Last Updated: 27 September 2026
Welcome to the West African Queer Dictionary (WAQD). By accessing or using our living archive, you agree to be bound by these Terms and Conditions. WAQD is a community-built reference documenting queer terminology across West Africa. Because our platform centers the safety, history, and linguistic memory of LGBTQIA+ communities, we require all users to engage with this space respectfully and responsibly.
1. Acceptable Use and Community Safety
WAQD is an educational and cultural resource designed to preserve language and community knowledge. You agree to use WAQD solely for personal, educational, or community-affirming purposes.
You strictly agree not to:
- Weaponize, misuse, or distribute restricted community language to harass, out, doxx, or target LGBTQIA+ individuals.
- Scrape, data-mine, or mass-download content from the archive, especially restricted or coded terminology.
- Submit false, malicious, or intentionally harmful definitions through the “Suggest a Word” feature.
- Attempt to bypass or hack the tiered access security measures.
2. Tiered Access and Restricted Content
To protect our communities from digital targeting, WAQD employs a tiered access system.
Restricted Community Terms: Highly coded expressions and survival slang are protected behind a request-based access wall. If you are granted access, you agree to keep your access credentials confidential and not reproduce this restricted content on public forums, social media, or hostile platforms. WAQD reserves the right to revoke access at any time if we suspect a breach of trust or security.
Content Warnings: Some entries contain historical slurs, heavy stigma, or traumatic associations. These are shielded with content warnings. By choosing to view these definitions, you acknowledge the sensitive nature of the material. WAQD provides these terms for historical documentation, not as an endorsement of harm.
3. User Contributions (“Suggest a Word” and Adding Context)
WAQD relies on community knowledge to grow. When you submit a word, correction, or context via our submission forms:
- Suggesting a Word: Our standard submission form does not request your name or a pseudonym; it is entirely anonymous.
- Adding Context: If you are providing additional context, nuanced usage, or detailed corrections for a term, you are required to submit this information via email to allow for proper editorial review and communication.
- Licensing and Review: By submitting a word or context, you grant WAQD a non-exclusive, royalty-free, perpetual license to review, edit, adapt, and publish the submitted term and its context within the dictionary. WAQD makes the final editorial decision on whether a term is published, how it is categorized, and how uncertainty or contested meanings are presented.
4. Intellectual Property
The compilation, design, organization, and editorial framework of WAQD are the intellectual property of the WAQD project. While the language itself belongs to the community and oral tradition, the specific structure and database of this website may not be reproduced, republished, or exploited for commercial purposes without explicit written permission.
5. Disclaimers and Limitations of Liability
Language is fluid, highly contextual, and constantly evolving. WAQD does not claim absolute universal definitions.
- Linguistic Accuracy: While WAQD enforces strict cross-verification and academic standards, entries derived from oral tradition, regional slang, or community recall are presented “as-is” for ethnographic research. WAQD does not warrant that every entry represents absolute historical or consensus accuracy across all dialectal variations.
- No Liability for Harm: In no event shall WAQD, its developers, research collaborators, or grantors be liable for any direct, indirect, incidental, or consequential damages resulting from your use or inability to use the Platform.
6. Modifications
We may update these Terms and Conditions to reflect changes in our platform, community needs, or security protocols. Continued use of WAQD after updates constitutes acceptance of the revised terms.