1960s he had refocused on fine art, exhibiting paintings in numerous galleries and art shows in New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Connecticut, garnering a number of prizes at juried shows. In additions to landscapes and highly sensuous nudes, Docktor also returned repeatedly to a sequence of paintings he called the “Heritage series,” featuring juxtaposed figures and faces redolent of village life in the old world. “With technical perfection, the mystic characteristics and pathos give his art an exquisite, aesthetic quality,” remarked one reviewer in 1963.

Docktor was equally devoted to education, training several generations of fine and commercial artists. He taught figure drawing, fashion illustration, calligraphy and other subjects on a part-time basis for almost 50 years at the Newark School of Fine and Industrial Arts, and for 15 years served on the full-time faculty of the High School of Art and Design in New York City. He also taught occasional classes at Learning Annex. During his final years, he led art classes as a volunteer at the Senior Center in Fort Lee, New Jersey.

Docktor was the model for one of the seven figures in The Commuters (1984), the life-size bronze tableau by Grigory Gurevich at the entrance to the subway at Penn Station in Newark, New Jersey.

He was a member of a number of artist’s unions, including the Salmagundi Club, the Pastel Society of America, the Garden State Watercolor Society, the New Jersey Watercolor Society, the Philadelphia Sketch Club, the Philadelphia Watercolor Society, the New Jersey American Artists Professional League, the Northeast Watercolor Society, the Ridgewood Art Institute, the Ringwood Manor Art Association and the Society of Illustrators.

Personal life

Docktor married Mildred Sylvia Himmelstein. They lived in Fort Lee, New Jersey, in a home overlooking the Hudson River. They enjoyed frequently went to museums, the theatre, the Metropolitan Opera, the Philharmonic, the American Ballet Theatre, and the New York City Ballet. During performances, Docktor was fond of sketch what he was seeing in the Playbill, and amassed a large amount of work from this activity.

Docktor died February 14, 2008.

Published works (partial list)

Books

• Clark Gavin, Foul, False, and Infamous: Famous Libel and Slander Cases of History (Abelard, 1950)
• Patricia Highsmith, Strangers on a Train (Harper, 1950)
• Selwyn Jepson, The Hungry Spider (Doubleday, 1950)
• Theodora DuBois, High Tension (Doubleday, 1950)
• Christiana Brand, Cat and Mouse (Knopf, 1950)
• David William Meredith [Earl Schenck Miers], The Christmas Card Murders (Knopf, 1951)
• Jessamyn West, The Witch Diggers (Harcourt, Brace, 1951)
• Carl G. Hodges, Naked Villany (Suspense Novel 3, Farrell Publishing Company, 1951)
• Ed Lacy, The Best that Ever Did It (Harper, 1955)
• Leigh Brackett, The Long Tomorrow (Doubleday, 1955)
• Lucile Iremonger, The Young Traveler in the West Indies (Dutton, 1955)
• Ruth Adams Knight, First the Lightning (Doubleday, 1955)
• Ullin W. Leavell, Mary Louise Friebele, Tracie Cushman, Paths to Follow (American Book Company, New York, 1956)
• J. T. McIntosh, Rule of the Pagbeasts (Crest 150, 1956)
• Sylvia Tate, The Fuzzy Pink Nightgown (Harper, 1956)
• Anon. [Gladys Parrish], Madame Solario: A Novel (Viking, 1956)
• Carl Carmer, The Screaming Ghost (Knopf, 1956)
• Booton Herndon, Bergdorf’s in the Plaza (Knopf, 1956)
• Norman Dale, The Casket and the Sword (Harper, 1956)
• Nora Benjamin Kubie, King Solomon’s Horses (Harper, 1956)
• Lincoln Steffens, The Autobiography of Lincoln Steffens (Grosset & Dunlap Universal Library, 1956)
• John P. Marquand, The Late George Apley (Grosset & Dunlap Universal Library, 1956)
• Carlo Levi, Christ Stopped at Eboli (Grosset & Dunlap Universal Library, 1956)
• Norman Douglas, South Wind (Grosset & Dunlap Universal Library, 1956)
• John Steinbeck, The Wayward Bus (Grosset & Dunlap, 1956)
• Herman Melville, Typee (Grosset & Dunlap, 1956)
• Leo Tolstoy, War and Peace (Grosset & Dunlap, 1956)
• Fyodor Dostoyevsky, The Brothers Karamazov (Grosset & Dunlap, 1956)
• Benjamin Appel, We Were There in the Klondike Gold Rush (Grosset & Dunlap, 1956)
• W. R. Burnett, Pale Moon (Knopf, 1956)
• Leonard Bishop, Creep Into Thy Narrow Bed (Pyramid G206, 1956)
• Erskine Caldwell, Georgia Boy (Grosset & Dunlap, 1957)
• Erskine Caldwell, God’s Little Acre (Grosset & Dunlap, 1957)
• Erskine Caldwell, The Sure Hand of God (Grosset & Dunlap, 1957)
• Erskine Caldwell, Tobacco Road (Grosset & Dunlap, 1957)
• Erskine Caldwell, Tragic Ground (Grosset & Dunlap, 1957)
• Maria Bellonci, The Life And Times of Lucrezia Borgia (Grosset & Dunlap Universal Library, 1957)
• Zsolt de Harsanyi, The Star-Gazer (Grosset & Dunlap Universal Library, 1957)
• Mary Freeman, D. H. Lawrence: A Basic Study of His Ideas (Grosset & Dunlap Universal Library, 1957)
• Herman Melville, The Shorter Novels (Grosset & Dunlap Universal Library, 1957)
• Lloyd Lewis, Myths after Lincoln (Grosset & Dunlap Universal Library, 1957)
• Henrik Ibsen, Four Plays of Henrik Ibsen (Grosset & Dunlap Universal Library, 1957)
• Benjamin Appel, We Were There at the Battle for Bataan (Grosset & Dunlap, 1957)
• William Goldman, The Temple of Gold (Knopf, 1957)
• Ercole Patti, A Roman Affair (William Sloane, 1957)
• Vinnie Williams, The Fruit Tramp (Harper, 1957)
• Francis Steegmuller, Maupassant: A Lion on the Path (Grosset & Dunlap Universal Library, 1958)
• James Mitchell, The Lady is Waiting (Morrow, 1958)
• Elizabeth Cadell, Shadows on the Water (Morrow, 1958)
• Marjorie G. Fribourg, Benkei the Boy-Giant (Sterling, 1958)
• Marjorie G. Fribourg, Bimo: Young Hero of Japan (Sterling, 1958)
• Ben Botkin and Carl Withers, The Illustrated Book of American Folklore (Grosset & Dunlap, 1958)
• Richard Bissell, Say, Darling (Atlantic / Little, Brown, 1958)
• Monica Stirling, Sigh for a Strange Land (Little, Brown, 1958)
• John Coates, The Widow’s Tale (William Sloane, 1958)
• Pauline Rush Evans, Good Housekeeping’s Best Book of Mystery Stories (Good Housekeeping Magazine, 1958)
• Lillian and Godfrey Frankel, A Scrapbook of Real-Life Stories for Young People (Sterling, 1958)
• Christine Noble Govan and Emmy West, Mystery of the Vanishing Stamp (Sterling, 1958)
• Christine Noble Govan and Emmy West, Mystery at the Haunted House (Sterling, 1959)
• Christine Noble Govan and Emmy West, Mystery at Plum Nelly (Sterling, 1959)
• Christine Noble Govan and Emmy West, Mystery at Fearsome Lake (Sterling, 1960)
• Christine Noble Govan and Emmy West, Mystery at Rock City (Sterling, 1960)
• Christine Noble Govan and Emmy West, Mystery at the Snowed-In Cabin (Sterling, 1961)
• Christine Noble Govan and Emmy West, Mystery at the Echoing Cave (Sterling, 1965)
• John Dickson Carr, Scandal at High Chimneys (Harper, 1959)
• General de Caulaincourt, With Napoleon in Russia (Grosset & Dunlap Universal Library, 1959)
• August Strindberg, Letters of Strindberg to Harriet Bosse (Grosset & Dunlap Universal Library, 1959)
• Margery Sharp, The Eye Of Love (Little, Brown, 1959)
• James Wellard, The Affair In Arcady (Reynal, 1959)
• Dorothy Lee, Freedom and Culture: A Unique View of the Individual in His Society (Prentice Hall, 1959)
• Willa Gibbs, The Dedicated: A Novel of Two Doctors (Morrow, 1959)
• Julian Mayfield, The Hit (Pocket 1229, 1959)
• Samuel Butler, The Way of All Flesh (Washington Square Press W561, 1959)
• Francoise des Ligneris, Psyche 59 (Avon T-482, 1959)
• Francoise des Ligneris, Fort Frederick (Avon #T-456, 1960)
• Helen McCloy, The Slayer and the Slain (1960)
• Muse A. Norcross, Li-Ho of the Boat People (Franklin Watts, 1960)
• Alexander Rose, Four Horse Players are Missing (Coward-McCann, 1960)
• Charmian Clift, Walk to the Paradise Gardens (Harper, 1960)
• Alice Ekert-Rotholz, A Net of Gold (Viking, 1960)
• Murray Gitlin, All the Voices (Coward-McCann, 1960)
• Louis Vaczek, The Troubadour (William Sloane, 1960)
• Marjorie Vetter, Journey for Jennifer (Scholastic, 1960)
• Edgar Allan Poe, Ten Great Mysteries, ed. Groff Conklin (Scholastic T-210, 1960)
• Edgar Allan Poe, Eight Tales of Terror (Scholastic T-290, 1961)
• Lawrence Williams, The Fiery Furnace (Avon T-497, 1961)
• Jose Luis De Vilallonga, The Man of Blood (Berkley Medallion G503, 1961)
• Peter Elstob, Warriors for the Working Day (Coward-McCann, 1961)
• Guy de Maupassant, Contes Choisis (Doubleday, 1961)
• Elliott Arnold, Brave Jimmy Stone (Knopf, 1962)
• Ervin Seale, Learn to Live: The Meaning of the Parables (Morrow, 1962)
• Anne Colver, Abraham Lincoln for the People (Scholastic TW359, 1962)
• Philip Van Doren Stern, Great Ghost Stories (Washington Square Press 592, 1962)
• Mary MacEwan, ed., Stories of Suspense (Scholastic T 487, 1963)
• Robert A. Heinlein, Glory Road (Putnam, 1963)
• Robert A. Heinlein, Podkayne of Mars (Putnam, 1963)
• Robert A. Heinlein, Farnham’s Freehold (Putnam, 1964)
• Robert A. Heinlein, Orphans of the Sky (Putnam, 1964)
• Robert A. Heinlein, The Moon is a Harsh Mistress (Putnam, 1966)
• Robert Arthur, Ghosts and More Ghosts (Random House, 1963)
• Roger Fulford, George the Fourth (Capricorn CAP 78, 1963)
• Dorothy M. Fraser, Discovering Our World’s History (American Book Company, 1964)
• Charlotte Jay, A Hank of Hair (Harper, 1964)
• Oscar Pinkus, Friends & Lovers (Midwood Tower 347, 1964)
• Alan Riefe, Tales of Horror (Scholastic 10063, 1965)
• James Blish, Mission to the Heart Stars (Putnam, 1965)
• Jakov Lind, Soul of Wood and Other Stories (Crest R897, 1966)
• Daoma Winston, The Wakefield Witches (Award 0185, 1966)

Record albums

• Ellabelle Davis, Ellabelle Davis Sings Negro Spirituals (Camden LPS 182, 1950)
• Ernest Bloch, Schelomo: Hebraic Rhapsody for ‘Cello and Orchestra, conducted by the composer (London LPLS 138)
• Edvard Grieg, Peer Gynt, conducted by Basil Cameron (London LLP 153, 1950)
• Harry Fryer and His Orchestra, March Medley (London LPB 197)
• Ronnie Munro and His Orchestra, Ballet Memories (London LPB 215)
• Richard Strauss, Also Sprach Zarathustra (London LLP 232)
• Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, Symphony No. 6 (“Pathetique”) (London LLP 257)
• The Robert Farnon Octet, Stephen Foster Melodies (London LPB 258)
• Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Die Entfuhrung aus dem Serail / Abduction From The Seraglio, dir. Josef Krips (London LLP A3)
• Ludwig van Beethoven, Symphony No. 9 (Record of the Month Club, 1956)
• Prince Onago & Princess Muana & Native Drummers of the Belgian Congo: The Drums of Africa (20th Century Fox FOX 3000, 1959)
• Djamal Aslan, Lebanon: Her Heart, Her Sounds (20th Century Fox FOX 3001, 1959)
• Nina Dova, Child of the Sun: Songs from the Torrid Zone (20th Century Fox FOX 3014, 1959)
• Enrico Simonetti Orchestra, Bravissimo! (20th Century Fox FOX 3015, 1959)
• Hugo Montenegro with 20th Century Strings, 20th Century Strings, Volume 1 (20th Century Fox FOX 3018, 1959)
• Glenn Miller & His Orchestra, Original Film Soundtracks, Volume 1 (20th Century Fox FOX 3020, 1959)
• Glenn Miller & His Orchestra, Original Film Soundtracks, Volume 2 (20th Century Fox FOX 3021, 1959)
• Tommy Dorsey and His Greatest Band Vol. 1 (20th Century Fox FOX 3022, 1959)
• Tommy Dorsey and His Greatest Band Vol. 2 (20th Century Fox FOX 3023, 1959)
• Woof Whistler & His Terriers, “Woof” (20th Century Fox FOX 3024, 1960)
• Al Martino, Al Martino (20th Century Fox FOX 3025, 1960)
• The Dixie Double-Cats, Is It True What They Say About Dixie? (20th Century Fox FOX 3027, 1960)
• The Dew Drops, Rain (20th Century Fox FOX 3028, 1960)
• Art Tatum, Discoveries (20th Century Fox FOX 3029/SFX 3029, 1960)
• Hugo Montenegro with 20th Century Strings, Great Standards: The 20th Century Strings, Volume 3 (20th Century Fox FOX 3030, 1960)
• Art Tatum, Piano Discoveries (20th Century Fox FOX 3033/SFX 3033, 1960)
• Jon Ern and the Olympic Festival Orchestra, Songs of the Olympic Years (20th Century Fox FOX 3042, 1961)
• 20th Century Strings, Twelve Great Themes of the Soaring 60s, (20th Century Fox SFX-3043, 1961)
• Harry Simeone Chorale, The Little Drummer Boy (20th Century Fox TFM 3100, 1963)
• Serendipity Singers, Love Is a State of Mind (United Artists UAS 6619, 1967)

Magazines (partial list)

• Ace
• All Girls
• Amazing
• Applause
• Boys’ Life
• Calling All Girls
• Cavalcade”
• Children’s Digest
• Christian Herald
• Collier’s
• Compact
• Coronet
• Creepy
• Escapade
• Every Woman
• Family Weekly (Chicago)
• Galaxy Science Fiction
• Gent
• Gourmet
• Harpers
• Hi-Life
• High
• House Beautiful
• Life Magazine
• Management Review
• Mineral Digest
• Monsieur
• Nugget
• Pageant
• Parent’s Magazine
• Playboy
• Redbook
• Rex
• The Saint Mystery Magazine
• Snowflake
• Suburbia (Chicago)
• Tween
• Westminster
• Women of Italy
• Women of the Orient
• Young Americans

Gilbert Oluwatosin Jesse (17 May 1937 – 7 October 2003) was a factional Pastor and Spiritual Head of the Celestial Church of Christ (CCC) from 30 December 2002 until his death.
He succeeded Philip Hunsu Ajose, who had died on 2 March 2001.

There was a dispute over his leadership, with the International Headquarters of the church declaring that the Reverend Emmanuel Oschoffa, son of the church founder Samuel Oshoffa, was the leader.
Following Jesse’s death, his faction declared that Superior Evangelist Paul Suru Maforikan was the new spiritual leader of the church.

Early years

Jesse was born on 17 May 1937 in Mahin, Ilaje – Ese Odo Local Government of Ondo State, Nigeria.
He was educated at St Paul’s Catholic Primary School, Ebute-Metta, Lagos, then Lagos City College, Yaba, Lagos graduating with his West African School Certificate in 1958.
He then obtained a job as a Clerical Officer at the Prime Minister’s Office, Race Course, Lagos State, and then with the Federal Ministry of Establishment.
Jesse retired in 1972 and started work in electronic sales and then vehicle sales.

Church career

Jesse joined the Celestial Church Of Christ in 1953 at National Headquarters, Makoko, Yaba, Lagos State.
In 1969, he established a parish in Ikorodu Road, Fadeyi, which he led until 1979.
In 1975 he became a full-time worker with the Celestial Church Of Christ.
In 1979 he set up the Celestial Church Of Christ in Ojota Parish 1.
In 1988 he was appointed Most Senior Evangelist and was posted as Ogun State Evangelist.
In 1990 he was transferred back to Lagos where he was given charge of the Surulere and Ijeshatedo Districts and of the Shepherd Celestial Church Of Christ, Olajuwon Tejuosho Parish.

Jesse was appointed Chairman of the International Revival Committee and then became Reverend and Superior Evangelist, Head of Celestial Church Of Christ, Nigeria Diocese.
On 30 December 2002, he was appointed Pastor and Spiritual Head of the Celestial Church Of Christ by the CCC World Council Of Pastor’s Representatives.

The announcement was made the next day a press briefing at the CCC Tejuosho Parish in Lagos, which was attended by all the senior members of the Celestial Church Of Christ.

This followed after Emmanuel Oschoffa, senior evangelist and son of the founding pastor S.B.J. Oschoffa was appointed the church’s worldwide leader on 25 December 2002 by the board of trustees. The leader of the CCC’s Shepherds Council, which had appointed Jesse, stated that this council’s decision superseded all other appointments

Jesse died on 7 October 2003 after less than a year in office.
Even in death, controversy continued, with members of the Burial Committee disagreeing over which company should handle his funeral.

Miss Sahhara (stylized as Miss saHHara, pronounced like Sahara) is a British Nigerian beauty queen, fashion model, singer/songwriter, and human rights advocate. She is known for representing Nigeria in international beauty pageants to draw attention to the plights of LGBTQI+ people in Africa. In 2011, she became the first Nigerian trans woman to come out publicly in the international press during the Miss International Queen beauty pageant in Pattaya, Thailand. On 19 July 2014, she was crowned the first-ever Super Sireyna Worldwide in Manila, Philippines. Making her the first black trans woman to be crowned winner in an international beauty competition. After winning Super Sireyna Worldwide, she founded a global transgender awareness news curation organisation called TransValid She is also a vocal critic of the 14 years imprisonment law of LGBTQI+ people in Nigeria.

A self-described “fashion and beauty enthusiast”, her catwalk and print credentials range from fashion weeks to gracing the covers of magazines internationally.

Biography

Growing up she famously said she never fit into the religious and conservative views of Nigeria. Living in rural Nigeria made her unaware of her medical condition known as gender dysphoria. She said the constant feeling of wanting to present herself as a female made her feel lost as if there was something inhumanly wrong with her.

She sought Religion with the hope of a cure, praying to God to make her a woman when she grew up. Wallowing in her identity dilemmas, she decided to end her life, since the pastors in her church and the people around her kept telling her there was something abnormal about her feminine characteristics. She claimed to have attempted suicide twice and survived. Her suicide attempts made her more determined to either leave Nigeria for a more tolerant society or to succeed in killing herself in the third suicide attempt.

She started looking for answers to her condition and how she could marry her faith to who she hoped to be in the future. She found peace in the discovery that she doesn’t have to be religious to lead a morally acceptable life.

Jailed in Nigeria

In her teenage years, she was locked up in a Nigerian prison cell because of her femininity. Being imprisoned encouraged her to leave Nigeria, as the alternative would have led to her successfully ending her life. She remembered her experiences in this poignant piece she wrote for Gay Star News on Transgender Day of Remembrance on 20 November 2013, which was re-published by some online news outlets:

I wish I could tell the younger me who tried to commit suicide twice that life gets better and dreams do honestly come through. I did not imagine life could be this amazing many years ago after being released from a horrid Nigerian prison for being different. Then all I could think was I could die in this prison and no one would know or care. Being imprisoned felt justifiable, considering I was being punished for being ‘gay’ as they assumed due to my feminine features and mannerisms. I wasn’t gay, I am a woman born differently due to natural defects. What I felt did not match my outward appearance. Being assigned male at birth doesn’t make me a man or a woman, nobody was born a man or a woman, you are born male or female, and then you develop into your preferred gender as you grow up thus making you a man or a woman. For me that gender was female. I was born male but my brain, gestures, features and carriage functioned as that of a female. Growing up and not knowing what was happening to my body made me confused and lost. I couldn’t discuss it with my family because my femininity was frowned upon due to religion and I could not talk to my friends because they would not understand what I was going through. I found solace in music and dreams. I dreamt of being free to be myself, free of insults, free of judgment and free from harassment.

Her experience with the Nigerian police made her seek refuge in London, United Kingdom.

New life in the United Kingdom

She left Nigeria in 2004 to settle in the United Kingdom. Then she got a broader perspective of her gender dysphoria. She started seeing doctors who helped her through her journey into womanhood. She said her new life in the UK was like heaven on Earth because she now lives as her true self.

She got a singing residence at Madam Jojo’s Kitsch Cabaret in Soho, West End of London. She performed there for 10 years until November 2014 when the venue was closed down.

She wrote and co-produced some songs with Scott Houzet in her earliest music career.

Fashion model

She appeared on numerous catwalk shows in London and beyond. She modelled for Ziad Ghanem at London Fashion Week for 4 fashion seasons.

She was also involved with Alternative Fashion for over 5 years and once showcased her couture designs.

Education

Miss Sahhara graduated with a master’s degree in digital media from London Metropolitan University. She stated on her social media pages that she wants to further her education in gender and sexuality studies in the future. Perhaps, to give her a credible voice when teaching people about Gender and sexuality.

Legal names

Nigerian news websites and bloggers have frequently referenced Ebuka Obi-Uchendu’s tweet, in which he claimed to have known Miss saHHara as ‘Clifford Oche’. Miss saHHara refuted that claim and refused to publish her full birth name, she insisted that publishing her old name and pictures has no relevance to who she has become. She explained that dead-naming and misgendering of transgender people have negative consequences by encouraging hate and discrimination all around the world due to preconceived misconceptions about transgender people. She also said “Iris Sahhara Henson” is not her full legal name, “Henson” was just a Facebook pseudonym she created to stop bloggers from publishing her full legal name. She decided not to publish her full legal name, because she is afraid for her safety due to the amount of transphobia and death threats she gets online.

Conflict with bloggers and readers

She is known for her constant online conflicts with Nigerian bloggers. Most of her arguments with them range from the stories they published about her, in which she claimed to be ‘lies’, to blatant transphobic writing. For example, calling her “transgender man” and the refusal to use female pronouns to describe her.

She always takes to her Facebook page to publish replies on topics she considers to be transphobic and damaging for transgender people.

She insisted that her replies are not rants, but rather a passionate education for the people who write and comment about transgender people in the public domain. Her process of “education” as she puts it, can sometimes end up in heated arguments and war of words with her fans.

Her antireligious rhetoric has not fared well with Nigerians either. Whenever she posts any topic relating to religion, her posts attract angry responses.

She said all religions are oppressive and archaic. It has drawn criticism from her followers saying she should focus on her advocacy work instead of airing her views on divisive subjects such as religion. Unperturbed by the criticism, she continues to air her frustration on why Africans refuse to question their faith which she labelled “Colonial relic”.

On 29 April 2016, she posted a long post in response to stories published by African bloggers about her appearance on BBC Africa’s In Her Shoes, the bloggers stated that she struggled in Nigeria as a “gay man”, so she decided to transition to female. Miss saHHara took to her social media page to educate the bloggers, in which she accused them of promoting transphobia by telling the wrong stories; “This is not a rant, rather an education”. She made it clear that she was never a man, and that her validity as a woman doesn’t come from anyone except herself. The post drew more than 100 comments in support and against her claims.

Beauty pageants

Her pageant career started when she moved to London, England in 2004. She said her love for beauty pageants and catwalks continued to grow since she was a child. She used to “tiptoe”, because she was not allowed to wear high heels in Nigeria. She taught catwalk and beauty pageant etiquette in her teenage years before moving to the United Kingdom.

She was a contestant in Andrew Logan’s Alternative Miss World when she first moved to London, representing Nigeria. She came second.

In 2011, she was a contestant in the Miss International Queen beauty pageant, representing Nigeria. During the pageant, she came out to the world media as a proud Nigerian transgender woman fighting for acceptance and equality for the LGBTQI+ community in Africa.

In 2014, she won her first international title, Eat Bulaga!’s Super Sireyna Worldwide in Manila, Philippines. The pageant is a prestigious transgender beauty contest, which takes place on the longest-noontime television show in the world, Eat Bulaga! In the competition, she represented her birth country Nigeria to draw attention to the negative social and legal attitudes towards the LGBTQI+ community in Africa.

When Miss saHHara was asked about the proudest moment of her life in the question and answer section by Mr Colin Kerr, she answered:

The proudest moment of my life is being on this stage right now. When I was growing up, I had this dream of becoming a queen on stage and performing. But I couldn’t because I was born male. I used to wear my mom’s high heels and pretend in front of the mirror that I’m a contestant. So being here today and having these opportunities as a glamorous woman is a dream come true.

She was crowned in front of millions of viewers watching worldwide by Miss Universe 1973, Margarita Moran-Floirendo.

She could not believe herself after being crowned, she posted the following on her Facebook page:

“OMG! I WON! I am still not sure it is a reality! Maybe I’ll wake up from this amazing dream in a minute! My arm is turning red from me constantly pinching myself to wake up from this beautiful dream! I am overwhelmed with love! The Philippines is truly my home away from home.”

Charity and advocacy work

Miss saHHara started a global awareness project for the transgender community called TransValid in 2014. The organisation launched with the #IamValid and #YouAreValid campaigns, where transgender individuals and allies made videos of themselves proclaiming their support for the transgender community. According to the mission statement of the organisation, they hope to ‘tackle misconceptions, fear, and hate of transgender people worldwide. Through TransValid, she hopes to educate people more on transgender issues by using different media and public forums.’

In August 2015, Miss saHHara produced a short film for TransValid titled The Deadly Price of Transphobia in Brazil, The video highlighted the hardship and danger of living in Brazil as a transgender woman.

31 March 2016, International Transgender Day of Visibility, she partnered with Aleika Barros, Miss Trans Universe 2015 and other transgender beauty queens to raise awareness for the transgender community all around the world through a campaign titled ‘I am Trans and I have the Right to Life’.

Television appearances

• 2 episodes of ‘Lady Boys: Season 2 on Sky Living, exploring the lives of transgender women in Thailand and beyond.
• Eat Bulaga!’s Super Sireyna Worldwide on GMA Network
• Unang Hirit Morning show
• Tunay Na Buhay interviewed by Rhea Santos
• Mars
• BBC’s in Her Shoes: #BBCIdentity

Pageant titles

Title	Year	Position	Country
Super Sireyna Worldwide	2014	Winner	Philippines
		Best Talent
Miss International Queen	2011	1st Runner up	Thailand
		2nd Best Talent
Vogue: International Diva throwing a strop	2009	Winner	United Kingdom
Miss Exilio	2005	Winner	United Kingdom
Andrew Logan’s Alternative Miss World		1st runner up	United Kingdom