AFRICA UNDER SIEGE
Even as Uganda threatens to reintroduce its infamous “Kill The Gays” bill, there are signs of positive legal progress for LGBT people across Africa. Unfortunately, though, the usual suspects are still peddling their hateful agendas.
Even as Uganda threatens to reintroduce its infamous “Kill The Gays” bill, there are positive signs for LGBT people across Africa, reports Conall Ferguson.
Of the 68 countries around the world where same-sex relationships are still illegal, 54 of them are in Africa. Advancements in pro-LGBT legislation across the continent have been limited and, in many countries, just being open about your sexuality can be a serious threat to your personal safety.
Take, for example, Uganda. In 2019, Simon Lokodo, Minister for Ethics And Integrity, released a statement signalling the government’s intent to revive the once overturned (and now infamous) Anti-Homosexuality Bill. The “Kill The Gays” bill, as it came to be known, was heavily condemned by the international community and the world’s media. A highly controversial piece of legislation, it would increase the penalty for homosexuality from life imprisonment to execution.
Lokodo’s announcement came amid everheightening pressure on the LGBT community, in what has become an increasingly socially conservative country. Human rights groups have reported an uptick in homophobic and transphobic hate crime in Uganda since the government’s announcement to bring back the bill. In 2019 alone, four queer people were murdered in anti-LGBT attacks.
Frank Mugisha, Executive Director of Sexual Minorities Uganda (SMUG), a local advocacy group, recently spoke to the Thomson Reuters Foundation about the issue:
“What we are seeing recently – these continuous attacks over such a short space of time – is not normal… We know that they are all hate crimes as attackers made anti-gay comments… We cannot make a direct link between the minister’s statement and the attacks, but such remarks clearly help to stoke homophobic sentiments and hate crimes,” said Frank Mugisha.
The most recent of these victims, Brian Wassa, was killed at his home in the city of Jinja, on 4th of October. Brian was gay, gendernonconforming, and a prominent LGBT activist in the country. He worked both as a paralegal supporting vulnerable communities, and as a peer educator within The AIDS Support Organisation, a local NGO.
Wassa’s death drew widespread international condemnation and brought increased scrutiny to the government’s plans for the AntiHomosexuality Bill. Shortly after, Ofwono Opondo, a government spokesperson, tweeted: “Government hereby clarifies that it does not intend to introduce any new law with regards to the regulation of #LGBT activities in Uganda because the current provisions in the #PenalCode are sufficient.”
While this announcement brought some hope to queer people living in the country, it’s worth noting that similar conflicting messages were released about the government’s intent to press ahead with the first incarnation of the Anti-Homosexuality Bill in 2014.
Sadly, for gay Ugandans, this climate of fear and repression is nothing new. In 2010, local newspaper Rolling Stone (no connection to the popular American music magazine) ran a piece called Top Homos, which featured the names, identities and addresses of several members of the LGBT community. The highly derogatory article outlined how gay people were determined to “recruit” school children, in numbers totalling “over 1,000,000… by 2012”.
Soon after its publication, David Kato, a high-profile LGBT activist, was brutally beaten to death with a hammer in his own neighbourhood. While local law enforcement officials tried to frame the incident as a robbery, members of the LGBT community remain adamant his death was the result of a hate crime.
Unfortunately, this increased animosity towards LGBT people has been echoed in several other African nations. In Nigeria, at the end of 2019, 47 men found themselves facing trial for “public displays of affection with a member of the same sex”, a charge that carries a maximum 10-year jail sentence. The men were arrested as part of a police raid on a larger group of 57, and are accused of participating in an initiation into a “gay club” at a hotel in the Egbeda district in the city of Lagos. The defendants, however, insist they were attending a birthday party.
Local activists say this particular case was an important test of the country’s Same Sex Marriage Prohibition Act, which was signed into law in 2014. The legislation has historically been used to blackmail queer people, however, until this incident, nobody has ever been convicted.
Earlier that year, in Kenya, the High Court moved to uphold current laws that criminalised gay sex. In what UK-based charity Stonewall described as “crushing news”, a panel of three judges announced that they believed there was not enough evidence that the current laws were discriminatory. They went on to say that the legislation was, in fact, constitutional, since it represented the current beliefs and attitudes of the majority of Kenyan people. Those who find themselves guilty under the law (which punishes all “unnatural” sexual acts) could face a jail term of up to 14 years.
One year previously, in neighbouring Tanzania, officials in the city of Dar es Saleem announced a crackdown on LGBT people [reported in DNA # 235]. Administrative head of the city, Paul Makonda also outlined the creation of a special taskforce responsible for locating and punishing gay people. The news forced hundreds of LGBT people and local activists into hiding as citizens were encouraged to report individuals they knew to be gay, or even suspected were gay.
One Tanzanian activist, speaking to The Guardian, described the situation as “open season” on gay people and recounted incidents where large lists of names and details about queer people living in the city were uploaded publicly to social media sites.
These cases are not outliers in Africa, nor are the laws under which people are being prosecuted. Similar legislation exists in many other African countries. In Mauritania, Nigeria, Somalia and Sudan, homosexuality carries a maximum sentence of the death penalty. It is largely due to this escalating climate of fear and violence that many gay people living in these regions have made the decision to seek asylum abroad.
Why, though, has LGBT equality in many African countries faced so much opposition?
One key factor driving discrimination is the widespread perception that homosexual behaviour is not a “traditional” African cultural norm. Same-sex relationships are perceived by many in these countries as being the result of colonial-era or Western influences. By rejecting the gay community so publicly, many feel that they are, by extension, rejecting an imported, neo-colonial (and
What we are seeing – these continuous attacks over such a short space of time – is not normal… We know they are hate crimes…
hence un-African) value system.
However, as Nigerian activist Bisi Alimi writes for The Guardian, pre-colonial African culture was no stranger to homosexuality.
“In my local language (Yoruba), the word for “homosexual” is adofuro, a colloquialism for someone who has anal sex. It might sound insulting and derogatory, however, the point is there is a word for the behaviour. Moreover, this is not a new word; it is as old as the Yoruba culture itself… In the northern part of Nigeria, yan daudu is a Hausa term to described effeminate men who are considered to be wives to men. While the Yoruba word might be more about behaviour than identity, this Hausa term is more about identity. You have to look and act like a yan daudu to be called one. It is not an identity you can just carry. These words are neutral; they are not infused with hate or disgust.”
In fact, many of the modern legal arguments surrounding homosexuality’s perceived incongruity with “traditional African values”, ironically find their basis in colonially imposed laws. The lasting impact of this dark period of history can be seen clearly in the disproportionate levels of homophobic legislation that remains in previously colonised nations worldwide. There are only 25 countries that make up what is currently known as the British Commonwealth, and yet these nations make up 50 per cent of all those worldwide that still criminalise homosexuality.
Another factor driving the sustained rejection of the LGBT community is the powerful influence of international religious organisations. Take, for example, Uganda. From 1971 to 1979, the country was under the rule of Idi Amin, a dictator who remains infamous for his numerous human rights abuses and regular persecution of Christians. His subsequent removal from power allowed for greater freedom of religious expression. This, in turn, opened new avenues for religiously conservative, evangelical figures in the West to capitalise on Africa’s large number of Christians.
As these religious extremists lost ground in their increasingly secular home nations in Europe and North America, many relocated to countries like Uganda to cultivate new followings and expand their influence. The leaders of these groups realised the power of energising their audience around topical social issues including reproductive rights, moral and sexual “purity” and, of course, LGBT rights.
One such figure is evangelical American pastor, Scott Lively. Co-author of The Pink Swastika, a book in which he describes gay people as “the true inventors of Nazism and the guiding force behind many Nazi atrocities,” Lively’s organisation, Abiding Truth Ministries, has been declared a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Centre (a US non-profit specialising in civil rights).
In March of 2009, Lively, along with several other prominent evangelical figures from the US, presented a series of talks to an audience including members of the Ugandan parliament (who later went on to draft the first incarnation of the Anti-Homosexuality Bill). The theme of these presentations was, “The gay agenda – that whole hidden and dark agenda – and the threat homosexuals pose to Biblebased values and the traditional African family.”
The speakers put forward an argument that would later form the backbone of the controversial bill; that a concerted effort was being made by Western society to spread the “disease” of homosexuality – in particular to children – in order to disrupt the landscape of traditional Ugandan society. In fact, the influence of these foreign interests was so great it formed the basis of an award-winning documentary, God Loves Uganda. The film explores the role of missionary group IHOP (or International House Of Prayer) in particular, and director Roger Ross Williams was clear about the level of influence these figures had, telling The Independent, “The antihomosexuality bill would never have come about without the involvement of American fundamentalist evangelicals.”
Dr Frank Mugisha, Director of advocacy group Sexual Minorities Uganda, explained to The Independent On Sunday how the influence of figures like Lively, altered the very discourse around gay people entirely:
“[The idea] of a gay agenda, of recruiting people to homosexuality – that language wasn’t used in Uganda pre-2009. [Lively] made my work very difficult and was conspiring with my legislators, but [to Ugandans] he was like God himself. People were worshipping him as if he was from heaven.”
Recent events in Uganda, Nigeria and Kenya have drawn global condemnation. However, local LGBT groups warn the international community that intervention or protest by foreign public figures can often serve to strengthen local people’s resolve against what they see as corrupting western influences.
In 2015, then-USA President Barack Obama visited Nairobi in Kenya. Before his arrival, several hundred Kenyan pastors signed a petition to the president, urging him not to push a pro-LGBT message during his visit. The letter was spearheaded by Mark Kariuki, who leads an alliance of 38,000 churches and 10 million Christians across Kenya. In his message to the president, he was clear, while Kenyans were welcoming of Obama and his message of international cooperation, to any pro-gay comments, they were not.
“We do not want him to come and talk on homosexuality in Kenya or push us to accepting that which is against our faith and culture… Let him talk about development; let him talk about cooperation; let him talk about the long-time relationship Kenya has had with America… but about our beliefs and culture – keep off,” Kariuki said.
Several other well-meaning attempts by foreign leaders and public figures to deliver a pro-gay message have been met with similar responses.
Are there any signs of a more hopeful future for Africa’s increasingly beleaguered queer communities? Despite this seemingly bleak state of affairs for several countries, locally led movements are gaining increased traction in recent years, and more positive stories are starting to emerge about queer communities across the content.
In June 2019, the High Court Of Botswana ruled to abolish its existing laws that criminalised same-sex relations, making it the 21st nation in Africa to do so. The legislation, which prohibited “all acts against nature”, and was based on colonial-era laws first introduced by the British, was unanimously voted to be unconstitutional. Upon lifting the ban, Judge Michael Leburu stressed that “human dignity is harmed when minority groups are marginalised”.
The ruling was the latest in a series of victories in Botswana, which has become increasingly progressive since a 2014 verdict to overturn a ban on the LGBT activist group, LEGABIBO (The Lesbians, Gays And Bisexuals Of Botswana).
In March of 2016, LEGABIBO won their legal challenge to be officially registered as an NGO and in 2017 the High Court ruled in favour of Tshepo Ricki Kgositau, a trans woman who spent four years fighting to have her gender recognised on official identification documents.
There are several other countries where the LGBT community has made legal progress. Lesotho, São Tomé And Príncipe, Mozambique, Seychelles and Angola have all scrapped laws that criminalised homosexuality.
South Africa, often regarded as one of the most queer-friendly countries in Africa, bans discrimination based on sexual orientation; indeed it was the first country in the world to enshrine this protection into its constitution. Same-sex marriage and adoption by same-sex couples are also both legal in the country.
The anti-homosexuality bill would never have come about without the involvement of American fundamentalist evangelicals.
It must be noted, however, that despite these legal protections, incidents of homophobia are still not uncommon in South Africa.
In 2011, local law enforcement set up a taskforce to investigate and prevent incidents of “corrective rape”; a disturbing phenomenon which saw several lesbians and trans men assaulted as part of an attempt to “cure” them of their identity.
And so, as activists continue their fight for greater acceptance and legal protection, how can we best stand in solidarity with these queer communities across Africa? As previously mentioned, direct external attempts at political influence, however well meaning, are rarely well received. They are often viewed as, at best, meddling, and at worst, playing further into the narrative of homosexuality as a politically driven Western import.
Many stress the importance of supporting locally driven movements. Prior to Barack Obama’s visit to Kenya in 2015, local human rights group, the National Gay And Lesbian Human Rights Commission penned a letter to the president, suggesting a diplomatic approach that centred on “affirming the work of local actors”. Such groups are best placed to understand the unique underlying sociopolitical landscape in their regions and realise the importance of change being driven from within communities themselves.
So, too, many suggest the international community should refrain from punitive political or economic gestures, and instead elevate the work being done by activists on the ground, making themselves ready to assist these groups in whatever way they can.
We must also ensure greater scrutiny is placed on the activities of international missionary groups, based within own nations, who seek to influence local social policy abroad. For example, the previously mentioned Scott Lively faced scathing criticising from an American federal court in 2017 for aiding and abetting what they describe as a “vicious and frightening campaign of repression against LGBTI persons in Uganda”.
We must ensure that there is full transparency about the rhetoric and social policy being driven by any such groups, especially where they seek to undermine the rights and liberties of minorities abroad. Despite the increasing level of threat in several nations, activists across Africa remain hopeful that the tide will begin to turn in favour of greater acceptance for LGBT people. As local queer communities fight to reclaim their narrative from colonial-era laws, evangelical influence and state-sanctioned homophobia, we, too, must stand ready as allies; to listen to their stories, to celebrate their work, to support local grassroots movements, and most importantly, to stay informed.