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Is
homosexuality really 'unafrican'?
*Jacob Rukweza, Gays and Lesbians of Zimbabwe (GALZ)
Extracted from Pambazuka News 247
March 23, 2006
http://www.pambazuka.org/
Homophobia recently topped
the news agenda when Cameroonian newspapers published a list of
prominent people and accused them of homosexuality, sparking debate
across Africa. Many African leaders are on record for their condemnation
of homosexuality, but Jacob Rukweza, an activist with Zimbabwe's
Gays and Lesbians of Zimbabwe (GALZ) argues that politicians must
make space for homosexuals within the law. To not do so denies a
fundamental aspect of their society and reflects poorly on their
ability to lead as representatives of their nations.
Among the many myths
created about Africa, the belief that homosexuality is absent in
Africa or incidental, is one of the oldest and most enduring. African
leaders, historians, anthropologists, clergy, authors, and contemporary
Africans alike have denied or overlooked the existence of homosexuality
or same-sex relationships and persistently claimed that such patterns
were introduced by Europeans.
Southern African leaders
have been accused of blaming the alien culture of homosexuality
for their countries problems. In February 1999, on the sidelines
of the World Council of Churches 8th Assembly, Keith Goddard, Director
of Gays and Lesbians of Zimbabwe (GALZ) which has a membership of
nearly 500, most of whom are black Zimbabweans - told a press
conference in Harare that Zimbabwe was "one of the most vocally
homophobic countries in the world. President Robert Mugabe is world
famous for his verbal gay bashing."
President Mugabe hit
the headlines in 1995 when he denounced gays and lesbians as "sexual
perverts" who are "lower than dogs and pigs".
Rejecting calls for gay human rights, Mugabe said, "we don't
believe they have rights at all". Mugabe charged that homosexuality
was unnatural and un-African, saying that it was an alien culture
only practised by a "few whites" in his country. He
repeated similar sentiments on the 25th of February this year whilst
addressing supporters in Mutare, to the east of the country, during
official celebrations of his 82nd birthday.
Mugabe's
attitude and mentality towards homosexuality represents a dominant
perception among African leaders. In January 2003, Yoweri Museveni,
President of Uganda, was quoted by The New Vision, as calling
on the Ugandan police to arrest all homosexuals or anyone indulging
in unnatural sexual practices. He also denounced homosexuality as
un-African. Sam Nujoma, while still President of Namibia in 2003,
also told a press conference of international journalists that homosexuality
was a "borrowed sub culture, alien to Africa and Africans".
Whilst some leaders in
West Africa have not been vocal about gay rights, their attitudes
are represented eloquently by the anti-gay laws informing the judicial
systems of their countries. Under Sharia law in Nigeria and most
of North Africa, homosexuality is a criminal offence punishable
by hanging. Laws across Africa do not recognise homosexuality as
a way of life: it is generally perceived as unnatural and therefore
criminal. Those who practise homosexuality are automatically turned
into lawbreakers, social rejects and threats to society.
It is impossible to separate
the laws from the political leadership which sponsors such law.
But research and reports by progressive contemporary historians,
anthropologists and sexologists around the issues surrounding sexuality
and gender in traditional African societies tell a different story.
Stephen Murray
and Will Roscoe's book, Boy Wives and Female Husbands
(1998) explores African homosexuality and documents same-sex
relationships in some fifty societies in every region of the continent.
Essays by scholars from a variety of disciplines explore institutionalized
marriages between women, same-sex relations between men and boys
in colonial work settings, mixed gender roles in East and West Africa.
The book covers recent developments in South Africa, where gays
and lesbians successfully made that nation the first on the continent
to constitutionally ban discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation,
and assists in revealing the denials of African homosexuality for
what they are - prejudice and wilful ignorance.
Obviously homosexuality
can hardly be referred to as a new phenomenon in African society.
It is not. Cursory interviews of homosexuals have proved that to
a great extent their behaviour is neither borrowed nor influenced
by foreign culture.
Jasper, a 23-year-old
Zimbabwean who works as a hairdresser in Harare, discovered his
homosexuality at the age of 12 while still in school in rural Wedza,
where he grew up with his parents. He says he considers himself
a woman trapped in a man's body - something he did not choose
for himself. He says his behaviour is not influenced by any western
culture since he discovered his sexuality at a very tender age,
in a rural setting, well before interacting with anything he could
call western.
Paul, 33, who works in
Bulawayo as a teacher, says he has married twice and has a six-year-old
daughter. Each of his wives left after finding out that their marriage
was just a front. Paul says he was forced to marry by his parents.
He goes to church every Sunday "to pray for his sin"
but is unable to abandon his lifestyle. Paul says he was "born
gay" and feels "insulted by people who think this is
a prank".
Sarah, 28, a journalist
by profession, says she is a lesbian, and there is little she can
do to change that. She says she is not attracted to men and will
not get married to a man because she has always been attracted to
other women. She says she has a female partner; and the two are
in love, although both their parents are encouraging them to settle
down with male partners. She says she discovered her sexuality ten
years ago when she was in college. "At first I was confused.
I didn't understand what it was. I tried to date boys, but
it didn't work out. I just couldn't stand it."
Sarah says her behaviour and feelings come naturally to her.
What African societies
have done with some degree of success, however, is to make sure
that homosexuality as an aspect of life or topic of family discourse
remains firmly taboo. For a typical African family unit, gays, lesbians
and bisexuals do not exist. Even in a family where a member is clearly
gay, parents and other family members generally never attempt to
consider or accept this reality. At best, families that have noticed
homosexual tendencies in one of their own have either panicked or
berated such behaviour as mischief, dismissing it as inconsequential.
Open and meaningful family
engagement on such issues of sexuality is virtually non-existent
and discourse is usually limited to admonitions and reprimands.
Small wonder then why vernacular languages have extremely limited
vocabulary when it comes to the subject of homosexuality.
For various reasons,
a siege mentality was deliberately grafted onto the psychology of
the African family system over a period of time. This mentality
has persistently and consistently refused to open up to the glaring
realities of divergent sexualities and natural but differing sexual
preferences inherent in human beings. Unfortunately this mentality
- domineering and stubborn - informs even the highest structures
of governance in Africa and shapes government policies, legislation
and national character. Because this point of view does not recognise
homosexuality as a way of life, government policies and laws accordingly
refuse to acknowledge homosexuality as a way of life. This is why
in most of Africa, excluding South Africa and in some of the countries
that were not colonised by the British, homosexuality is classified
under various forms of legislation as a criminal and punishable
offence.
The 'ostrich mentality'
as adopted by many African governments has clearly failed to take
nations into the future, which is where everyone belongs. The tendency
of dipping your head in the sand when faced with complex problems
is both naïve and retrogressive. When you decide finally to
pull your head out of the sand, the problem will still be there
- perhaps now more complex but still looking you in the face.
Moreover, laws that fail to acknowledge the realities of the constituency
they purport to serve reflect badly on those whose responsibility
it is to legislate and execute good law. It is a major weakness
on the part of society when its laws ignore fundamental aspects
of the lives of its people on the basis of perceived complexities
of such aspects.
The law in its stride
should, at any given time, be able to deal conclusively with all
aspects of its constituency. Failure to live up to this expectation
can only mean that those tasked with making laws on behalf of society
are incompetent and incapable of reading or interpreting society's
fundamentals. What must be clear here is that, when the law fails
to acknowledge the realities of a society it is supposed to serve,
the law in question is bad and must be corrected.
Parliaments the world
over are sponsored to make and amend laws. Parliamentarians are
elected to make laws that serve the interests of all society and
to amend laws that infringe on the rights and interests of any member
of society. There is no better way for African MPs to earn their
allowances than to represent the people's interests in parliament
and make laws that, in the first instance, recognise the existence
of all people.
Laws, anywhere in the
world, are made to serve and protect society and its people, and
not the other way round. And in serving or protecting people, the
law is expected to be fair and just in the eyes of all people. In
other words, the law is expected to be fair and just in the eyes
of men, women, children, teachers, lawyers, doctors, gays, lesbians,
bisexuals, Catholics, Anglicans, Methodists, blacks, and whites
alike - indeed all people.
The fact that laws in
Africa do not recognise the existence of homosexuality as a way
of life will not make gays and lesbians disappear from among us.
Their existence is as real as the colour of our skin. It will be
impossible to ignore the existence of homosexuals in our midst without
attempting to ignore the very existence of humanity.
However, deliberate
calls by African leaders to have homosexuals in their countries
arrested is a tacit, albeit unintended, acknowledgement that homosexuals
exist in Africa. We are indeed witnessing a paradigm shift by African
leaders: a reluctant transition from denial to acknowledgement.
The Nigerian Bill to 'Make Provisions for the Prohibition
of Relationships Between Persons of the Same Sex, Celebration of
Marriage by Them, and for Other Matters Connected Therewith'
is obviously reactionary and draconian, but it does presume the
existence of homosexuals in society.
And even Mugabe in his
recent speech in Mutare finally, though reservedly, admitted to
the existence of black homosexuals in Zimbabwe, although he said,
in Shona: "they are few". We can only hope that such
acknowledgements may, in time, translate into the tolerance and
appreciation of natural sexual and gender differences.
*Jacob Rukweza is an
activist who has written this article on behalf of GALZ -
Gays and Lesbians of Zimbabwe, an organisation founded in 1989 to
facilitate communication within the gay community.
Visit the GALZ
fact sheet
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.
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