By: Gcobani Qambela (a Graduate student at Rhodes University, reading Joint Honours in Anthropology and Politics and International Studies).
The innate homophobia in most African countries has recently been brought to the fore in the past few months. Steve Monjeza (26) and Tiwonge Chimbalanga (20) generated both continental and international interest in December 2009 when they became the first gay partners to be publicly engaged to marry in Malawi. They were consequently imprisoned and have continuously been denied bail as they wait for their trail date for their “indecency” charges by the state. They could be imprisoned for up to 14 years if the charges by the state are found to be substantiated.
Uganda has similarly steered similar interest with its intended moves to criminalize homosexuality, going as far as to propose that it be an offense punishable by the death penalty. More recently Zimbabwean Prime Minister, Morgan Tsvangirai has expressed his support for President Robert Mugabe’s views pertaining to gay rights and is widely quoted as stating that there is no space for “men who want to breathe into other men’s ears…” when there are so many women in Zimbabwe they could be with.
Fascinating and disturbing enough however has been the absence of critical voices from African leaders to create the proper context in which a more open and progressive debate on gay rights and the blatant homophobia currently rampaging the African continent can be analyzed and scrutinized. It is against this backdrop that I argue that African leaders need to take a more proactive stance when it comes to gay rights, as opposed to always reacting to campaigns waged by civil society or other external factors advocating for gay rights outside the state.
Both homosexuality and homophobia are a reality in most, if not all African countries, and merely criminalizing or affording homosexuals limited rights is not the ideal long term-solution. Homosexuals, just like heterosexuals are equally worthy of the protection and enjoyment of the law, which at its core should in anyways protect the marginal and oppressed in society.
Autocratic statements and bigotry laws that promote and suggest heterosexuality to be the only mode of sexual preference should have no space in a continent like Africa that itself has a deep history of oppression of cultures, ideals and identities. Discrimination based on sexual orientation just cannot be tolerated in the African continent. African leaders cannot preach ubuntu (the idea that one’s humanity is realized though other people) to the world, and not at the basic and salient level afford adult men and women the chance to love and marry each other simply because they are of the same sex.
Arguments that homosexuality is “un-African” no longer have a place in 21st century African. Guardian columnist Blessing-Miles Tendi recently pointed to the fact that amongst the Azande, found in the north-east of what is now the Democratic Republic of Congo, it was perfectly acceptable for Kings, Princes and soldiers to take young male lovers as spouses. This then diffuses the common assumption that homosexuality is a relatively novel occurrence in Africa brought about by Westerners.
I conclude that it is shameful that only handful of African leaders have spoken-out about the violation of homosexuals intrinsic rights. This mutism from African leaders only serves to perpetuate the unjust laws and the so-called “corrective rapes” which most homosexuals have to contend with from African society that is content to “cure” them.
African leaders need to take proactive standpoint on the issue. An open space for dialogue not only between African leaders themselves, but also civil society and other non-state actors needs to be created to foster debate and programmes that will move the African continent towards more tolerance, respect and protection of marginal and minority groups like homosexuals in Africa.
The apathy of African leaders towards homosexuals and homophobic attacks consequently forged on them can no longer go unquestioned. Africa has the capacity to accommodate homosexuals “‘if we can change the bent of the [African] human heart which seems to instinctively fear what it cannot – or will not – identify in itself, the eradication of homophobia will remain a Utopian goal’ (Sylvain Larocque). African leaders need to do exactly that – lead!
(1). N Barker ‘Sex and the Civil Partnership Act: The Future of (non)Conjugality’ (2006) 14 Feminist Legal Studies 241, 244
4 comments:
Firstly, I want to command you on this brilliant and fascinating article. These issues really need to be brought to the fore to allow for robust public debates rather than turning a blind eye on issues that do exist and feature on our day-to-day lives. Homosexuality is a reality, a reality that exists in Africa and the sooner we acknowledge that, the better.
It’s alarming that people are getting arrested for who they sleep with in the 21st century, what takes place in a bedroom between two consenting adults should be respected. I always find it disheartening when a black person is homophobic, after all black people should understand how it feels like to be discriminated over something one cannot change. For the leaders who say that it’s un-African to be gay, is it African to pass judgement over something they clearly don’t understand? Is it African to excommunicate with someone over their sexual orientation? If the answers to these questions are affirmative then I must say it sickens me to be African.
from Thusego Mmolawa
well written Gcobani...i think an issue i have with the gay issue,is the simple fact that African men and women should not be under a lot of pressure to follow the route of western politics ie(coming out of the closet)telling your family and relatives of your sexual preference.gay African men should have their own identities,and also consider a lot of issues in their environment ie is it really worth coming out of the closet,or can you live your private life privately....let the decisions also include a sense of sensitivity to ones values and the values of their families(even though there might not understand).What i am trying to say is there shouldnt be any pressure from anywhere.Africa is still "developing"so we will get there eventually,Finally Gcobani, good work.
I couldn't agree more with you Nomalanga!!! I do commend you Gcobani for this article. Its about damn time! What concerns me is this dogmatic view of what it means to be African. And most of the times being African is what ever is convenient for the speaker. We go around the world talking about the importance of "Ubuntu" and how we still suffer from decades of colonial oppression, and yet when our brothers and sisters are being discriminated against we turn a blind eye. Even more worrying is this dogmatic/selective definition of what it means to be African. I am concerned about what these 'values' are that Thusego speaks of. Whose to say that all Africans share the same values? I certainly do not believe that the is an exclusive African identity especially because Africa like all other places in the world is not pure. Do we even comprehend what it means to 'stay in the closet'? What is private and what is public? I think these identities are very blurry to me. For one part of what defines your private life is who your spouse is right? But then when you go to the public sphere the government needs to know whether you are married or not. Because your status defines how the government deals with you when you apply for a job, school, health-care etc. Staying in the closet not only means that you can 'choose' not to participate in this social structure of resource delivery, it also means that your other options is to create this public identity which will involve marrying into a heterosexual relationship. I then wonder how this benefits any of us, the woman who marries a men she believes to be straight but is actually gay? The lesbian woman who marries a man to become the 'dutiful' wife? Are we doing our government a favor of not complicating things like having to change the options we have when filling all those tiny boxes in our government documents. What then do we define as private or public for those individuals whose spouses are actually in the 'closet'? What would be better for them to allow their spouses to be who they are or to help their spouses to conform to these 'African' norms that we speak of?
When Africans fought to be free from oppression and freedom of thought and expression, what did that mean exactly? Did it mean that we will grant people in our society freedoms that we deem fit for them or that by virtue of their humanity they have the right like all of us to be? How did we come to tolerate the brutal 'corrective rapes' that many Lesbian South Africans are enduring? What African value is that representing? How did Africans move from being deemed as 'savages' not fully human, become the kind of people that call other people 'unnatural' clearly not fully human?
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