Homosexuality is Not Un-African

At a conference last week that was ironically focused on the subject of human rights, one Ugandan Member of Parliament, Otto Odonga, said that if his son was gay, he would kill him.

So much for human rights having something to do with that whole humanity word.

But despite the rhetoric of Ugandan MPs, or the radically high rate of stories about violent crackdowns on homosexuality throughout Africa, homosexuality is not an un-African concept. Sure, some 30 countries consider homosexuality illegal, and several of them (Sudan and Nigeria among them) punish queer people with death. But, as a cadre of activists and academics said in trying to counter the murder-loving sentiments of Odonga, homosexuality has been around in Africa since the dawn of time, and it's not an un-African concept. Nor is it an import from the west.

Rubaramira Ruranga, the director of an HIV/AIDS organization known as NGENT, said that while Ugandan politicians and others are focused on the issue of sex -- look no further than Ugandan minister Martin Ssempa, who has been showing gay porn inside churches to whip up opposition to LGBT people -- sodomy is something that both straight and gay folks are engaging in throughout the continent. That's kind of a common sense statement, given that sex happens pretty much everywhere, but it does call a bit of hypocrisy on politicians who are so hell-bent on making gay sex seem disgusting, gross, and/or sick.

"Anal sex is not only practiced by homosexuals but also by heterosexuals," Ruranga said, according to Xtra. Powerful sentiment. Would have been great to hear such a comment at CPAC, too, directed right in the direction of Ryan Sorba.

But in all seriousness, homosexuality -- both the sex part and the same-gender loving part -- hasn't been exported to Africa like some vegetable or crate of weapons. Though many would like to think it has.

In November, the Archbishop of Senegal suggested that there was a Western campaign to drag African values through the mud, and infiltrate African society in ways that would promote rampant homosexuality. "We don’t only suspect that there is a campaign, we think it’s deliberate," the Archbishop said.

And then in Uganda, another MP, Christopher Kibanzanga, testified that homosexuality was a vice that had been brought to the country from afar. ""Who are bisexuals? What do they do? Has it just been imported into Africa?" Kibanzanga asked.

The real irony, of course, is that it's not homosexuality that's been imported to Africa. Instead, as writer R. Ayité Okyne puts it, homophobia has been exported to the continent. And he blames the Church for spreading it throughout the continent.

"Africans were brainwashed into thinking that there was something wrong with their sexuality and were restricted to sex according to the Church’s regulation," Okyne writes. "We have allowed the former colonialists and missionaries to write our history for us, selectively, and tinctured with their own prejudices, superstitions and ignorance. But further, being so gullible, we have made it our own! Our ancestors knew long ago that homosexuality is a normal part of life and should be tolerated, accepted and integrated into every facet of culture without prejudice or ignorance."

So the next time you hear some Ugandan minister talk about how gross gay sex is, or hear a Malawi official say that there are only two queer people in the entire country, or see a national police force round up a bunch of gay men in Senegal, know that while these folks may have powerful religious entities on their side, they certainly don't have history in their camp.

Photo credit: angel_ina