|
Back to Index
Gay rights: A litmus test for Zimbabwe-s human rights drive
Bhekilizwe Bernard Ndlovu
March 31, 2010
When I read
about the recent stance taken by Morgan Tsvangirai on gay rights
I thought to myself 'why am I not surprised?- Prime
Minister Tsvangirai joined President Mugabe-s hate speech
against gay people by calling them 'men who breathe to other
men-s ears.- President Mugabe has in the past called
gay people 'worse than pigs and dogs.-
No one denies
that Zimbabwe, just like any other country has never openly spoken
about the issue of gay people. The silencing of and silence of these
members of our society has meant that no one has bothered to understand
them. Like any stigmatized lot, most gay people have suffered in
silence with some going to the extent of committing suicide having
failed to live with the reality of being ostracized and denied the
right to be themselves. No one has taken his or her time to talk
to them and find out why exactly they are of that sexual orientation.
There have attempts to cry foul by gay people and because they are
considered 'insane- no one has bothered to listen. Perhaps
it is the voices of the straight that will make everyone begin to
take this issue seriously? Perhaps it is the understanding that
'no one is free until we are all free that will set the tone
for all and sundry to begin to take part in this struggle.
Morgan Tsvangirai-s
stance did not surprise me because I understand Africa to be in
a state of limbo in so far as human rights are concerned. There
is this belief that rights are divisible and that there are some
rights which should take precedent over others. Zimbabwe, just like
most African states is trapped in a liberation model that is not
complete. The story of Zimbabwe is the story of subalterns caught
up in a web of they cannot untangle. Homi Bhabha, an Indian post
colonial theorist asks a crucial question in The Location of Culture
when he says 'How does strategy of representation or empowerment
come to be formulated in the competing claims of communities where,
despite shared histories of deprivation and discrimination, the
exchange of values, meanings and priorities may not always be collaborative
and dialogical, but may be profoundly antagonistic, conflicted and
even incommensurate?- That is why it is difficult for us to
collectively define democracy lest we entangle ourselves in a definition
that will compel us to do the right thing. Some religious sects
have joined the oppression, conveniently clinging to autocrats like
President Mugabe with their pseudo theocracy that some of us know
that is ungodly as faiths like Christianity are by principle against
being judgmental.
The story of
Zimbabwe fits well into the poetics of the Greek philosopher, Aristotle
and his theory of the tragic in art. It is the tragedy of a people
whose ruler will always have a harmatia or tragic flaw. This is
so because the milieu they are operating in is itself flawed and
the people who choose them are also flawed. These leaders will simply
take turns to rule and display the same qualities of oppression
in the name of being decisive. The most unfortunate thing is that
in the case of Zimbabwe and other African countries it is not the
'king- who dies a tragic hero but the people he leads.
The people of Zimbabwe were died during Ian Smith-s rule.
They continued to die in large numbers under Robert Mugabe and I
can predict that if Morgan Tvangirai becomes president, Zimbabweans
will live to wail again. It will all be about human rights.
The American
President aptly puts it in The Audacity of Hope in saying 'I
wonder, sometimes, whether men and women in fact are capable of
learning from history - whether we progress from one stage to the
next in an upward course or whether we just ride the cycles of boom
and bust, war and peace, ascent and decline.- We do seem to
be going round in circles indeed as a people and my concern is that
we don-t seem to see the contradiction that so clearly come
out when we open our mouths to condemn gay people without trying
to understand them.
It is not wrong
not to understand another human being. That is understandable. But
to go to the extent of oppressing that individual and denying him
or her his or her right to live the way they choose to lacks civilization.
People who behave like President Mugabe and Prime Minister Tsvangirai
are to be pitied and helped.
The most disheartening
thing about this problem is the stance that some people who purport
to be Christians have taken. The basis is of this is certainly not
the Bible but homophobia. The sad thing is that the Bible does not
say that gay people should not be allowed in a democracy. The Bible
does not say that Christians should impose their faith on non believers
in a democracy. Christians who are involved in this hate campaign
have forgotten their mandate of preaching love to non believers.
I can imagine what they would have done to that prostitute whom
Jesus saved. They would have been the first to stone her without
giving regard to the fact that they too were sinners. The same Bible
says that 'for all have sinned and come short of the glory
of God.- We are invited to church to be born again and to
begin the process of transformation for our good. Romans 12 verse
2. Why then do we want to close gay people outside this invitation
if they choose to be part? And how are they supposed to choose if
they are silenced and forced never to come out and say and live
who they are? If we deny them the right to exist and belong to our
country, will this make them go to heaven? Why don-t we ask
we ask President Mugabe and Prime Minister Tsvangirai to control
beer drinking like the Botswana president or even arrest all drinkers?
Why don-t we kill all our fornicating children? The same Bible
says we should not judge gay people specifically in Romans 2verse
1. So what has gotten into us Christians in particular? Why do we
allow ourselves to be used by politicians? Christians should be
taking the lead in protecting gay people if they mean to preach
Jesus to them. Jesus Christ protected the prostitute from getting
stoned by an angry mob of legalists. Today Christians are ready
to stone gay people under the leadership of President Robert Mugabe
and Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai. I don-t understand this
level of lunacy. What I understand though is that homophobia is
such a strange thing. Some American Christians operate by the acronym
(WWJD) meaning (What Would Jesus Do)
So we have a
disturbing blend of 'christianity- and traditionalism.
This is a clear marriage of convenience. Achille Mbembe, a Cameroonian
post colonial theorist makes a critical observation on Africa human
rights and violence when he says, 'This uncontrolled violence
is inspired by worsening inequalities and corruption combined with
persistence of fundamental disagreements on how to conduct the ongoing
struggles for the codification of new rights and privileges. He
goes on to predict that, 'The outcome of these profound movements
may well be the final defeat of the state in Africa as we have known
it in recent years. But it might equally well be a deepening of
the state-s indigenization,-or, more radically, its replacement
by dispositifs that retain the name but have intrinsic qualities
and modes of operation quite unlike those of a conventional state.
My feeling is that Zimbabwe might take the lead in redefining the
African state. Zimbabwean should accept nothing less than the zenith
of freedom. They have suffered enough and have no reason to compromise
at any stage anymore. Gay people should be allowed to jump out the
cocoons and be themselves. Zimbabweans must not only pursue their
rights but those of others too. The South African case is obviously
enviable but one needs to understand that the protection of gay
people in South Africa was more of a politician-s agenda.
The people were not wholly involved; hence the high levels of homophobia
on the ground also. The efforts of politicians like Thabo Mbeki
in this are, however, commendable. Zimbabwe has a chance to be the
first in Africa to have a people driven section of the constitution
that protects the rights of gay people. They may not agree with
them but they will be making a big tolerance statement in Africa.
Worries about curses and misfortunes lack logic. Zimbabwe-s
economy is bad right now and I don-t think the gods can make
it any worse. They have nothing to make worse. If that line of thinking
was correct South Africa would be the worst economically but the
last time I checked it was the best in Africa.
Zimbabweans
should not allow politicians to use them. Right now President Mugabe
is smiling again as he has found another reason to make people say
that he is right. Very soon Zimbabweans will forget his human rights
records and focus their hate on gay people and before they know
it he will be back in power. One can trace Mugabe-s thread
of group paranoia and how he has used group hatred to achieve his
political goals. This is well summarized by Heidi Holland in Dinner
with Mugabe, 'Mugabe-s skill over the years is focusing
Zimbabweans on an array of enemies, the British, the white farmer,
the parliamentary opposition- is deliberately designed to mobilize
hatred in his followers in such a way that apparently disconnected
adversaries appear to form a single category against whom the masses
can rage and rally. After briefly calling for unity and brotherhood
at independence, Mugabe has relentlessly inflamed frustrated, angry
Zimbabweans with the power of his rhetoric, sometimes using their
resultant aggressive energy to attack his chosen enemies (2008:119).
The Ndebele ethnic group has been a victim of this and so have MDC
supporters and for Tsvangirai to rally behind Mugabe today on oppressing
a certain group of Zimbabweans defies all dictates of logic.
Judith Todd
wonders just like I do now in saying, 'I found it difficult
to understand how people who had suffered at the hands of oppressors
could so readily become oppressors themselves. Tsvangirai even had
the guts to say, 'The President has spoken on the issue of
gay rights, men who breathe to other men-s ears. Never, I
don-t accept that culture.- Oh I didn-t know the
president had the right to dictate Mr. Prime Minister. So why are
we complaining about Tomana and Gono? Don-t you know that
the president has spoken too?
*Bhekilizwe
Bernard Ndlovu is Human Rights Theatre Artiste at the University
of Witwatersrand
Please credit www.kubatana.net if you make use of material from this website.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License unless stated otherwise.
TOP
|
