Meanwhile, in Kampala, Uganda, where sections 140 and 141 of the Penal Code condemn same-sex relations, some Ugandan women identify themselves as “tommy-boys” – biological women who see themselves as men (rather than “lesbians”), who need to be the dominant partner during sex, and who often pass as men.įrom Senegal to Southern Africa, many African gay men invoke animistic beliefs in ancestor spirit possession. Even though the terms “butch” and “femme” are not known in Namibian Damara culture, various sexual practices and dress codes have some resonance with the western butch-femme dynamic. The term “male lesbians” is an attempt at translating the northern Nigerian Hausa for “passive” male partners, or “yan kifi” conversely, “lesbian men” in Namibia are women who play the dominant “butch” role in a same-sex relationship. In South Africa, a “masculine man” playing a dominant role in a relationship with another man is called “a straight man”, and is not perceived as “gay” because he acts as penetrator during sexual intercourse.
These words were originally imported to the African continent via English, French and other western languages, and often clash with indigenous designations and practices. Terms such as “gay” and “lesbian” (which reek of western liberation struggles), and more recently “queer” (a movement generated in academe), certainly point to the globalisation of sexual identity. What we see in recent legal developments is the policing of African or Islamic same-sex desire as a form of resistance to westernisation. In Africa, as in Latin America and other parts of the world, there is a tension between homosexual identity and homosexual practice. They are seldom members of activist LGBT organisations and are not computed as such in the health literature on HIV/AIDS. As the work of Marc Epprecht has revealed, not all African men who have sex with men or women who have sex with women think of themselves as gay, homosexual, bisexual or queer. The question of what constitutes “sex” in Africa, and in particular same-sex sex, is still something of a blind spot. Same-sex practices are common throughout the African continent it is the claiming of homosexual identity that remains widely forbidden. In fact, many African sexualities fall outside of the purview of the law – and even of language. It is therefore a serious matter of political and critical concern that homosexuality (of all kinds) and African cultures are read as mutually exclusive. But the African continent has always been more queer than generally acknowledged it has always rainbow-hazed into a huge range of sexualities. Homosexuality is also often depicted as an import from the deviant west. Ugandan film-maker Roger Ross Williams, director of God Loves Uganda (2013), argues that American missionaries are often behind this frenzy against gay sex – this in a country that happens to be one of the top global consumers of gay porn. The Church in Africa, especially in its Evangelical garb, is still often ready to identify homosexuality as an abomination to God. South African Bishops were the only ones among African Anglican bishops not to help defeat the Church of England’s 1998 attempt to improve attitudes toward homosexuality. In many places, homosexuality – itself a slippery category, with roots in 19th century medical literature – is still thought to be quintessentially “un-African”. It is still dangerous and even life-threatening to be out in Africa. “We have our own culture, our own people.”Īt least 76 United Nations member countries have laws that criminalise same-sex relations some 37 African countries, along with Middle Eastern countries, constitute a majority of those.
“We don’t want to import it to our country,” he said.
In the wake of the trial for “sodomy” of the first president of Zimbabwe, Canaan Banana, his successor Robert Mugabe spoke of homosexuals in a 2002 campaign speech as “mad person” who will be sent to jail.
Museveni is not alone in pondering how to kill sexual dissenters. Pondering the issue earnestly, he wrote: “Do we kill him/her? Do we imprison him/her?” A few days later, Ugandan president, Yoweri Museveni, refused to sign an anti-homosexuality bill that has been in the works since 2009 on the grounds that there are other ways of dealing with “an abnormal person”. On 13 January the Nigerian president, Goodluck Jonathan, signed a bill against gay relationships, outlawing gay marriage, public displays of same-sex relationships and membership in gay groups.