Hate Crimes Rise as Homophobia Spreads Across Africa

Ramona Vijeyarasa | February 22nd, 2010

 
Hate crimes against gays and lesbians, including beatings, do not emerge from nowhere. They are intimately connected to the political, social and legal environment in which homosexuals live. It is completely incompatible for religious and political groups to talk about morals and simultaneously stir hatred that directly leads to violence against homosexuals. Criminalized in the law, homosexuals are further left with no protection against, and no redress for, any violence perpetrated against them by members of the public or police.  
This virtual disregard by some political and religious leaders of the risk of inciting further violence against gays and lesbians is no better illustrated than with the examples of Uganda, Malawi and Kenya. I was shocked to hear that Malawi’s and Uganda’s chilling response to homosexuality had spread to Kenya, with the arrest of five men at an alleged gay wedding at the Kikambala beach resort near Mombasa last week. Kenyan police arrested two of the men, having found them with wedding rings, on the assumption they were trying to get married.  The other three men were actually reported to the police by members of the public. Two of them had reportedly been beaten, but nothing has been said by Kenyan authorities about making anyone accountable for those acts of violence.

According to the Gay and Lesbian Coalition of Africa, following the arrests on February 12, more police have been deployed to Mombasa while facilities suspected of “hosting homosexuals” will be closed down. In a country with a shortage of medical doctors, medical professionals have been relocated to the area to “help the police with quick identification of the homosexuals through medical examinations” despite being a discredited test and unquestionably a grave violation of human rights. According to the Penal Code of Kenya, men accused of actual or attempted “homosexual behaviour” (carnal knowledge of any person or gross indecency) can be penalised with between 5 to 14 years’ imprisonment.

What started as a homophobic and ill-informed decision in Uganda by an MP who proposed an anti-homosexuality bill in Parliament late last year has effectively turned into an alarming multi-country anti-gay assault that has and may continue to spread to other African nations. The proposed Ugandan bill, which has been temporarily “tabled,” includes a provision that places an obligation on the public to report a homosexual within 24 hours of knowing someone's sexual orientation. This is the very sort of provision which sends the message that the public can turn their homophobic sentiments and take what they see as the law into their own hands, leading to the type of beatings that are currently alleged in Kenya.

Following Uganda’s homophobic legislative proposal, we saw Malawi follow their lead, with the arrest on December 28 of two men accused of conducting a traditional engagement ceremony two days before their arrest, deemed by the authorities as evidence of behavior contrary to the Malawi Penal Code. According to Amnesty International, these two men were also allegedly beaten, this time by the police. With the two men remanded in custody pending the outcome of the case, arrests continue in Malawi, and gays rights groups are being forced further underground. If the cases of Malawi and Kenya do not provide evidence of how anti-homosexual laws and sentiments, voiced by government or police, incite hate crimes against gays, I am not sure what further evidence we would need.

In the case of Uganda, Phumi Mtetwa, executive director of the Lesbian and Gay Equality Project based in South Africa, like others, argues that there is a clear link between the work of US evangelical Christian groups and the homophobic response: "It's very well calculated. It's exploding at the moment but it's been happening for a year and a half. We have proof of American evangelical churches driving the religious fundamentalism in Uganda." Meanwhile, in Kenya, homosexuality has been labeled a “vice” by Sheikh Ali Hussein of the Council of Imams and Preachers while Bishop Lawrence Chai, of the National Council of Churches of Kenya has similarly spoken out against this so-called immorality.

To me, the most disturbing aspect of the situation is the apparent support from a significant proportion of the population on the ground, whether driven by religious groups, police behavior or their own ignorance. Over 4000 protesters conducted a street demonstration in Jinja in Uganda, about 40 miles east of the capital, Kampala, on Monday February 15. The demonstration was organized by pastor, Martin Ssempa to show the world that “homosexuality has no place in Uganda”.

There has been, unsurprisingly, strong and growing opposition to Uganda’s bill and the vilification of homosexuals in other Africa countries, from around the globe. At this point in time, the entire international community needs to unite against the incitement of violence that we are witnessing. For this reason, among others, it is also important not to label all religious groups as responsible, particularly since some religious groups, including Christian leaders in the US, have released a statement condemning the Ugandan bill and resulting violence. What is undeniable, however, is that any political or religious statement that is made condemning homosexuality is equivalent to condoning violence and encouraging lawlessness. Any individual or group making vilifying statements is as responsible for the violence that results as if committed by their own hands.