Choosing Life: Ismael Mokone, Faith and Online Activism

Ismael’s search for God did not end with questioning the faith community he once called home. Instead, it led him towards a deeper understanding of compassion, identity and what it means to choose life.Looking back, he realized that not everyone around him had rejected him. Some people were simply uncertain, while others wanted to support him but were struggling with what they had been taught.

“I then had to go into educating them, sit down with them, be compassionate and understand their story,” he says. “Some of them just want to learn and understand. Some of them never got the opportunity to learn.”

For Ismael, compassion became part of his own healing. His family also played an important role, particularly an uncle who encouraged him to stop measuring his worth through other people’s opinions and, above all, not to lose himself.

From personal stories to a community

Ismael had been writing since his school years, but around 2019 he began sharing more openly about his personal journey on Facebook. At first, he says, he simply wanted to “document my thoughts.” Then people began responding.They told him that his words reflected their own lives. Others disagreed with him but still wanted to listen. That was when Ismael realized that his writing was no longer only about himself.

“So this is not just about me. This is also about them, too.”

Today, he hopes his work can help someone who feels rejected or inadequate understand that their humanity and their relationship with God are not defined by their sexuality.

“God… does not, and will never, disqualify them because of their being,” he says.

Choosing conversation over condemnation

Ismael regularly speaks with people across Africa, including LGBTQ+ people living in countries where expressing their identity can be difficult or dangerous. His hope is not simply for legal change, but for conversations that allow Africans, families and churches to listen to one another.

“Can we sit down as African people and have these conversations? Can the Church sit down and have these conversations and hear each other out?” He also challenges the idea that LGBTQ+ identities are simply foreign to Africa. “We were here, and we existed before colonization… We were here, and we existed fully in our Africanness.”For those still struggling with their identity, his message is simple: “You do matter. Your humanity matters beyond anything and above everything.”

A new space for activism

For Ismael, social media has become an important space for this work. A message that might reach five or ten people in a local community can reach hundreds or even thousands online, including people across borders who may not otherwise have access to these conversations.

Digital activism, he believes, creates new possibilities for connection and solidarity. Someone living in a country where these conversations cannot happen publicly can still find another voice online. Someone questioning their faith can discover that they are not alone.

What began as a personal Facebook diary has therefore become something much bigger with over 23 thousands followers today: a space for faith, dialogue, identity and hope.

Ismael’s journey shows how contemplation can become action—how searching for God can lead to compassion, and how a personal story can become a source of strength for others.

His voice began with a simple desire to document his own thoughts. Today, it carries a message much larger than himself:

You matter. Your life matters. And you are not alone.