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Gay bishop row highlights gay repression in Africa

November 4, 2003

NAIROBI — In roundly rejecting the consecration of a gay bishop in the United States, Africa's Anglicans on Monday reinforced a stigma against homosexuality that prevails across the continent, with the notable exception of South Africa.

Penalties for getting caught in an act of gay sex in Africa can be severe, even capital in the 12 Muslim-majority states of northern Nigeria where Sharia law calls for death by stoning for such offenses.

Ugandan homosexuals risk life imprisonment and Senegal's penal code calls for jail terms of up to five years for those convicted of "shameless" acts and for those committed with an individual of the same sex.

Earlier this year, Namibian President Sam Nujoma ordered police to arrest and deport lesbians and gays.

His Zimbabwean counterpart Robert Mugabe once famously called gay people "worse than pigs and dogs" while Kenya's former leader, Daniel arap Moi, is on record as saying "homosexuality is against African norms and traditions, and even in religion it is considered a great sin."

Gay sex falls under the category of "unnatural acts" in Kenya's criminal code.

Even if such laws are rarely carried out, taboos oblige lesbians and gays in most African countries to keep their sexuality to themselves, on pain of ostracisation and ridicule.

The constitution of South Africa, by contrast, guarantees freedom of sexual choice.

The city of Cape Town is the most openly gay city on the African continent, and encourages gay tourism, although Christian and Muslim communities frequently denounce the city for this.

The South African Constitutional Court ruled last year that people in "permanent same-sex life partnerships" should be allowed to adopt children.

The usually taboo issue of homosexuality in Africa rose to the surface in the wake of Sunday's consecration in the US state of New Hampshire of Gene Robinson as a bishop in the the Episcopal church, America's Anglican establishment.

While the likes of Moi, Mugabe and Nujoma "blame" homosexuality on the influx of the developed world's mores, some say the West's real legacy is the intolerance spread by organised religion.

"It's hypocrisy. The fact is that this society is fanatically religious," Willy Mutunga, the head of Kenya's independent Human Rights Commission, told AFP.

"A lot of people know its happening but don't want it to be discussed," he added, explaining that religious delegates at a conference charged with rewriting Kenya's consitution tried to prevent a debate on enshring gay rights.

"I think the influence of religion in this country is very harmful. They don't allow proper sex education in school, don't allow condoms in a country with HIV/AIDS. That kind of rubbish makes me very mad," Mutunga said.

Richard Muga, the director of medical services in Kenya's health ministry put forward a more prevalent view.

"Homosexuality exists and it is widely responsible for the spread of sexually transmitted diseases," he told AFP.

Mutunga has some allies elswhere in Africa, however.

"It is a humanely unacceptable and politically hypocritical situation," according to Senegal's Alioune Tine, who heads the African Defence of Human Rights Union.

"Everybody knows that homosexuals live among us in this country but why deny them their rights to demonstrate or organise themselves?" he wrote in a 2002 report on homosexuality in Africa published by the International Human Rights Federation.

This week, the Namibian Society for Human Rights (NSHR) said it considered "Nujoma's latest homophobic attack as dangerous and violent words from a popular leader (that) may lead to violence against innocent citizens."

The NSHR said targeting people because of their sexual orientation was as bad as racial discrimination, and Nujoma could not decree a clampdown on homosexuals in contravention of the constitution. –Sapa-AFP