Why Africa is no place to be gay

Draconian legislation against homosexuality in Uganda and Malawi is attracting widespread criticism from human rights groups. But why are some African societies so deeply homophobic? asks BILL CORCORANin Cape Town

RECENT EFFORTS to introduce anti-gay legislation in Uganda, and the Malawi government’s decision to try a male couple for publicly celebrating their engagement, has brought the risks of being openly homosexual in Africa sharply into focus.

If the draft Anti-Homosexual Bill proposed by Ugandan MP David Bahati, a member of the ruling party, is adopted by parliament without amendment, gay and lesbian people in the east African country can be put to death for engaging in same-sex intercourse, if they are serial offenders.

Malawi’s government also came under the spotlight earlier this month for its decision to put on trial a gay couple for gross indecency and committing unnatural acts, crimes punishable by up to 14 years in jail if they are convicted.

The two men, Steven Monjeza and Tiwonge Chimbalanga, did nothing more than hold a party, which drew a crowd of onlookers, to celebrate their engagement. They have been in jail since December 27th last and will face their accusers, the state, in their country’s high court next month.

These two developments have attracted widespread criticism from western human rights advocates who say they are, at the very least, discriminatory.

Navi Pillay, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, has urged the Ugandan government to shelve its projected legislation, because in its current form it breaches international standards.

“The bill proposes draconian punishments for people alleged to be lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgendered – namely life imprisonment or, in some cases, the death penalty,” Pillay said in a statement.

Some Scottish parliamentarians have suggested that aid should be withheld if the countries in question refuse to heed the growing outrage in the West. However, despite the pressure, there has yet to be a clear about-turn by either Uganda’s or Malawi’s government.

Even though Malawi depends on overseas aid for 40 per cent of its annual budget, information minister Leckford Mwanza Thoto has indicated that his government will not back down. He said the arrested male couple, were “clearly breaking the laws of Malawi” and that although the country depended on western countries for help, “we are a sovereign country”.

While Uganda’s president, Yoweri Museveni, has tried to distance himself from the legislation following international pressure, many parliamentarians have insisted the bill will be put to the lower house. Local media say the cabinet is split on the issue, and there is talk of reducing the death penalty to life in prison, to placate the West.

Since Museveni decided to sit on the fence, a Ugandan preacher, Pastor Martin Ssempa, has declared he will hold a million-man march in favour of the bill next month, to show his president what Ugandans think of homosexuality.

“We want to show how many people support the bill,” he told journalists in the Ugandan capital, before adding: “We want to give a postcard that can send to his friend, Barack Obama.”

Given their first-hand experience of discrimination and exclusion under colonial rule, one might think that African societies would be supportive of gay people’s human rights, even if individuals dislike the practice of homosexuality. However, what both cases have shown the wider world is the high levels of intolerance that exist towards homosexuality in some parts of Africa.

According to Prof Juan Nel, director of the University of South Africa’s Centre for Applied Psychology, in many African societies matters of sexuality are taboo and a lot of evidence exists of widespread hatred of those who challenge traditional norms.

Only last year nine Senegalese were sent to jail for eight years after they publicly proclaimed themselves to be gay, and dozens of countries across the continent have made it illegal to be gay.

Interestingly, African countries colonised by the French have no laws against same-sex sexuality, unlike those colonised by the British, where the majority do.

“In much of sub-Saharan Africa, male same-sex sexuality is interpreted firstly in political terms of racist, anti-black exploitation by whites (former colonial masters) and Arabs (former slave traders), and secondly in cultural terms as foreign, un-African and imported by whites,” according to Nel.

In the case of Uganda, gay rights campaigners are also accusing conservative American evangelists of encouraging homophobia. Three of these evangelists visited the country last year and held high-profile seminars at which they described homosexuality as a curable disease.

The one country on the continent in which gay rights are recognised and protected is South Africa, where the constitution protects human rights for all, and gay marriage is allowed under the law.

However, even here the reality on the ground for gay people differs remarkably from what is enshrined in the constitution, says Cape Town-based Marlow Valentine, deputy director of the Triangle Project, a gay rights organisation.

“Many rural communities in post-apartheid South Africa have got more homophobic rather than less over the years, because freedom of movement has meant that people are now more exposed to homosexuality. While the constitution protects the human rights of all, this document means nothing if you are uninformed, uneducated, have literacy issues and are dealing with poverty. Even here in Cape Town, a very gay-friendly city, once you go out into the townships it is very different.

“Culturally, we are steeped in patriarchy. So it’s also about masculinity and what makes a man, and gay and lesbian people challenge the whole idea of masculinity and femininity.”

Asana Fanti (35), an African lesbian from the Eastern Cape Province, lived in denial until she was in her 20s because she never knew what being gay was while growing up, as there were very few people openly homosexual.

“Right now it is getting better, I think, but it is still not acceptable. You have to be careful living in township communities, and you cannot go out at night. Sometimes I get really scared,” she says.

Fanti’s fears are not misplaced. Two years ago the captain of South Africa’s women’s football team, Eudy Simelane, who was gay, died after she was attacked by thugs, gang-raped and stabbed 25 times. Local gay rights activists say at least 20 lesbians have been murdered over the past five years for their sexual orientation.