If the battle for gay rights is going to be won, it will not be politicians who will lead the way.

In Africa, people need to start the conversation

The battle over gay rights in Africa exploded into the world’s consciousness with Barack Obama’s forceful advocacy and Uhuru Kenyatta’s equally forceful rebuttal during the U.S. president’s recent visit to Kenya.

While Obama endeared himself to many, it begs the question: What next? What happens now that the cameras are gone?

Obama was right to hold African leaders and their governments to account on one of the urgent human rights issues of our time, but here’s the truth: If the battle for gay rights is going to be won, it will not be politicians who will lead the way. History teaches us that change — big, transformative change — often comes from grassroots mobilization that forces politicians into action.

You’ll be hard-pressed to find a politician anywhere who is brave or bold enough to hang his or her political career on an issue such as gay rights, and African leaders are no exception. Gay rights in the United States, for instance, were not won because politicians blazed the trail. Politicians were followers, not leaders. They were swept into action only by the tide of shifting public opinion. That is how gay rights are going to be won in Africa, and it is going to be tough — just as it was in the U.S. and other countries.

When the Kenyan president told Obama that “It is very difficult for us to be able to impose on people that which they themselves do not accept,” it may not have been a profile in courage, but was a sentiment Obama would likely have shared when he first ran for president. Obama and Democratic party presidential front-runner Hillary Clinton, now great advocates of gay rights, were not exactly pioneers on the issue, but evolved over time.

Even though it may be much tougher, the likes of Kenyatta and Uganda’s Yoweri Museveni or their successors can change — but only through a major cultural shift in the body politic. The main reason gay rights are a tough sell and stubbornly difficult to deal with in most of Africa is that the issue is a taboo subject. Opposition to homosexuality is so deeply entrenched in cultural and traditional beliefs, gay rights are hardly mentioned, hardly ever discussed in public and certainly never part of the national conversation.

On a recent visit to Ghana, I found myself chatting with a passionate civil society activist. He spoke eloquently about issues like women’s rights, girls’ education and negative depictions of women in the media. But when I asked about gay rights, his face went blank. Homosexuality is such a taboo, even this enlightened and passionate advocate had never thought of it as a human rights issue.

And therein lies the problem. To make progress, the taboo has to be broken, and the way to do it is to start engaging civil society. Credit to Barack Obama for speaking out for gay rights in the African heartland, but little will change until civil society groups and the media in particular open up the debate.

You can’t get change unless people start to talk and get out of their comfort zones. It could get ugly, because such discourse may bring out the worst in people. But it is only through argument and counter-argument that people would begin to see each other in a different light.

Young people everywhere, including Africa, are more open-minded and more susceptible to change than previous generations, and the best place to start this conversation is among the youth on college and university campuses, where people are more likely to listen and adapt.

Gay rights did not come easily in the so-called enlightened world, and let us remember that in many parts of the United States today, many politicians, including some running for president, are fully committed to rolling back gains.

Africa has a long way to go, but the best way to change and acceptance is through grassroots engagement.