The Sexual Minority of Africa Should Also Be Heard
by Teferi
By Edwin Cameron, Justice of the Constitutional Court of South Africa
Posted on: 11 April 2014 | Voices
A destructive wave of hatred against lesbians, gays, bisexuals and transgender persons seems to be gaining force across Africa.
In
this groundswell of hate, Nigeria this year enacted punitive laws that
criminalise not only same-sex marriages but belonging to gay rights
organisations.
And Uganda now has a like-minded law imposing harsh sentences for same-sex acts, including in some cases life imprisonment.
Voices of reason and goodwill must speak out against this hatred and irrationality.
There are 38 countries in Africa that deem homosexuality criminal. This is based on laws introduced during colonialism.
But
in Nigeria and Uganda, political pressures are causing tremendous
further damage. The new laws are instilling terror among the gay and
lesbian community as well as their friends, families, colleagues and
acquaintances.
But
the laws have a further effect. They put at risk all minorities, all
Africans who are “different”. And Africa is a continent rich in
diversity and difference.
The
refusal to celebrate this diversity has led to unspeakable conflict,
grief and death on our continent. The wave of gay-hating laws threatens
the same kind of destructive horror.
The
presidents of both Nigeria and Uganda, Goodluck Jonathan and Yoweri
Museveni, have said that in signing the Bills into law, they are
protecting Africans from exotic and outlandish mannerisms.
Another
African president, Gambia’s Yahya Jammeh, has promised to fight to
exterminate gay people in his country like malaria-causing mosquitoes.
This follows Zimbabwe’s President Robert Mugabe, who likened gays and
lesbians to pigs and dogs.
A poisonous myth
In
each country, it seems politically popular amongst some groups to
vilify and threaten gays and lesbians. It is even more popular to label
homosexuality a colonial import from the West.
What Africa has in fact imported from the West is homophobia.
And
it is ironical that some African leaders don’t see that their hatred of
gays and lesbians mirrors the vilification the LGBTI community has
faced in many Western countries
It
is a poisonous myth to say homosexuality is “unAfrican”. Homosexuality
is as African as humanity is. But the political leaders targeting the
LGBTI community are peddling untruths to gain support.
By
doing so, they are subjugating human beings. That these laws may be
popular amongst some, does not make them right. And criminalising and
discriminating against lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex
people exacts grave costs.
Across
the world, men who have sex with men are disproportionately affected by
HIV. If Africa is serious about managing the disease – and it is now
fully manageable – it cannot afford to isolate, alienate and vilify men
who have sex with men.
Segregating
them drives them further away from counselling, testing and treatment.
This in turn means that the virus cannot be managed properly – which
harms Africa as a whole. Everyone is exposed to additional risk.
There is good evidence that the HIV epidemic hits harder where anti-gay laws and prejudice exist.
To
deal effectively with HIV, Africa has to protect the basic human rights
of all. The plain public health imperative is for Africa to respect
everyone’s rights, including those most at risk of HIV.
This includes men who have sex with men and other sexual minorities.
The
more we demonise and isolate gay people, the more we hurt everyone. A
society built on ignorance and hatred is an injured society, with no
hope of flourishing.
In
my country, South Africa, the release this week of a thoroughly
conducted household survey of HIV has given us much to worry about. HIV
may be resurgent.
Stupid and wrong
All
Africans should be working together to counter the epidemic with
rational principles of justice and evidence-backed public health
strategies. Instead of propagating hatred, ignorance and prejudice, our
continent should be encouraging and enabling marginalised groups to live
full and dignified lives.
The
notion that sexual minorities and same-sex relationships are not
African is stupid and wrong. All over Africa, LGBTI persons proudly
proclaim the truth.
This
is the only positive aspect of the current wave of hatred – that it is a
response to unprecedented openness by African lesbians, gay, bisexuals
and transgender persons.
We will not be silenced. And we will not become invisible again.
As
Archbishop Desmond Tutu has said, our continent has more than enough
wars, famine, bad governance, tyranny and injustice to worry about. We
shouldn’t worry about how adult people express their love for one
another.
What
is unAfrican is this: the criminalisation, persecution, prosecution,
imprisonment, rape, torture and killing of adults whose only crime is to
love one another. We should actively speak out against these harmful
actions. And we should remember a poignant truth: it is not so much the
deeds of our oppressors that serve to injure us, as the silence of good
people.
Africans
of goodwill must raise their voices. The right to justice of LGBTI
people is the keenest civil-rights issue at present. We who love our
continent must not collude with oppressors by remaining silent in this
wave of grotesque abuse. Instead, we must join to affirm African values
of humanity – and rejoice in our diversity as humans.
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