[NextGenderation]
The new struggle for equality: Gay rights (and wrongs)
in Africa
By Alex Duval Smith
Published: 21 November 2006
Deep in the Sahara one of the world's most
extraordinary tribal
exhibitions takes place every year when young men of
the Wadabi tribe adorn
themselves with beads and face paint to woo their
future wives.
At the end of the all-night ceremony the most
effeminate of them all is
given the pick of the virgins. This extravaganza in
Niger is considered
to be one of Africa's most treasured heterosexual
rituals. But almost
anywhere else on the continent, any flirting with
sexual boundaries is
deeply taboo. Being gay in Africa is not easy.
When the South African parliament voted last week to
legalise same- sex
marriage, Mongezi Chirwa, a resident of Alexandra,
near Johannesburg,
was quick to pipe up that he was looking forward to
becoming one of the
first men to tie the knot with his boyfriend.
His declaration came shortly after Lindiwe Radebe, 25,
and Bathini
Dambuza, 22, two women from Soweto who have been
engaged for a year, went
public on television about their decision to be wed.
The debate that followed in the South African media
was not so much
centred on the old arguments that homosexuality is an
"abomination"
brought to Africa by the colonisers. Neither has there
been much quoting of
Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe's view that gays
and lesbians are
"worse than dogs and pigs".
Guardians of tradition, such as Mr Chirwa's
grandmother and spiritual
healer Nokuzola Mndende, argue that the real problem
presented by the
new South African law - which is expected to be passed
by the National
Council of Provinces before being signed into law on 1
December - is that
it is going to be difficult for African families to
adapt their
traditional rituals to their new gay and lesbian
in-laws.
Mrs Mndende, who is the director of the Icamagu
Institute, said:
"There's the issue of lobolo [dowry]. Normally the man
pays it. In this case,
who is going to pay?" She added that when a man
announces that he
wishes to marry a woman, the families meet and an
unozakuzaku is formed - a
delegation that negotiates lobolo for the groom. "Who
is going to be
unozakuzaku?" she asked.
Mrs Mndende is disappointed that South Africa's
black-led government -
which passed the Civil Union Bill by 230 votes to 41 -
is setting out
to "destabilise tradition".
But according to Mogezi Guma, of the Commission for
the Promotion and
Protection of the Rights of Cultural, Religious and
Linguistic
Communities, traditional practices are inventions
which can easily be adapted.
"Communities have always accommodated emerging
challenges. For instance,
cattle were used before as a way of paying lobolo but
today money and
cheques and receipts are exchanged." Africa remains
one of the most
homophobic places in the world and even in South
Africa - with the
exception of gay tourism spots in Cape Town - it is
not advisable for same-sex
couples to walk hand-in- hand in the street. There are
occasional
moments of liberation from this rule, such as during
Johannesburg's annual
gay pride event, which has been staged every September
for the past 16
years. Zimbabwe's annual Jacaranda Ball was a similar
event, until the
drag queens got too frightened to go out of doors.
African archbishops, especially Nigeria's Peter
Akinola who has 17
million Anglicans in his flock, have led the schism in
the Anglican
Communion since the election of Gene Robinson, a gay
bishop in New Hampshire,
in 2003. Churches in Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda have
followed suit,
principally by refusing grants from the American
Episcopal Church. Critics
of the South African Civil Union Bill point out that
its fatal flaw is
that religious leaders may still, on grounds of
"conscience, religion
and belief" refuse to officiate at same-sex weddings.
The churchmen have
been supported by politicians such as Ugandan
President Yoweri
Museveni, who last year changed the constitution to
introduce a ban on same-sex
marriage. A radio station that invited three activists
to comment on
the ban was fined 1.8m shillings (£800).
In Nigeria - which enforces powerful anti-homosexual
laws from the
colonial era, including five years' jail for
consenting sex without the
option of a fine - the Federal Executive Council also
approved a bill in
January seeking to outlaw gay marriage. In October
2004, a Sierra
Leonean lesbian activist, Fannyann Eddy was raped and
savagely beaten, and
died from a broken neck, after being assaulted in her
office. A man was
arrested but escaped from detention.
In Cameroon, 11 men are currently in prison on the
basis of their
presumed sexual orientation after nine of them were
found guilty of sodomy
and sentenced to 10 months' imprisonment at a trial in
June. At a
separate court hearing, four suspected lesbians were
given suspended six
month sentences for "sodomy". At the same time,
Cameroon's media has
launched an aggressive "outing" campaign. Its victims
have included the
Franco-Cameroonian former tennis star Yannick Noah,
45, the singer Manu
Dibango and two cabinet ministers.
In Zimbabwe, the ritual homophobic destruction of the
gay and lesbian
stand at the Harare International Book Fair took place
again this
August. President Mugabe believes that "gay gangsters"
- some of whom he sees
belonging to the British Government - are conspiring
for regime change.
In Ghana, four men were jailed for two years in 2004
for alleged
"unnatural acts". Gays and lesbians in the west
African country still only
agree to speak anonymously about their experience. One
man said: "People
imagine that gays are paedophiles and criminals. You
are taunted as a
child. I had a friend who was recently told he was
evil and would not go
to heaven. Pentecostal churches perform exorcism rites
on people seen
as being gay. I was beaten up a couple of years ago. I
met this guy on
the beach and agreed to meet him at the market. When I
got there several
men and women accused me of forcing their friend to
have sex. They beat
me and took everything I had.
"They said gays were evil people who made God destroy
Sodom and
Gomorrah. They said they would beat out of me the evil
spirit of
homosexuality."
African homophobes justify their actions with the
claim that
homosexuality is a white colonial import. The former
Kenyan president Daniel Arap
Moi said it himself in 1999: "It is against African
tradition and
biblical teachings, I will not shy from warning
Kenyans against this
scourge." The Namibian former president Sam Nujoma
said: "Homosexuals must be
condemned and rejected. Homosexuality is a behavioural
disorder that is
alien to African culture".
But activists say homosexuality and gender-bending is
as old as Africa.
They say that what came with the colonisers was
homophobia in the shape
of morally charged legislation that aimed to tame
"savage" practices
such as shows of affection between people of the same
sex. Activists
quote the Garawal - the annual extravagant marriage
ritual of the
flamboyant Wadabi tribe. Historians say that in
ancient traditional communities
homosexuality - which in the Shona language of
Zimbabwe has a name,
ngochani - was widespread and acceptable. Men who
wished to adopt
traditional female roles and who found male partners
were not frowned upon
because they did not represent a threat to other men.
Same-sex
relationships only came under threat at times of
extreme poverty or famine when
there was an urgent need for procreation.
But if South Africa last week became the first country
in Africa to
legalise same-sex weddings it is not because the
country has a better
grasp than others on African anthropological history.
It is because the
country has an organised gay and lesbian movement -
including influential
websites (such as mask.org.za) that have provided a
lung of expression
for people in all English-speaking African countries -
and political
influence. It was as a result of a case brought by gay
and lesbian
campaigners that the South African Constitutional
Court last year gave the
government until 1 December to create the Civil Union
Bill that legalises
same-sex weddings.
Despite its lobbying power, the South African gay and
lesbian lobby
would not be where it is today without a man called
Simon Nkoli, to whom
the ruling African National Congress owes a profound
debt of gratitude.
Nkoli, who was 41 when he died from an Aids illness in
November 1998,
united black and white gays and lesbians and initiated
the first South
African Pride march in 1990. More importantly, as an
anti-apartheid
campaigner, he spent four years in jail with leading
ANC figures Popo
Molefe, Frank Chikane and the current Defence Minister
Mosiuoa "Terror"
Lekota. Nkoli profoundly influenced the future
decision-makers who were his
fellow inmates to incorporate gays and lesbians in the
dream they held
for a democratic South Africa, free from all forms of
discrimination.
The playwright Robert Colman, who has written about
Nkoli's life, said
the gay activist had a profound impression on the
other prisoners.
"There was a scandal in the prison when a warder
delivered a note which was
proof that one of the treason triallists was arranging
a meeting for
sex with a common-law prisoner. Political prisoners at
the time had a
code of conduct whereby they did not indulge in those
practices. They set
themselves above other prisoners because they did not
see themselves as
criminals.
"The issue of the note had to be discussed among the
22 political
prisoners. Because of the homophobic reaction of some
of the men, Simon came
out. This step confronted the other prisoners with a
dilemma. Some of
them thought Simon would turn state witness. They
thought the state
would use Simon's sexuality as a weakness to
manipulate him with. I believe
that incident had a very direct bearing on the
equality clause in the
South African constitution."
Last week, before the vote in South Africa's
parliament, the Home
Affairs minister Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula said the
Civil Unions Bill marked
another step in the country's rejection of its brutal
past. Ahead of a
vote in which all ANC MPs were required to vote, she
sought to shift the
debate's focus from the emotional to the intellectual.
"The challenge that we continue to face has to do with
the fact that
when we attained our democracy we sought to
distinguish ourselves from an
unjust painful past, by declaring that never again
shall it be that any
South African will be discriminated against on the
basis of colour,
creed, culture and sex."
Mr Lekota, an unrepentant heterosexual, told MPs: "The
question is not
whether same-sex marriages or civil unions are right
or not. It is
whether South Africa is going to suppress same-sex
partners or not.
"Men and women of homosexual and lesbian orientation
joined the ranks
of the democratic forces in the struggle for
liberation. Same-sex unions
should be afforded similar space as heterosexual
marriages in the
sunshine of democracy," said Mr Lekota.
Africa and homosexuality
SOUTH AFRICA
On 14 November South Africa became the first African
nation to legalise
same-sex marriage. Under apartheid, sex between men
was outlawed. Even
today 63 per cent believe that homosexuality should
not be accepted.
ZIMBABWE
Male homosexuality is illegal and since 1995 President
Robert Mugabe
has pursued a "moral campaign" against homosexuals. He
has said being gay
is a "white disease". "Unnatural sex acts" carry a
penalty of up to 10
years in prison.
GHANA
Male homosexual activity is illegal. Gay men can also
be punished under
provisions concerning assault and rape, if "in public
or with minor".
Two months ago a gay rights conference was banned.
MOROCCO
Homosexuality is illegal and can be punished with up
to three years in
prison and a fine of up to £75, but the law is seldom
enforced, and
homosexual activity is fairly common, especially in
the resorts.
CHAD
There is no law against being gay. Homosexual
behaviour is not
mentioned as a criminal offence in the penal code.
However, homosexuality is
considered immoral and is a taboo subject.
ETHIOPIA
The law prohibits homosexual acts by both sexes, with
a penalty of up
to three years in prison. This may be increased by
five or more years
when the offender "makes a profession of such
activities".
EGYPT
There are no laws against homosexuality, but it has
started to become
illegal de facto under various laws such as "offences
against public
morals" and "violating the teachings of religion".
KENYA
Homosexual behaviour is banned between men, which is
referred to as
"carnal knowledge against the order of nature". The
penalty is five to 14
years' imprisonment. The age of consent is 16. Lesbian
relations are
not prohibited by law.
Deep in the Sahara one of the world's most
extraordinary tribal
exhibitions takes place every year when young men of
the Wadabi tribe adorn
themselves with beads and face paint to woo their
future wives.
At the end of the all-night ceremony the most
effeminate of them all is
given the pick of the virgins. This extravaganza in
Niger is considered
to be one of Africa's most treasured heterosexual
rituals. But almost
anywhere else on the continent, any flirting with
sexual boundaries is
deeply taboo. Being gay in Africa is not easy.
When the South African parliament voted last week to
legalise same- sex
marriage, Mongezi Chirwa, a resident of Alexandra,
near Johannesburg,
was quick to pipe up that he was looking forward to
becoming one of the
first men to tie the knot with his boyfriend.
His declaration came shortly after Lindiwe Radebe, 25,
and Bathini
Dambuza, 22, two women from Soweto who have been
engaged for a year, went
public on television about their decision to be wed.
The debate that followed in the South African media
was not so much
centred on the old arguments that homosexuality is an
"abomination"
brought to Africa by the colonisers. Neither has there
been much quoting of
Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe's view that gays
and lesbians are
"worse than dogs and pigs".
Guardians of tradition, such as Mr Chirwa's
grandmother and spiritual
healer Nokuzola Mndende, argue that the real problem
presented by the
new South African law - which is expected to be passed
by the National
Council of Provinces before being signed into law on 1
December - is that
it is going to be difficult for African families to
adapt their
traditional rituals to their new gay and lesbian
in-laws.
Mrs Mndende, who is the director of the Icamagu
Institute, said:
"There's the issue of lobolo [dowry]. Normally the man
pays it. In this case,
who is going to pay?" She added that when a man
announces that he
wishes to marry a woman, the families meet and an
unozakuzaku is formed - a
delegation that negotiates lobolo for the groom. "Who
is going to be
unozakuzaku?" she asked.
Mrs Mndende is disappointed that South Africa's
black-led government -
which passed the Civil Union Bill by 230 votes to 41 -
is setting out
to "destabilise tradition".
But according to Mogezi Guma, of the Commission for
the Promotion and
Protection of the Rights of Cultural, Religious and
Linguistic
Communities, traditional practices are inventions
which can easily be adapted.
"Communities have always accommodated emerging
challenges. For instance,
cattle were used before as a way of paying lobolo but
today money and
cheques and receipts are exchanged." Africa remains
one of the most
homophobic places in the world and even in South
Africa - with the
exception of gay tourism spots in Cape Town - it is
not advisable for same-sex
couples to walk hand-in- hand in the street. There are
occasional
moments of liberation from this rule, such as during
Johannesburg's annual
gay pride event, which has been staged every September
for the past 16
years. Zimbabwe's annual Jacaranda Ball was a similar
event, until the
drag queens got too frightened to go out of doors.
African archbishops, especially Nigeria's Peter
Akinola who has 17
million Anglicans in his flock, have led the schism in
the Anglican
Communion since the election of Gene Robinson, a gay
bishop in New Hampshire,
in 2003. Churches in Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda have
followed suit,
principally by refusing grants from the American
Episcopal Church. Critics
of the South African Civil Union Bill point out that
its fatal flaw is
that religious leaders may still, on grounds of
"conscience, religion
and belief" refuse to officiate at same-sex weddings.
The churchmen have
been supported by politicians such as Ugandan
President Yoweri
Museveni, who last year changed the constitution to
introduce a ban on same-sex
marriage. A radio station that invited three activists
to comment on
the ban was fined 1.8m shillings (£800).
In Nigeria - which enforces powerful anti-homosexual
laws from the
colonial era, including five years' jail for
consenting sex without the
option of a fine - the Federal Executive Council also
approved a bill in
January seeking to outlaw gay marriage. In October
2004, a Sierra
Leonean lesbian activist, Fannyann Eddy was raped and
savagely beaten, and
died from a broken neck, after being assaulted in her
office. A man was
arrested but escaped from detention.
In Cameroon, 11 men are currently in prison on the
basis of their
presumed sexual orientation after nine of them were
found guilty of sodomy
and sentenced to 10 months' imprisonment at a trial in
June. At a
separate court hearing, four suspected lesbians were
given suspended six
month sentences for "sodomy". At the same time,
Cameroon's media has
launched an aggressive "outing" campaign. Its victims
have included the
Franco-Cameroonian former tennis star Yannick Noah,
45, the singer Manu
Dibango and two cabinet ministers.
In Zimbabwe, the ritual homophobic destruction of the
gay and lesbian
stand at the Harare International Book Fair took place
again this
August. President Mugabe believes that "gay gangsters"
- some of whom he sees
belonging to the British Government - are conspiring
for regime change.
In Ghana, four men were jailed for two years in 2004
for alleged
"unnatural acts". Gays and lesbians in the west
African country still only
agree to speak anonymously about their experience. One
man said: "People
imagine that gays are paedophiles and criminals. You
are taunted as a
child. I had a friend who was recently told he was
evil and would not go
to heaven. Pentecostal churches perform exorcism rites
on people seen
as being gay. I was beaten up a couple of years ago. I
met this guy on
the beach and agreed to meet him at the market. When I
got there several
men and women accused me of forcing their friend to
have sex. They beat
me and took everything I had.
"They said gays were evil people who made God destroy
Sodom and
Gomorrah. They said they would beat out of me the evil
spirit of
homosexuality."
African homophobes justify their actions with the
claim that
homosexuality is a white colonial import. The former
Kenyan president Daniel Arap
Moi said it himself in 1999: "It is against African
tradition and
biblical teachings, I will not shy from warning
Kenyans against this
scourge." The Namibian former president Sam Nujoma
said: "Homosexuals must be
condemned and rejected. Homosexuality is a behavioural
disorder that is
alien to African culture".
But activists say homosexuality and gender-bending is
as old as Africa.
They say that what came with the colonisers was
homophobia in the shape
of morally charged legislation that aimed to tame
"savage" practices
such as shows of affection between people of the same
sex. Activists
quote the Garawal - the annual extravagant marriage
ritual of the
flamboyant Wadabi tribe. Historians say that in
ancient traditional communities
homosexuality - which in the Shona language of
Zimbabwe has a name,
ngochani - was widespread and acceptable. Men who
wished to adopt
traditional female roles and who found male partners
were not frowned upon
because they did not represent a threat to other men.
Same-sex
relationships only came under threat at times of
extreme poverty or famine when
there was an urgent need for procreation.
But if South Africa last week became the first country
in Africa to
legalise same-sex weddings it is not because the
country has a better
grasp than others on African anthropological history.
It is because the
country has an organised gay and lesbian movement -
including influential
websites (such as mask.org.za) that have provided a
lung of expression
for people in all English-speaking African countries -
and political
influence. It was as a result of a case brought by gay
and lesbian
campaigners that the South African Constitutional
Court last year gave the
government until 1 December to create the Civil Union
Bill that legalises
same-sex weddings.
Despite its lobbying power, the South African gay and
lesbian lobby
would not be where it is today without a man called
Simon Nkoli, to whom
the ruling African National Congress owes a profound
debt of gratitude.
Nkoli, who was 41 when he died from an Aids illness in
November 1998,
united black and white gays and lesbians and initiated
the first South
African Pride march in 1990. More importantly, as an
anti-apartheid
campaigner, he spent four years in jail with leading
ANC figures Popo
Molefe, Frank Chikane and the current Defence Minister
Mosiuoa "Terror"
Lekota. Nkoli profoundly influenced the future
decision-makers who were his
fellow inmates to incorporate gays and lesbians in the
dream they held
for a democratic South Africa, free from all forms of
discrimination.
The playwright Robert Colman, who has written about
Nkoli's life, said
the gay activist had a profound impression on the
other prisoners.
"There was a scandal in the prison when a warder
delivered a note which was
proof that one of the treason triallists was arranging
a meeting for
sex with a common-law prisoner. Political prisoners at
the time had a
code of conduct whereby they did not indulge in those
practices. They set
themselves above other prisoners because they did not
see themselves as
criminals.
"The issue of the note had to be discussed among the
22 political
prisoners. Because of the homophobic reaction of some
of the men, Simon came
out. This step confronted the other prisoners with a
dilemma. Some of
them thought Simon would turn state witness. They
thought the state
would use Simon's sexuality as a weakness to
manipulate him with. I believe
that incident had a very direct bearing on the
equality clause in the
South African constitution."
Last week, before the vote in South Africa's
parliament, the Home
Affairs minister Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula said the
Civil Unions Bill marked
another step in the country's rejection of its brutal
past. Ahead of a
vote in which all ANC MPs were required to vote, she
sought to shift the
debate's focus from the emotional to the intellectual.
"The challenge that we continue to face has to do with
the fact that
when we attained our democracy we sought to
distinguish ourselves from an
unjust painful past, by declaring that never again
shall it be that any
South African will be discriminated against on the
basis of colour,
creed, culture and sex."
Mr Lekota, an unrepentant heterosexual, told MPs: "The
question is not
whether same-sex marriages or civil unions are right
or not. It is
whether South Africa is going to suppress same-sex
partners or not.
"Men and women of homosexual and lesbian orientation
joined the ranks
of the democratic forces in the struggle for
liberation. Same-sex unions
should be afforded similar space as heterosexual
marriages in the
sunshine of democracy," said Mr Lekota.
Africa and homosexuality
SOUTH AFRICA
On 14 November South Africa became the first African
nation to legalise
same-sex marriage. Under apartheid, sex between men
was outlawed. Even
today 63 per cent believe that homosexuality should
not be accepted.
ZIMBABWE
Male homosexuality is illegal and since 1995 President
Robert Mugabe
has pursued a "moral campaign" against homosexuals. He
has said being gay
is a "white disease". "Unnatural sex acts" carry a
penalty of up to 10
years in prison.
GHANA
Male homosexual activity is illegal. Gay men can also
be punished under
provisions concerning assault and rape, if "in public
or with minor".
Two months ago a gay rights conference was banned.
MOROCCO
Homosexuality is illegal and can be punished with up
to three years in
prison and a fine of up to £75, but the law is seldom
enforced, and
homosexual activity is fairly common, especially in
the resorts.
CHAD
There is no law against being gay. Homosexual
behaviour is not
mentioned as a criminal offence in the penal code.
However, homosexuality is
considered immoral and is a taboo subject.
ETHIOPIA
The law prohibits homosexual acts by both sexes, with
a penalty of up
to three years in prison. This may be increased by
five or more years
when the offender "makes a profession of such
activities".
EGYPT
There are no laws against homosexuality, but it has
started to become
illegal de facto under various laws such as "offences
against public
morals" and "violating the teachings of religion".
KENYA
Homosexual behaviour is banned between men, which is
referred to as
"carnal knowledge against the order of nature". The
penalty is five to 14
years' imprisonment. The age of consent is 16. Lesbian
relations are
not prohibited by law.
____________________________________________________________________________________
Want to start your own business?
Learn how on Yahoo! Small Business.
http://smallbusiness.yahoo.com/r-index
