Resisting Homophobia: The Colonial Origins of Anti-Gay Laws
Thursday, 20 April 2023
12pm Washington D.C.
5pm London / Lagos / Kinshasa
6pm Paris / Cape Town / Cairo
7pm Nairobi
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Google | Outlook | YahooToday, there are 71 countries in which sexual relations between people of the same sex are illegal. And there are 64 countries that have laws explicitly criminalizing homosexuality – nearly half of these are in Africa. Across the continent, there have also been many examples of lawmakers working to tighten laws that already outlaw ‘homosexual acts,’ including in Nigeria and Uganda. Uganda's parliament, for example, recently passed a draconian bill that includes punishments as severe as life in prison for those who identify as gay, and possibly the death penalty in certain cases. The country’s longtime autocratic leader, Yoweri Museveni, has publicly called on Africa to ‘save the world from homosexuality.’
Underpinning these arguments is a feeling that queerness -- non-heteronormative sexualities that involve physical, emotional, or sexual intimacy with a member of the same sex – is somehow ‘unAfrican.’ Leaders like Museveni, and Robert Mugabe and Yahya Jammeh before him, have argued that queerness is a ‘Western’ import designed to ‘destroy’ the African family – ironically, with the financial backing of evangelical leaders based in the United States.
These arguments, of course, ignore the fact that anti-gay legislation has firm roots in colonization. During the 19th and 20th centuries, homophobia was legally enforced by colonial administrators and missionaries, overturning a vastly different attitude towards sexual and gender identities that had prevailed for centuries across the continent.
Reinforcing this is the fact that populist homophobia has kept many politicians in power over the years. “Across Africa,” as Nigerian activist Bisi Alimi once wrote, “if you hate gay people, you get votes.” Africa is not alone in this regard.
The overall picture, however, isn't entirely bleak. South Africa was the first country on the continent to legalize same-sex marriages. Angola’s new president signed into law a revised penal code that banned discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation. And at least six countries have recently decriminalized same-sex relationships: Angola, Botswana, Gabon, Lesotho, Mozambique, and Seychelles.
In this show, we’ll explore the colonial roots of homophobia and its layered
complexities, while also attempting to unpack the political motives behind
anti-LGBT campaigns, in both dictatorships and democracies: from Kenya to Ghana and from Zimbabwe to Uganda. Please join us!