COMMENTARY
Editors’ note: The editors of the African Studies Review are pleased to publish
as this issue’s Commentary a discussion of homophobia in Africa written by
three distinguished scholars, Patrick Awondo, Peter Geschiere and Graeme
Reid. The editors are also planning a special issue on homophobia in Africa
for publication in September 2013; the special issue will feature several articles compiled and guest-edited by Ayo Coly of Dartmouth University.
Homophobic Africa? Toward A More
Nuanced View
Patrick Awondo, Peter Geschiere, and Graeme Reid
Abstract: The recent emergence of homosexuality as a central issue in public debate
in various parts of Africa has encouraged a stereotypical image of one homophobic
Africa, often placed in opposition to a tolerant or depraved West. What is striking
is that this image of Africa as homophobic is promoted by both traditionalists who
insist that homosexuality is a Western intrusion and by the Western media that focus
on homophobic statements from African political and religious leaders. What both
neglect, however, is the existence of internal debate and disagreements among Africans on the subject of homosexuality. In this article we try to counter this image of a
homophobic Africa with a more nuanced discussion, including a comparison of dif-
African Studies Review, Volume 55, Number 3 (December 2012), pp. 145–68
Patrick Awondo is a researcher at IEDES Paris I Panthéon Sorbonne. His 2012
Ph.D. dissertation at the École des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales (EHESSParis) followed “sexual refugees” from Cameroon to Paris. He is the author of
“The Politicisation of Sexuality and the Rise of Homosexual Mobilisation in
Postcolonial Cameroun” (Review of African Political Economy 37 [2010]); “Médias,
Politique et Homosexualité au Cameroun” (Politique Africaine 126 [2012]); and
“On the Narratives of African Sexual Migrants in Paris” (Africa, forthcoming).
At present he is working on a three-country project (Cameroon, Burkina Faso
and Togo) about sexual workers and men who have sex with men (MSM) as part
of a collaboration with the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.
E-mail: pawondo2005@yahoo.fr
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ferent trajectories in the emergence of homosexuality as a public issue in four countries (Senegal, Cameroon, Uganda, and South Africa). The comparison highlights
considerable variations in the ways in which the issue became politicized. There is a
world of difference, for example, between the image of the homosexual as un Grand
(a rich and powerful “Big Man”) who imposes anal penetration as a supreme form
of subjection (as in Cameroon or Gabon, where homosexuality is associated with
witchcraft and other occult forces; compare Achille Mbembe’s visionary evocation
of a “phallocracy”) and the often quite marginal persons who become victims of
gay persecution in other contexts. More insight into the variations of what is loosely
and inaccurately called “homophobia” can help connect international pressures
for decriminalization and protection to local circumstances. Working through local
activists is crucial for the effort to counter homophobia in Africa.
Résumé: L’émergence récente de l’homosexualité comme question centrale des
débats publics dans plusieurs régions d’Afrique a encouragé l’émergence du stéréotype d’une Afrique homophobe, souvent placée en opposition à une culture
occidentale soit tolérante soit dépravée. Il est marquant que cette représentation
de l’Afrique comme homophobe est soutenue aussi bien par les traditionalistes, qui
insistent que l’homosexualité est un phénomène importé de l’Occident, que par les
médias occidentaux qui se concentrent sur des déclarations homophobes faites par
des chefs politiques et religieux d’Afrique. Ces deux courants négligent d’admettre
l’existence d’un débat interne et de désaccords parmi les Africains eux-mêmes sur
le sujet de l’homosexualité. Dans cet article, nous tentons de contrer cette image
homogène d’une Afrique homophobe avec une discussion plus nuancée en incluant
une comparaison des différentes trajectoires dans l’émergence de l’homosexualité
comme question publique dans quatre pays (Le Sénégal, le Cameroun, L’Ouganda,
et l’Afrique du Sud). La comparaison met l’accent sur les variations considérables
dans les manières dont la question de l’homosexualité s’est politisée. Par exemple,
un monde sépare l’image de l’homosexuel comme un “Grand” (un homme riche
et puissant) qui impose la pénétration anale comme une forme suprême de soumission (comme au Cameroun et au Gabon, où l’homosexualité est associée à la
sorcellerie et autres forces occultes) et les personnes souvent marginales devenues
victimes de persécution dans d’autres contextes. Une meilleure compréhension de
ce qui est vaguement et incorrectement appelé “homophobie” sera utile pour rapprocher la logique des pressions internationales de décriminalisation et de protection de l’homosexualité avec les cultures locales. Il est indispensable d’obtenir le
soutien d’activistes locaux pour contrer l’homophobie en Afrique.
Peter Geschiere is a professor of African anthropology at the University of Amsterdam and co-editor of Ethnography. Since 1971 he has undertaken historicalanthropological fieldwork in various parts of Cameroon and elsewhere in West
Africa. His publications include The Modernity of Witchcraft: Politics and the Occult
in Post-colonial Africa (University Of Virginia Press, 1997) and Perils of Belonging:
Autochthony, Citizenship and Exclusion in Africa and Europe (University of Chicago
Press, 2009), and Witchcraft, Intimacy and Trust: Africa in Comparison (University of
Chicago Press, forthcoming). E-mail: P.L.Geschiere@uva.nl
Homophobic Africa? Toward A More Nuanced View 147
The first decade of this century brought a sudden propulsion of “homosexuality” as a burning issue on the public scene in many parts of Africa. Of
course, this had a much longer history, certainly in the southern part of the
continent. Presidents Mugabe of Zimbabwe and Nujoma of Namibia initiated their attack on homosexuality as an imported Western depravity in the
1990s.1 Around the same time, the struggle over the liberal South African
Constitution—with its famous antidiscrimination clause that explicitly forbids discrimination because of sexual orientation—made homosexuality a
burning issue there. But elsewhere in the continent it was only in the last
decade that there was an explosion of popular concerns—often encouraged by political and religious leaders—about homosexuality, and a sudden
intensification of government persecution, notably of “gay” young men.
The abruptness of this explosion came as a surprise to many observers.2
To mention just a few examples: in Cameroon, the government intensified persecution by police and judicial authorities from 2005 on, after
several newspapers published lists of “prominent homosexuals” in order to
denounce certain practices among the elite. Since then popular indignation is still mounting. In at least four countries (Morocco, Senegal, Nigeria, and Malawi) affairs of “gay marriages”—two young men being photographed during a (fake?) wedding—created great unrest among the population and had very troubling effects for the people involved. In 2009 the
Ugandan politician David Bahati submitted a bill—apparently with strong
support from American missionaries—to impose the death penalty for
cases of “aggravated homosexuality” (see Sadgrove et al. 2012). International pressure led President Museveni to declare the bill “a foreign policy
issue” and ensure that it would languish in Parliament, despite strong support for it among the MPs (the last time it was introduced they erupted in
a chant, “our bill, our bill”). In Ghana, the 2011 declaration by U.K. Prime
Minster Cameron at the Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting
that certain forms of bilateral development aid might be reconsidered if
the country did not decriminalize homosexual behavior led to great indignation. Pentecostal spokesmen in particular insisted that the government
should not sell out its principles in order to safeguard development money.
Throughout the continent the strong pressure from international human
rights missions to abolish laws that criminalize homosexuality continues to
Graeme Reid is the director of the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Rights
Program of Human Rights Watch. He has published extensively on the subjects
of gender, sexuality, LGBT issues, and HIV/AIDS. An anthropologist by training,
he was the founding director of the Gay and Lesbian Archives of South Africa, a
researcher at the Wits Institute for Social and Economic Research, and a lecturer
in lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender studies at Yale University. Recent publications include Above the Skyline: Reverend Tsietsi Thandakiso and the Founding of
an African Gay Church. (Unisa Press, 2010) and How to Be a “Real Gay”: Gay Identities in Small-Town South Africa (University of Kwa-Zulu Natal Press, forthcoming).
E-mail: reidg@hrw.org
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raise fierce reactions.3 The furor has led in many cases to the victimization of young men, but lesbians have also been attacked. In some countries
(South Africa, Namibia) gang rape of lesbians became a regular practice,
and in these countries lesbian associations have been in the vanguard of
protest.4
Indeed, it is important to emphasize that this uproar has been reinforced by the rapid growth throughout the continent of LGBT organizations that could profit from the increasing availability of funding to combat
AIDS, including among “men who have sex with men” (MSM); this has
helped to shape new networks and new forms of organizing among people
who identify themselves as “gay.” Yet it is clear that this increased visibility
has been met with an increase in homophobic rhetoric. It is also clear that
human rights interventions from the outside have been triggered by the
initiatives of a new type of local activists.
These and similar matters have raised considerable international attention. They have also given new fuel to older debates concerning the issue,
especially the question of whether homosexuality was (and is) “un-African.”
Politicians like the ones quoted above, but also religious leaders and traditional spokesmen, insisted ever more strongly that the very idea of same-sex
practices was foreign to Africa, and that it had been imported from the
West. Mugabe, for instance, chastised it as “an immoral import”; in 1998 the
Zambian government even stated that “homosexuality is a Norwegian conspiracy” (since the Norwegian ambassador intervened when a Zambian gay
activist ran into trouble—see Hoad 2007:83). Against this, others emphasized that same-sex practices and identities have a long history in Africa
and even more important, that homophobia, rather than homosexuality,
is a Western import.5 After all, the articles criminalizing homosexuality were
often copied from laws of the former colonial power. The very idea of Africa
as a part of the world free from same-sex contacts seems to go back to the
nineteenth-century explorer Richard Burton.6 And the very language of
the attacks on homosexuality—such as the word “sodomy” used by Mugabe
and others—points to a Christian background. Indeed, Christian (and
Islamic) leaders are often a driving force behind attacks on homosexuality. For Hoad (2007:84) this expression of a supposedly “traditional” aversion to same-sex practices is a graphic illustration of an absolute “refusal to
engage Christianity as a colonial legacy.”
However, homophobia was also shaped by the postcolonial context,
often in quite complicated ways. For the Middle East Joseph Massad (2007)
has warned that interventions by global gay activists (he uses the term “Gay
International” for a conglomerate of mostly Western gay and lesbian organizations) may be well intentioned but have had highly destructive effects
on the spot. He emphasizes that the discursive imposition of homo- versus
hetero- as a universal dyad (as implied by the idea of a “global gay identity”) runs the risk of repressing “same-sex desires and practices that refuse
Homophobic Africa? Toward A More Nuanced View 149
to be assimilated in[to] . . . [Gay International’s] sexual epistemology.” In
Massad’s view there is a serious risk that the imposition of these Western
concepts will have dire consequences for “the poor and non-urban men
who practice same-sex contacts and do not necessarily identify as homosexual or gay” (2007:163,189; see also Gaudio 2009:182). African echoes of
Massad’s fierce attack can be found in recent declarations by local activists, but also in academic debates.7 A relevant question—to which we will
return—may be how exactly, and by whom, notions of homosexuality versus
heterosexuality are spreading. This may be different in each situation.
All of this debate has already produced a sizable literature, including
journalistic reports and a growing corpus of academic studies. It is impossible in this short text to give a full overview of this work.8 We propose instead
to focus on what seems to be the most promising trend in this debate, certainly for academic studies: the effort to overcome a simplistic opposition
between homophobic Africa and a tolerant (or depraved) West. It is important to note that it is certainly not only African traditionalists who create
such an opposition. As stated, reports in the international press and other
media outlets also tend to reinforce this simplistic contrast by focusing on
homophobic utterances from Africa, especially the more sensationalist
ones—thus ignoring the considerable variation and debate inside the continent. In his recent Ph.D. dissertation Patrick Awondo (2011) analyzes how
the international media contribute to the crystallization of a monolithic
image of one homophobic Africa. He focuses on Cameroon, but the same
is true for other parts of the continent. Also important is Awondo’s focus
on the “politicization” of the issue, since this helps to highlight the considerable variation in the ways this politicization has taken place, in each case
with specific implications for the course of events.9
These two focal points offer convenient axes for this short overview.10
We propose to juxtapose different trajectories in the politicization of the
issue in four countries: Cameroon, Senegal, Uganda, and South Africa. By
providing short sketches of how the issue became a central political concern in each case, and also by paying attention to striking differences in the
contours of “the” homosexual, we hope to highlight the specificities of each
setting and their different implications. This may help to provide a view of
the issue that is more nuanced than the prevailing impression, both inside
and outside the continent, of one homophobic Africa—without, however,
playing down the very real impact of recent outbursts of homophobia. In
the conclusion we will return to general implications of this more situational approach—both in terms of the discursive imposition of homo/
hetero as a central dyad, and in relation to the even more vital question of
how a more variegated perspective can help us find a more prudent route
for creating (or restoring) more space for alternative sexual expression.
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Cameroon: Homophobia as a Political Critique
The case of Cameroon is of particular interest for a general overview, precisely because developments there had quite specific aspects and implications. In this country, popular concern about a supposed spread of samesex practices in higher circles triggered a determined attack on the political
elite and its moral depravity.11 The denouncing of such hidden practices
embarrassed the government and led to the unleashing of a witch hunt
against gays that, not surprisingly, targeted mainly boys from poorer social
backgrounds. Another striking aspect—but one with clear parallels elsewhere—was the central role of Christian leaders, especially Catholic clergy,
in mobilizing this popular anger.
The most detailed analyses of the events that marked the emergence of
homosexuality as a central public issue in Cameroon are those of Charles
Guébogo (2006, 2009) and Patrick Awondo (2010, 2012a, 2012b).12 A turning point was what is now known as “l’Affaire des listes d’homosexuels” (the
affair of the lists of homosexuals). On January 11, 2006, a minor Yaoundé
newspaper, La Metéo, published a lead article on the subject of homosexuality in higher circles, followed by a list of eleven persons. On January 24
another minor newspaper, L’Anecdote, attracted even more attention when
it printed a list of fifty “prominent homosexuals.” Both lists contained
familiar names: a former prime minister, some MPs, renowned journalists,
and other well-known figures, mostly men but some women as well. The
exact accusations were not clear. In the list in L’Anecdote a small photograph
and a short text were added to each name. A recurring theme was that job
applicants were forced into homosexual acts (“but soon the pants came
down . . . ”); the implication was that elite persons were taking advantage
of the willingness of many unemployed youths to do anything for a job,
including subjecting themselves to a homosexual “initiation.” The lists created great excitement. Other newspapers copied parts of the lists, adding
more general articles about homosexuality throughout the centuries in
various parts of the world but also as a creeping threat to Cameroon society.
It was clear that the lists did not appear out of thin air. During a
crowded press conference a few days later, Jean-Pierre Amougou Belinga,
L’Anecdote’s editor-in-chief, referred to the Christmas sermon a month earlier by the archbishop of Yaoundé, Monseigneur Victor Tonye Bakot, in
which the latter warned about homosexuality among the Cameroonian
elite and also criticized the European Union and the Amsterdam Treaty “of
1997” (actually 1999) that required member states to prohibit any form of
discrimination based on sexual orientation. (Since 1972 homosexuality has
been a criminal offense under Cameroonian law). The archbishop insisted
that any plea for the decriminalization of such a sin was contrary to the
teachings of the Bible. But his attack was also informed by the long-standing
concern of notably the Catholic Church about the influence of secret soci-
Homophobic Africa? Toward A More Nuanced View 151
eties of European origin, first the Freemasons and later the Rosicrucians,
among high-placed Cameroonian politicians and civil servants. There was a
direct link with colonial history here, notably with the hostility inspired by
the notion of laicité (emphasizing the secular character of the French state)
among missionaries, who always suspected civil servants of being Freemasons. This context is complicated by the fact that in Cameroon Freemasonry became popularly associated with homosexuality: in the 1970s and
1980s franc maçon was a common term of abuse for a homosexual.
This historical association may be one factor in turning indignation
against the elites on the part of the Church and the citizenry into a furor
over a supposed proliferation of homosexuality. Paul Biya, the country’s
president since 1982, is a practicing Catholic and a product of Catholic
schools. Indeed, many priests enthusiastically celebrated his rise to power
after he took over from Ahmadou Ahidjo, Cameroon’s first president and
a Muslim from the North. However, soon after he took office rumors developed that he was becoming increasingly involved with the Rosicrucians. The
informal gossip and news networks of so-called pavement radio, or “radio
trottoir” as it is popularly called in Cameroon, are a source of constant
speculation about secret confrontations between factions of Freemasons
and Rosicrucians in the struggle for power and wealth. The archbishop’s
Christmas sermon of 2005 and the lists of early 2006 signaled a new dimension to such rumors.13
In this context, “homosexuality” became a convenient outlet for venting the considerable popular dissatisfaction with the regime—an opening against which the political elite did not seem to know very well how
to defend themselves. Within the country, most people feel the effects of
the ongoing economic crisis since 1987. President Biya’s government has
nevertheless succeeded in hanging on to power—even surviving the abrupt
introduction of multiparty politics in 1990—by a shrewd mixture of divideand-rule tactics and brutal force. However, the unexpected accusations
of immoral homosexual practices have been more difficult to counter. It
was striking, for instance, that L’Anecdote was not banned. Only a few of les
Grands (i.e., rich and powerful “Big Men”) on the list filed a libel complaint
with the Department of Justice, with limited success. But most of them just
kept their heads low. Apparently, L’Anecdote and La Metéo had found a weak
spot in the regime’s armor.
President Biya himself reacted at first somewhat hesitantly. At the
national Youth Festival in 2006, a few weeks after the publication of the
lists, he spoke about the need to respect people’s privacy. Yet at the same
time the regime opted for a determined attack on homosexual practices,
apparently in order to distance itself from such suspicions. Over the next
few years a true witch hunt was conducted by the authorities, resulting in a
long series of trials against people—mostly young men—accused of homosexuality (see Ndjio 2012b). Typically a person would be denounced by his
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neighbors, and the police would break into his house and arrest him. The
Catholic Church was also a powerful actor in the mobilizing of popular
indignation about homosexuality. In 2009 Cardinal Tumi, a critic of the
regime with great moral prestige, initiated a protest movement against the
government for signing the 2003 Maputo Declaration on Human and People’s Rights in Africa (focused on women’s rights) with the claim that such
continentwide agreements might lead eventually to the decriminalization
of homosexuality.
Overall, what is particularly striking in the Cameroonian case is the
quite specific image of the homosexual that was at the basis of the uproar.
Both the lists and the attacks by the Yaoundé archbishop and others targeted mainly les Grands, who are supposed to subject young men to humiliating same-sex rituals. In this vision the link of homosexuality to witchcraft,
as well as other forms of occult power and secret associations like Freemasonry and the Rosicrucians, is heavily emphasized.14 It is this version of the
homosexual that is powerfully evoked by Achille Mbembe as the ultimate
phallocrate: anal penetration as a sublime form of subjection.15
However, it is important to underline that there were also other voices
in Cameroon making themselves heard and expressing a contrary point
of view. As Awondo (2012b) shows, the furor can be read differently—not
only as a popular attack on the political elite but also as a scandal fueled by
fierce rivalry within the media. He notes that both La Metéo and L’Anecdote
were newcomers in the field, and clearly used the lists in order to establish
a niche market—with considerable commercial success: over the next few
years L’Anecdote in particular became quite successful. In contrast, the more
established private newspapers—especially La Nouvelle Expression and Mutations—voiced completely different views, questioning the journalistic integrity of those who published material that violated the privacy of individuals and that was based solely on rumors. La Nouvelle Expression wondered
what right the compilers of the lists had to assume the role of inquisitor.
Unfortunately, such opposing voices were completely ignored by the international media, thus strengthening the image of one homophobic national
press.16
For Cameroon, the most powerful voice speaking out against the wave
of homophobia—and acting against it—was (and is) no doubt that of Alice
Nkom, a lawyer in Douala and the founder of the Cameroonian gay rights
organization ADEFHO (Association for the Defense of Homosexuals in
Cameroon). Since 2005 Nkom has been one of the few lawyers defending
people accused of homosexual acts. Her expert defense strategy—based on
the statutory provision that a defendant cannot be condemned on account
of a general suspicion of “homosexuality” but only for same-sex acts, which
are often hard to prove—has resulted in acquittals in an important number of cases (see Ndjio 2012b). In 2011 the European Union accorded her
and her organization an important subvention for creating more openness
about homosexuality.17 A figure like Nkom shows that in Africa there are
Homophobic Africa? Toward A More Nuanced View 153
also powerful voices pleading for more tolerance for alternative sexualities.
It is also striking that the persecuted “homosexual” youths defended by
Nkom, one of whom died a few days after he was released from prison (see
Awondo 2012a), present a very different image from that of the scheming
Grand with occult powers that is central in so many popular rumors.
Uganda: Missionaries, Politicians, and the Manipulation of Moral
Panics
Uganda has become synonymous with homophobia in Africa, largely as
a result of the notorious Anti-Homosexuality Bill first proposed by David
Bahati in 2009. As mentioned, Members of Uganda’s Parliament chanted
“our bill, our bill” when the bill made one of its intermittent appearances in
parliament and they are of course right—the bill is Ugandan. But it is also
the product of international interactions. The role of American missionaries, as well as the cynical manipulation of moral panics by the Ugandan
government, paint a more complex picture.18
In Uganda, right-wing evangelical Christians enjoy access to the highest tiers of government. First Lady Janet Museveni, who is also an MP, is a
born-again Christian who does not hesitate to use her position to promote a
theocratic vision. Foreign missionaries, especially right-wing American missionaries, are entrenched in Ugandan society and have a great deal of political influence. Of course, missionary work in Uganda is not new, and the missions do important and necessary work, stepping in where the state has fallen
short especially in the areas of education and health care and the running
of orphanages. But what is new is the involvement of the U.S. religious right
in local politics, where they campaign to prevent laws that would protect the
rights of LGBT people and to promote laws that would curtail those rights.
In 2009 the American author-pastor Scott Lively and his cohorts from
the U.S. religious right descended on Kampala for meetings with Members of Parliament, lawyers, religious leaders, and representatives from universities and secondary schools to warn against the “gay agenda.” The trip
culminated in a three-day seminar attended by Uganda’s elite, including
Bahati and other MPs, in which U.S. evangelists whipped up hysteria over
the supposed scheming of gays to sodomize African children and destroy
Ugandan culture. Bahati became the champion of this message, and his
bill, which has circulated through the parliamentary process in various versions but has not been adopted, has all the hallmarks of U.S. religious right
obsessions, including the idea that any concession to LGBT equality will
lead to the destruction of the family, the building block of society. The “Kill
the Gays” bill (as it was referred to in the media), which includes the death
penalty as well as a provision that would require people (parents, doctors,
priests) to report suspected homosexuals within twenty-four hours or face
imprisonment, has provoked international condemnation. It led also to
Museveni’s warning MPs to “go slow” because the bill was a sensitive foreign
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affairs issue, and a number of U.S. evangelists, including Lively himself,
publically distanced themselves from some of its content. In a case that
could set important legal precedent, Lively is being sued by the umbrella
organization Sexual Minorities Uganda (SMUG) on American soil under
the alien tort statute on the grounds that he has incited the persecution of
gay men in Uganda, in violation of international law.19
Homosexuality is powerful symbolic terrain in Africa, as elsewhere.
Indeed, the Ugandan trajectory shows most graphically how homosexuality
can become embroiled in neocolonial politics. Ironically, the existing sodomy laws were first imposed by the British. The breathtaking stained glass
windows of St. Mary’s Cathedral on Lubaga Hill on the outskirts of Kampala
depict the martyrdom of Buganda youth executed for withholding sexual
favors from the Buganda king following their conversion to Catholicism
(Hoad 2007). But when MPs chant “our bill,” they are using this proposed
law as a way of asserting moral authority and national autonomy against a
neocolonial West. President Museveni himself uses his mixed tacit support
for and public cautions against the bill as a way of navigating an ambiguous
relationship with the West.
The backdrop to the “Kill the Gays” bill is economic woe, widespread social dissatisfaction, and an increasingly autocratic leadership in
Uganda.20 The violently suppressed “Walk to Work” campaign in Kampala
was in response to rising fuel and food prices. It is precisely in these kinds
of situations that moral panic can distract attention from the real, underlying causes of the problems and divert local dissatisfaction and international
attention from other abuses. Most recently the Ugandan government has
used the pretext that NGOs are “promoting homosexuality” to clamp down
on civil society as a whole.
There is no doubt antihomosexual sentiment has a receptive audience
in Uganda, and the U.S. religious right taps into these anxieties and fears.21
Indeed, the same language that is used to talk about HIV and AIDS as a
symptom of social decay and moral turpitude is used to whip up public sentiment against gays and lesbians. This suggests that in part the increase in
homophobia might be understood as an oblique response to the ravages of
AIDS. This is not to suggest that there is a stigmatized association between
homosexuality and AIDS: the epidemic has been too heterosexual for that.
But the social disruption caused by AIDS is surely one of the factors that
create a climate in which moral panics—particularly around sex—occur
(see Cheney 2012).
It also has to be acknowledged that LGBT organizations in Uganda
have responded to the attacks, at times quite successfully, making deft use
of the relative autonomy of the judiciary in Uganda and achieving small but
significant gains. In 2010 the Ugandan newspaper Rolling Stone published
the names, photographs, and addresses of one hundred homosexuals
under the headline “Hang Them”; unlike the people named in Cameroon,
the individuals were all gay activists, and the scourge of homosexuality was
Homophobic Africa? Toward A More Nuanced View 155
not looked for in the heart of government, but rather in a new generation
of young activists seen to be undermining Ugandan cultural values. But the
journalists were sued in court and lost, and the decision set an important
precedent upholding the right to privacy.22
Senegal: Between “Cultural Anger” and Religious Fervor.
Another country in which the politicization of homosexuality followed
a specific trajectory is Senegal. A striking difference (in comparison, for
instance, with Cameroon) is that while homosexuality is criminalized under
Senegalese law, the Senegalese government intervened against violent
homophobic actions.23
The Senegalese case can best be understood according to the notion
of “cultural anger” as developed by Gilbert Herdt (2009). In the introduction to his book on “sexual panics,” Herdt points out the mechanism by
which one panic gives way to another: “It is this general process that I refer
to as cultural anger—the marshalling of intense emotion across diffuse
domains and arenas of action to unite disparate individuals and groups
in political pursuit of a common enemy or sexual scapegoat” (2009:5). In
particular, Herdt’s emphasis on the linking of different panics—and their
transfer from one domain to another—provides insights into the recent
waves of homophobia in Senegal. Before 2008 this country was known as
one of the most tolerant countries for homosexuality in Africa. It is true
that for individuals too much visibility was always dangerous (as elsewhere
in the continent—see Teunis 1996; Niang 2003) and that there was always
the threat that Muslims might attack those who transgressed sexual norms
too openly with a rain of stones (Niang 2010). Yet it was not by accident that
Senegal was the very first country in Francophone Africa to implement public health programs that especially addressed men who have sex with men
(MSM), thus allowing for greater public acceptance of this minority (see
Wade et al. 2005; Larmarange et al. 2009). Three specific events in 2008
and 2009, however, sparked a sudden spread of homophobia in Senegal.
The first event was in February 2008 when the magazine Icône published pictures of young men celebrating a “gay marriage” in a restaurant
near Dakar (see Gnagna 2012). This caused a great stir in public opinion
and a frenzied search for those shown in the pictures. One of the partners
in the supposed marriage was obliged to flee the country, first to Mali and
then to Gambia, where he was similarly attacked, until he finally found safe
haven in South Africa with the support of French activists. Mansour Dieng,
the editor of Icône, accused this “presumed homosexual” of having threatened him with physical violence. Soon after that, a number of young men
were arrested on charges of homosexual activity and the issuing of “death
threats,” but they were released a few days later, apparently due to the intervention of the government. What subsequently became known as “l’affaire
du mariage homosexuel” turned into a public issue when Mbaye Niang,
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an imam and Member of Parliament, organized a march to protest against
homosexuality in general and the release of the young men in particular.
The march was stopped by the police. Yet this affaire homosexuelle seems to
have triggered a whole series of witch hunts by highly vocal groups in Senegalese society against people accused of same-sex practices.
In April and May 2009 a group of Muslim religious leaders, apparently
frustrated by the apparent laxity of the government and also by the waning
of popular indignation about l’affaire, decided to launch another attack. In
April, nine presumed homosexuals who had been arrested during a meeting on HIV/AIDS prevention, convicted, and sentenced to eight years in
jail were released in response to considerable international pressure.24 The
Muslim leaders, in turn, announced the creation of the “Front islamique
pour la défense des valeurs éthiques” (The Islamic Front for the Defense of
Ethical Values) and called for the death penalty for all the people convicted
of homosexuality (Agence France Presse 2009).
The Front’s fatwa had a broad impact on public opinion. In different parts of the country, for example, it was reported that young men had
exhumed the body of a Goor-gigen (a term for “man-woman” that has a long
history throughout Senegal) that was seen as desecrating the cemetery. In a
village near Kaolack a group of young people disturbed the burial of a wellknown Goor-gigen in August 2008 and then exhumed the body in November.
A similar event was reported in June 2009 from Tiès, where Muslims dug up
the corps of two presumed homosexuals.25
Indeed, influential Senegalese religious and political leaders seem to
be convinced that an actual infiltration of homosexuality—as an imposition
from outside—threatens the social order and the intégrité nationale. This
idea is repeated regularly on the media. It also inspires other initiatives,
like the staging of theatrical presentations about the fate awaiting homosexuals after their death and debates broadcast over local TV stations. In
2008 a number of MPs from both the government party and the opposition proposed a law imposing more severe punishments for homosexuality
than those that already existed, namely five to ten years in jail and a fine
of one to five millions FCFA (see Gnagna 2012). The striking cooperation
between political parties on this issue is matched by the unanimity among
religious leaders in their vituperation against homosexuals. For instance,
on this issue leaders of the Murid brotherhood, a very powerful influence
in Senegalese politics and society, seem to agree completely with orthodox
Muslims, who in other respects are their arch-enemies. Young rap musicians join in this chorus (see Gnagna 2012). This remarkable unanimity
offers a striking example of the spreading-out effect of “cultural anger”:
a moral critique of disrespect for the institution of marriage becomes a
political issue that helps to articulate dissatisfaction with the laxity of the
state and, even more widely, the postcolonial imposition in the context of
international pressure to liberate anti-AIDS activists.
Homophobic Africa? Toward A More Nuanced View 157
The events mentioned above illustrate again a quite specific trajectory
of the politicization of homophobia. In the Senegalese case an ideology
of homophobia acquired considerable scope due to an explosive mixture
of religious excitement, disappointment with the state, and a feeling that
crucial moral values were undermined by an inversion of sexual norms that
threatened the very reproduction of society. Yet for Senegal there is also
good reason to reject an unnuanced idea of “state homophobia” and to
warn against a tendency to exaggerate the role of the politico-administrative elite in this respect. It is true that the law criminalizing homosexuality was initiated by the postcolonial state. But in a country in which religious-political leaders have succeeded in mobilizing considerable “cultural
anger” against people suspected of homosexual acts, the government has
attempted to play the role of negotiator, arbitrating between the demands
of a rising tide of religious orthodoxy and the responsibility to protect a
minority that is particularly affected by HIV/AIDs and is the target of often
violent discrimination (see Niang et al. 2003, 2004).
South Africa: Legalization of Gay Marriage and Countervailing
Forces
The politicization of homosexuality followed quite a different trajectory in
South Africa, which, unlike other African countries, has passed laws affirming gay rights. However, the contrast is not absolute. In South Africa, countervailing tendencies remain very strong and vocal.
In November 2006 South Africa passed the Civil Union Act, becoming
the fifth country in the world and the first in Africa to legalize same-sex
marriage. Less than three months later, in response, the Same Sex Marriage
(Prohibition) Act 2006 was proposed in the Nigerian National Assembly—a
law that, if it had been adopted, would effectively have outlawed same-sex
activity and organizing in Nigeria. This sparring over same-sex marriage
thus became a symbolic contest over culture, tradition, and authenticity. In
this scenario South Africa, along with its liberal 1997 Constitution, is cast as
aligned with the West and not authentically African.26 But the tension that
runs through South Africa’s engagement on gay rights both regionally and
internationally is also a tension within South Africa itself. In one sense legalizing same-sex marriage was the inevitable outcome of the article against
discrimination on the basis of “sexual orientation” in the Bill of Rights in
South Africa’s Constitution, adopted a decade earlier. Yet it was precisely
this final step that mobilized strong protest.
While most anticolonial movements in Africa fostered a particular version of heterosexual masculinity with women in supportive, but secondary,
roles, South Africa’s liberation movement embraced women’s rights and
gay rights too. The history behind the inclusion of sexual orientation in
the Constitution has received a great deal of academic attention. The influ-
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ences cited include prominent and visible gay and lesbian figures within
the liberation movement; the solidarity politics of the antiapartheid movement (which included LGBT organizations); and the fact that exiled South
African leaders were exposed for decades to struggles over gender and
sexuality rights taking place elsewhere in the world. In 1984 the celebrated
South African gay rights activist Simon Nkoli was arrested and charged with
treason, along with the cream of South Africa’s leadership, many of whom
went on to occupy high level positions in government (see Gevisser 1999;
Hoad 2005; Cock 2005).
Perhaps most important, at the time of the drafting of the Constitution in 1996, the recent demise of apartheid meant that there was a strong
national consensus around the ideal of nondiscrimination. Opposition to
the Constitution was muted; only the small and politically insignificant African Christian Democratic Party took a position against it. Human rights,
not majority views, constitute the cornerstone of the Constitution (see Cock
2005), and the Bill of Rights is an especially revered document—it would
be hard for any government to tamper with it. Religious, ethnic, and racial
minorities recognize that their interests are protected by the same provision that protects sexual minorities, and in this respect sexual orientation
has taken on a symbolic role as a litmus test of the strength and resilience of
the Constitution, the foundational document of the new democratic order.
How the most vulnerable and marginalized are treated is seen as symptomatic of the success of the democratic project (see Gevisser & Cameron 1995;
see also Reid 2010a).
In response to the new Constitution, legal reform took place at a rapid
rate, discriminatory legislation was scrapped, and new provisions were put
in place. Marriage was the last obstacle to full equality for same-sex couples
and it was this issue, more than all others, that generated a public debate
about homosexuality. In the period preceding the passing of the Civil
Union Act, the National House of Traditional Leaders—the stronghold of
the chiefs created under the same Constitution—organized a countrywide
series of public hearings in the rural constituencies that form the backbone of their support base. Throughout the country traditionalists found
common ground with some Christians in their vociferous condemnation
of same-sex marriage, especially during the public hearings that were held
to debate the issue (see Judge et al. 2011). Nevertheless, in 2005 the Constitutional Court declared that the common-law definition of marriage as
between a man and a woman was unconstitutional, and in 2006 the Civil
Union Act was passed by the South African National Assembly in spite of
this widespread public opposition. Its approval required a high level of
party discipline; ANC Members of Parliament were obliged to be present
and vote in favor of the bill.
Despite groundbreaking successes in terms of law and policy, however,
the South African experience also speaks to the limits of the law. The Constitution remains an ideal, sometimes at far remove from lived reality. The
Homophobic Africa? Toward A More Nuanced View 159
very high level of gender-based violence, including targeted rape of lesbians, is an extreme symptom of a gap between the ideals of the Constitution
and everyday life. Reid’s study (2010a) focuses on the sense of citizenship
evoked by the minority rights provisions of the Constitution and the new
forms of community and identity that have emerged as a result; but Tucker
(2009) argues that race and class remain intractable conditions for accessing the relative freedoms enshrined in the Constitution.
The public debates around same-sex marriage, especially arguments
based on “tradition and culture,” reveal that social attitudes toward gay
rights that prevail elsewhere in Africa are in many ways salient in South
Africa as well. The existence of high-profile attacks places the aspirations
of the Constitution in stark relief. Yet as Matebeni (2011) shows, lesbians in
South Africa find ways of living creative, productive, and satisfying lives; the
image of the lesbian as a rape victim is limiting and inaccurate. Gay men
also find ways of navigating complex social worlds and experience levels
of integration and acceptance that is surprising, even in rural areas (Reid
forthcoming).
Conclusion
It is striking that the current image of one monolithically homophobic
Africa has been adopted by both African “traditionalists” and Western
observers—that is, by African political and religious leaders who contribute
to the image and insist on the need to protect Africa against this imported
vice and by Western news media and activists who feel they have to combat
homophobia as a given on the continent. As the comparisons above show,
both views assume a radical opposition between homophobic Africa and
a supposedly tolerant West. Thus they ignore different points of view and
policies within Africa. But they also overlook the reality that homophobic
practices and utterances are part and parcel of everyday life in even supposedly tolerant countries (for instance, the Netherlands, which is known as a
“guide country” for gay emancipation).
The focus above on the politicization of homophobia in Africa is
intended to differentiate the image of one homophobic Africa and to highlight the historicity of recent explosions of homophobia, especially the way
they are linked to the colonial and postcolonial background. However, this
argument for a more nuanced image of homophobia on the continent
should not understate the very real force of homophobic movements in
present-day Africa—not only those instigated by political and religious leaders but also those inspired by widespread popular indignation.27 What is
clear in all the cases discussed above is that these homophobic reactions
are closely related to resentment of Western imperialism.28 But again, this
picture has to be differentiated, since there are varying patterns in this
linking to the West. On the one hand, political and religious leaders tend
to use the image of same-sex practices as nonindigenous to Africa—that
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is, as an imported Western vice—in order to mobilize popular sentiment
against Western imposition of its own versions of liberal values. On the
other hand, a prominent strand in the popular imagination is a growing
disappointment with the promises of development. Fueled by visions of the
enviable global lifestyles—which are becoming ever more visible and ever
less accessible, at least for the many—this resentment is exacerbated by the
visibility of a consumerist gay lifestyle that makes such moral “depravity”
an easy target for feelings of discontent. Moreover, this lifestyle can easily
be interpreted as a menace to the solidarity of the family and the material
exchanges that reinforce this solidarity.29 The refuge in religion can further reinforce homophobic tendencies.30
A further complication is that, as many scholars point out, Western imperialism takes many forms. It is clear that the antigay agenda being promoted
by the U.S. religious right is a powerful force for aggravating homophobia.
But the imposition of human rights ideals by well-meaning activists can also
have negative effects. As Massad (2007) points out, gay activists who promote the notion of a global gay identity based on the homo/hetero dyad as
universal can, in fact, reinforce homophobic reactions that victimize local
people. A good example of this may be the confidence with which both the
Cameroonian journalists of the “lists” and Catholic spokesmen speak about
homosexuality versus heterosexuality as a self-evident dichotomy. Yet even
here the complex nature of the influences propagating this idea of a global
gay identity must be considered. Gaudio’s fine-grained study of “sexual outlaws” in Northern Nigeria (2009), for example, raises the question of who
exactly is spreading the homo/hetero conceptual dyad as self-evident and
suggests that the answer may be more variegated than Massad’s attack on
“Gay International” implies. For Gaudio’s informants in Kano during the
1990s, the term “homosexual” was still a foreign one. But with the rapid
spread of the Internet and the publicizing of debates on homosexuality
(and homophobia), these terms have been appropriated on a large scale.
Compare the ease with which the supposed “gay marriages” in different
parts of the continent were interpreted in this terminology. The identification in many parts of Africa (and elsewhere) of gays with modernity—as
having a special taste for new forms of consumerism and new lifestyles—is
also a powerful leverage in this context.31 The implications can be different: this association can inspire nasty attacks, but also admiration. Once
again, the way in which the issue is related to resentment or admiration of
the West can follow varying trajectories. But they all help to propagate the
language of “homo” versus “hetero.”
Homophobia clearly differs in time and space, but what is also striking
in the comparisons above is the way in which the figure of “the” homosexual can take on such different contours. There is the phallocratic homosexual associated with power, witchcraft, and the occult as highlighted by
the rumors in Cameroon and Gabon and also by Mbembe’s powerful evocation of an emerging practice of anal penetration as a supreme form of
Homophobic Africa? Toward A More Nuanced View 161
subjection to the whims of les Grands. In Senegal, Uganda, and South Africa
same-sex practices were associated not with powerful individuals but with
marginal people; the association with witchcraft, let alone with secret associations like Freemasonry, did not play a central role. At the same time, we
should not assume complete regional differences: the persecuted young
men defended by Alice Nkom in Cameroon resemble the accused in Senegal or Uganda much more than they do les Grands of their own country.
This may suggest that we still know far too little of the practice of samesex relations in present-day Africa. There is a rapidly growing literature on
the debates and the discourses, but less about everyday practices. It is clear
that very different figures are targeted, and that the attackers appropriate
the general term of “homosexual” for their own purposes. This is perhaps
not that different from elsewhere in the world, but what may be special for
Africa is that, for obvious reasons, we know so little about same-sex practices
in everyday life. In some respects Evans-Pritchard, in his classic 1970 study
of the Zande, told us more than later scholars have.32 More attention to the
variegated patterns in same-sex practices in different parts of the continent
and in different social situations might not only help disperse overly simplistic images of one homophobic Africa, but also free the issue somewhat from
its close association with the West (whether as an example or as an abhorrent counterpoint). It might also help to move us beyond the extended
debate on same-sex practices as imported or indigenous to Africa. In the
end Neville Hoad is probably right in suggesting that a solution may not
come from efforts to show that homophobia (rather than homosexuality)
is un-African. Instead, Hoad puts his hopes on the fact that the defense of
human rights was, and is, part and parcel of anticolonial, nationalist movements (2007:80). How, then, can one now possibly defend the notion that
alternative sexualities should be expelled from human rights discourse?
On a practical level, one truism does emerge despite all differences:
interventions from outside Africa—whether from politicians or activists—
that prescribe certain values can very easily turn out to be counterproductive. They should always take into account the local differences around this
sensitive issue. Close collaboration with people on the ground—who are
the first to bear the brunt of a possible backlash—is vital.33
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Notes
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
12.
13.
14.
See Human Rights Watch (2003).
See also Broqua (2012), whose overview focuses similarly on the need to reject
the image of one undifferentiated homophobic Africa. See also Epprecht
(2012).
As far as the law is concerned, there are striking variations between countries.
Homosexuality remains criminalized in all former British and Portuguese colonies (although there is some question about this in Mozambique, where the
Minister of Justice recently declared that the vague provisions of the law did
not apply to homosexuality). In most of the former French and Belgian colonies in sub-Saharan Africa it is mostly not criminalized (homosexuality did not
figure as a crime in the Napoleonic law). Exceptions are Mauritania (where the
criminalization includes the death penalty), Senegal, Guinea, Cameroon, and
Burundi (introduced only very recently, in 2009).
See Morgan and Wieringa (2005); Lorway (2008); Currier (2010); Mkhize et al.
(2010); Morgan et al. (2009); Reid and Dirsuweit (2002).
On the long history of same-sex practices in Africa versus the idea of “homosexuality” as a Western import, see Murray and Roscoe (1998); Epprecht (1998,
2004); Reid (forthcoming); Gaudio (2007). See also see Epprecht (2008) on
“heterosexual Africa” as a historical construct.
Apparently Burton got this idea from Gibbon (who saw England and Africa as
resistant against the vice that had led to the collapse of the Roman empire). See
Hoad (2007:11); Epprecht (2008:43).
See Broqua (2012:19–23); Hoad (2007:83); Gaudio (2007:182).
For a more complete overview, see Broqua (2012).
Broqua (2012) focuses, similarly, on the “publicitization” of the issue. Demange
(2012:27) treats this publicitization as a kind of preliminary stage to the issue’s
“politicization.”
This focus on different trajectories of politicization means that important
aspects will be left aside, notably the very complex connections to the AIDS
epidemic; see Nguyen (2010).
See Ladô (2011:921), who refers to the “homophobie populaire” in Cameroon
as a “diabolisation de l’élite politique et économique.”
See also Boulaga (2007); Geschiere (2010); Ladô (2011); and Ndjio (2012a).
However, Awondo (2012a: ch. 1) notes that the tendency by many commentators to see the archbishop’s 2005 Christmas sermon as the beginning of the
whole affair has to be nuanced. For instance, already in June 2005 the police
had invaded a “gay bar” in Yaoundé and arrested 30 young men, 11 of whom
remained in prison for almost a year (see ADEFHO 2008). In Awondo’s view
the archbishop, like the journalists of the lists, had “surfed” on rumors that
had already been increasing for some time about a proliferation of same-sex
practices in the city.
There are striking parallels with Gabon and Congo Brazza, where people are
similarly preoccupied with the links among “homosexuality,” witchcraft, Freemasonry, and occult power; see Aterianus-Owanga (2012); Tonda (2002:51;
2005:158; 2012). Indeed, Broqua (2012:14) suggests that the link with witchcraft is particularly salient in Central Africa (in contrast to West Africa). But
it is also present, albeit less prominently, in South Africa (see Niehaus 2002a,
166
15.
16.
17.
18.
19.
20.
21.
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2002b). The image of nocturnal meetings where the witches stage huge cannibalistic banquets and sexual orgies is quite general to Africa (and beyond);
sexuality in these images is always transgressive, and in African contexts it is
often same-sex. Yet the further link of same-sex sexuality to the occult forces
of les Grands and their phallocracy may get special emphasis in Equatorial
Africa. Aterianus-Owanga (2012:64) quotes, for instance, a current saying in
Gabon: “L’émergence n’aime pas les femmes”—referring to the new regime
of President Ali Bongo, who succeeded his father in 2009 and likes to label
his regime as “emergent”; rebellious musicians appropriated the expression
to mock the new elite’s depravity and their supposed preference for (anal)
same-sex practices. Such mockery could fit in the Cameroonian context as well
(see Pommerolle 2008:82), but might work less well in, for instance, Uganda
or Senegal. But compare also the strong rumors in Nigeria about the country’s
former President General Ibrahim Babangida, whose supposed homosexuality
was used to justify a military coup against him in 1990 (see Johnson 2000:145).
See Mbembe (2006). See also Mbembe (2001; 2010:213–21).
An early example, published one year after the promulgation of the lists, of
more nuanced views was also a special issue of Terroirs (2007), edited by Fabien
Eboussi Boulaga, the grand old man of the philosophy department of the University of Yaoundé I.
Yet her very success also shows the strength of homophobic currents. The government tried in all possible ways to block her E.U. subvention. When she succeeded nonetheless in using this money to organize a series of public seminars,
they were disrupted by a group of fanatic opponents while the police stood by
passively. In 2012 the same group organized a “day of hate against homosexuality” as an answer to gay parades elsewhere in the world.
See Tamale (2007); Tamale and Murillo (2007); Demange (2012); Sadgrove et
al. (2012); Cheney (2012).
In March 2012 a U.S. nonprofit called the Center for Constitutional Rights
(CCR) filed a federal lawsuit against Abiding Truth Ministries President
Scott Lively on behalf of Sexual Minorities Uganda (see www.ccrjustice.org/
lgbt-uganda-fights-back-case-against-scott-lively).
Sadgrove et al. (2012) relate the fact that “homosexual rhetoric has been able
to gain such popular purchase within Uganda” to people’s view of homosexuality as dangerously undermining the material exchanges—notably around marriage involving two kin groups—that constitute the very base of family life. This
is certainly an important factor. Yet the authors seem to neglect the fact that
many Pentecostal preachers, who often take the lead in attacks on homosexuals, are also quite critical of the family. In many parts of Africa the new charismatic churches warn the believers against the dangerous influences of the
(extended) family, often depicted as the site of the Devil. Indeed, one of the
attractions of the new creed seems to be that it helps to liberate converts from
the often suffocating pressure of family networks (see Meyer 1999; Marshall
2009). Yet such attacks on the wider family do not seem to give rise to moral
panics. It is important not to see Africans’ perceptions of the family as timeless
givens; there is also rapid change and ambiguity in this domain.
See Tamale and Murillo (2007) for a vivid report on the public outcry unleashed
against one of the authors (Sylvia Tamale) when she publicly spoke up in support of rights of homosexuals; see also Tamale (2007).
Homophobic Africa? Toward A More Nuanced View 167
22. Judgment issued on January, 3, 2011, in the Uganda High Court by Judge Vincent Musoke-Kibuuke, which granted an injunction against any media outlet publishing the names and personal information about individuals on the
grounds that such behavior “threatens the rights of applications to privacy of
the person and their home.”
23. Article 319 of the penal code of Senegal prescribes a punishment from one to
five years in jail for anyone who commits an “immodest” act or an act “against
nature with an individual of the same sex.” If the act involves a minor, the maximum punishment has to be imposed.
24. Again, notably, by the French, since the nine arrested were key collaborators of
Sidaction and Aides, both French organizations.
25. See Jeune Afrique.com (2009); Agence France Presse (2009). Each time the police
intervened and put the body back. Tariq Ramadan, the famous Swiss-Egyptian
Islamist, arrived a few weeks later in the country, and during a well-attended
lecture (organized by the orthodox Jama’atou Ibadou Rahman), people asked
him to comment on this event. His answer was that, even though homosexuality was strictly forbidden by the Quran, believers should leave it to Allah to
judge homosexuals (Le Soleil 2009).
26. When the bill reappeared before the Nigerian Senate in 2011, the Senate president, David Mark, remarked that same-gender marriage “is offensive to our culture and tradition.” Yet as Wieringa (2005) shows, woman-to-woman customary
marriage has a long documented tradition in Nigeria, Benin, southern Sudan,
and Kenya. Unofficial same-sex marriages between men have a long history in
southern Africa, associated with, but not limited to, the system of migrant labor.
For further references see Reid (forthcoming).
27. See Sylvia Tamale’s impressive testimony on the furious reactions toward her
publicly coming out in support of “homosexual rights” in Uganda in 2003
(Tamale & Murillo 2007).
28. Achille Mbembe (2006) points also to other backgrounds: “It remains to be
seen whether homosexuality existed in Africa before the colonial expansion.
It has not been sufficiently stressed that the patriarchal structures of power
in Africa are founded on an original repudiation, that of the homosexual
relation” (translated by Peter Geschiere). See also Tonda (2005:214/18) on
popular worries in present-day Congo-Brazza and Gabon about the spread of
homosexuality, which is perceived as associated with “the end of the symbolic
economy of reciprocity and the gift.”
29. See Sadgrove et al. (2012). Yet, as mentioned, there is a paradox here since the
Pentecostals, who are among the most vocal denouncers of homosexuality, also
tend to try to liberate the individual believer from the family; see note 20.
30. Again there seem to be important differences in this respect as well. See Reid
(2010b) on a very active gay Pentecostal black church in Johannesburg where
religion offers a clear refuge for gays.
31. See Reid (forthcoming) for South Africa; but also see, e.g., Besnier (2011) for
Tonga.
32. According to E. E. Evans-Pritchard (1970), the Azande warriors only had intercrural intercourse with their younger pages (the idea of anal penetration would
have been abhorrent for the Azande in general, both for men and women). For
present-day MSM in different parts of Africa, the literature suggests mainly anal
intercourse, however, without being very explicit, but see Reid (forthcoming).
168
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And on the subject of WSW (women who have sex with women), see Morgan
and Wieringa (2005); Lorway (2008).
33. See also Epprecht (2012), who expects that organizations focused on AIDS but
discreetly promoting sexual rights—that is, acting as a kind of “cover” for gay
rights—can be the most helpful in neutralizing present-day tendencies toward
homophobia.