Charges in Uganda

A bit of over kill but, know what charges a rioter faces in Uganda?

Well, let us guess. Sedition. Threatening Violence... Or

Terrorism. Yeah, you guessed right. Terrorism!

New Vision, and Monitor articles.

Being Intersex....!

Source Jillo Kadida (Mail&Guardian)

KENYA – 21 September 2009: An intersexed Kenyan has applied to Kenya’s constitutional court to be released from Nairobi’s Kamiti Maximum Security Prison on the grounds that he belongs in neither a jail for men nor women.

Richard Mwanzia Muasya, who was convicted and jailed for robbery with violence, says he is subjected to continuous human- and constitutional- rights violations at the prison, which is for men only.

He claims to suffer inhuman and degrading treatment at the hands of male convicts, prison warders and the public.

Muasya was born with both male and female sex organs, but regards himself as a man.

He has asked the court to release him because, he says, he is neither man nor woman and there is no special prison for people like him. He argues that if he is transferred to a female prison he will suffer the same fate.

The second leg of his case challenges Kenyan law for discriminating against him. He argues that the law recognises only the two sexes, male and female, and should be changed.

The fact that Kenyan law does not recognise intersexuality makes it difficult for him to acquire vital documents, including the national identity card, Muasya says in papers filed in court. This is because he does not know whether to complete application forms as a

man or a woman.

The birth and death registration law also does not provide for intersexuality, making it impossible for him to acquire a birth certificate.

Muasya was arrested with three other suspects in February 2005 after a robbery during which a woman was gang-raped.

However, the rape charge against him was dropped after medical reports confirmed that he is intersexed. The medical examination determined that none of his sex organs was fully developed and that it was unlikely that he could commit rape.

Muasya and other intersexed people in Kenya suffer ridicule and discrimination. In some instances they are kept out of the public eye because people are ashamed of them. The problem facing Kenya’s constitutional court is that he has been convicted of an offence, yet the country has no separate facility for holding intersexed offenders.

In addition, the Kenyan constitution does not recognise the unique rights of intersexed citizens. Under South African law, the intersexed are recognised and their

rights are protected.

Update Sunday

Just one of those things. Sometimes, one may not feel up to it. Blogging.

But then, I dont seem to give up on it completely. Despite the fact that it is bordering on 'seditious'. With the recent 'crackdown' on expression, I have to be minded that I am 'seditious' and possibly a 'terrorist' because I happen to express my thoughts. Iwaya took it a bit further... I commented that he should be in prison. On remand for his 'terrorist, seditious thought processes.'

Sigh, that is something that we have to deal with.

A very, very, beautiful day. Rained last night. Kind of drizzled throught the evening, and we went out and had fun, but there were not so many people with us, because of the rain. But we did anyway. Kampala is very lively, for gay people.

Was at my favourite non gay 'gay' bar. Had this friend of mine from overseas, and he was kind of frustrated. Where are the gay men? He asked. He  was seeing lots of eye candy, and he was fearing to make a hit and miss. That is our style. I mean, you may try and fail, but gods help you if you do. Or the person that you have made a pass at.

So, I look around, and start pointing out those that I have a little knowledge about their... errr, sexual orientation. Turned out that there were quite a number.
This guy commented that elsewhere, not that many gay men are in a bar 'incognito'. We have a reputation for flamboyance. At least that is what I hear!!!!!
Not in Uganda.

Anyway, he was lucky. He had me next to him! So, he was let into the secret....! Uh.

What has been happening on the political scene?

President out of the country. The Kabaka shows off his popularity, and why the Prez cannot take him for granted. These elephants will continue to fight for the near future. We need to prepare some good hidey holes for us...

There is leak of a 'bill' against homosexuality in Uganda. (Have I blogged about it?) Seems as if the aim of this particular piece of legislation is to formaly make sure that being gay is rightfully and legally made a pariah status in Uganda, for Ugandans, inside and outside the country. Afrigay has it here. By the way, Seba, wherever you are, if this bill passes, and you still have your Ugandan passport, whenever you have sex, remember that we can still send you to Luzira.... Whenever you sneak into Uganda, and we can prove that you had 'homosexual' sex.

But I dont think you have to worry so much about it. I mean, I am in the country, but continue to have sex. And I am not planning on moving out.
Maybe I should worry about the provision that, once I am arrested for having gay sex, all my friends who know that am gay are also liable to prison for six months for knowing that I am gay and was not reported to the police, uh!

Uganda and policing thought and actions....! Well, that is life.

Will sign off. A few things that I need not to do. Or to do.

Have a great Sunday.

To my Moslem friends, Eid Mubarak. And congratulations on finishing Ramadhan. And of course welcome back onto the scene. Was kind of dull without all of you coming out with us all!

gug

I Dont Like This

Gay sex scams – and community responses – in Ghana

Last Updated: Saturday, 12 September 2009, 6:38 GMT    Previous Page

By Ethan Zuckerman's

A few years back, I was in Accra, Ghana with friends who’d helped me organize and fund Geekcorps – they were visiting our projects in the country, staying in one of the country’s nicer hotels on the beach outside of Accra. They received a phonecall one evening from someone who claimed he was the pimp of a prostitute the man had hired and he was demanding payment for his coworker’s services. My friend hadn’t hired a prostitute, and contacted the front desk of the hotel, who explained that this was a pretty common scam. The scammer hopes to reach a tourist who had hired a prostitute and saw himself as a potential target for extortion, or a person who hadn’t hired a prostitute but was sufficiently embarrassed by the prospect of being confronted in a hotel lobby that he pays hush money.

The scam works because some tourists do come to Accra to pay money for sex, and because some of these folks stay at nice hotels. And because prostitution is illegal, it’s a great opportunity for extortion – I suspect that there’s probably also a practice of following people from bars where prostitutes are common, then threatening to turn them into the police if extortion demands aren’t met. Finally, because sex is a subject most of us don’t like to talk about with strangers, it tends to leave us flustered and unsettled when accusations are made, leaving us more vulnerable to making poor decisions, like paying an extortion fee.

I was thinking about this story because Global Voices ran a fantastic piece on a disturbing new phenomenon happening online in Ghana and Kenya – gay personal ads designed to recruit robbery and kidnapping victims. Easy Track Ghana, a website for gay and lesbian traveller to Ghana, quoted in the story, explains that this has become a lucrative business for internet scammers:

…there are some Internet cafes that are *completely* devoted to this type of activity. It is truly a business, with finders fees paid for arranging a meeting with a foreigner, and 11 and 12 year old year-old boys watching pornography en masse and learning how to chat ‘gay’. On the Internet, anybody can be anything, so you really do not know who you are chatting with.

Some scams focus on building online relationships, then asking for money for help in an emergency. Others try to entice foreigners to Ghana, engage in sex with their victims, then call the police, sometimes presenting the used condoms as evidence – the scammer might ask the victim for a payment to avoid police involvement, or might share the bribe provided to the police. The most dangerous ones – and the ones more likely to be focused on local victims – propose meetings in out of the way places (often in Tema, a city near Accra that’s generally unfamiliar to most Accra residents) and then rob the victims when they arrive. Because homosexual sex is illegal in Ghana (as it is in many African nations) there’s little resource to the law after one of these robberies. As Haute Haiku suggests in the post on Global Voices, this type of scam is particularly likely to ensare gay people who are just coming out and trying to discover the gay scene.

A number of websites discuss this phenomenon in Ghana and Kenya and offer worthwhile, practical advice. Other take a more direct approach – Fakers2Go offers a photo gallery and profiles of men believed to be scammers posting their profiles on gay dating sites, and asks anyone else victimized to post information on the website as well.

The Gay and Lesbian Coalition of Kenya (GALCK) is trying to determine the extent of blackmailing schemes, asking victims to call a hotline and report anonymously. They report that victims have been asked for sums of money ranging from $6 to $25,000. Because GALCK is so involved with this issue and willing to defend victims in court, scammers have evidently taken to asking potential victims if they’ve heard of the organization and backing off if they have.

It strikes me that this story can be read either as an extremely depressing narrative about how human beings treat one another over the Internet, or as a testament to the power of virtual communities. I’ve written and spoken in the past about 419 scams as evidence that the connections we can build over the Internet are at least as likely to be negative as positive ones. It’s no surprise to most of us that random individuals we’ve never met before they contact us on the Internet seldom mean us well. But gay dating sites are a slightly different story – they’re designed to introduce people who’ve never met before, and there is, I suspect, an assumption of a common ruleset for people participating within the community (i.e., if you’re here, you’re probably gay and looking to meet someone.) This sort of community norm may be a dangerous thing in open spaces like the Internet – if you’re assuming that everyone’s motives on the site are the same as yours, you’re susceptible to attack by someone abusing the site for fraud.

But it’s the response by groups like GALCK and Fakers2Go that strikes me as extremely encouraging. Imagine if eBay had begun without a feedback mechanism and a community, say of record collectors, began monitoring bad trades and developing a website to identify scammers. Scammers would surely change names, but there would likely evolve a “whitelist” of known participants in the community who hadn’t defrauded people, as well as blacklists, and there might emerge a karma system more nuanced than eBay’s positive/negative method targetted to the specific needs of a community. (It’s pretty common in record collecting to buy a record that isn’t quite the condition it was advertised as being in. Is this a mostly satisfactory transaction? A completely bad one? Disagreement on condition between buyer and seller or a form of fraud? A community based rating system might address these issues…)

I’ll be interested to see whether community sites emerge to try to police and mitigate the dangers of gay sex scams. The relative anonymity of the internet, the dangers of the scams and the benefits of removing predators from a community seems like the perfect recipe for this sort of community policing – I’d expect to see dating sites encourage this sort of policing as well. What would be more disappointing – but certainly possible – is dating sites eliminating profiles from Kenya and Ghana in the hopes of protecting people from scams at the expense of actual gay individuals in these countries looking to meet people.

The story was also a reminder for me of what Global Voices is able to do that can be difficult for other media outlets to replicate. Because we’ve got an author who’s integrated into the African GBLT community, we were able to find a topic of community discussion that hasn’t crossed into mainstream media yet. While this story has been amplified by a gay-focused blog, I’ll be very interested to see whether it crosses over into mainstream media.


And another story from Ghana...!

Masturbating Ugandans!

So help me gods, but me, sexually liberal me, who is gay and living in a (gasp) loving, homosexual partnership, I don’t believe that masturbation is a bad thing. I mean, that was the very firstest way that I, ascended, reached the peak. And I have faithfully and wonderfully become re-acquinted with the practice.

It is cheap, easy, accessible.

I masturbate. My lover masturbates. I mean, we both masturbate, looking in one another’s eyes. And love seeing the others climax. Wont tell you the lovely, depraved things that we do after that… I mean, this blog is already XXX-rated.

But, here is an article about masturbation in the New Vision.

And, know who they quote? Steven Langa. The guy who brought the Anti-Gay Americans, the Ex gay, anti-gay Americans during the Anti-gay seminars. Here is the article.

Kick the masturbation vice out of you

Friday, 11th September, 2009          

By Maureen Nakatudde

FEAR, hopelessness and guilt are some of its fruits. But despite this, masturbation has been lauded as an HIV preventive practice and that it reduces the chances of rape. Moralists, however, argue that the bad effects of masturbation are worse than its merits.

Steven Langa, a counsellor with the Family Life Network in Kampala, says when a person gets addicted to the habit, he can suffer from impulsive masturbation. “Here, the habit has really got out of hand,’’ he explains.

Sexual malfunction, Langa adds, can result, especially among the young.

“For instance, if they are still far from finishing an exam, they can involuntarily masturbate when the supervisor announces the remaining time.”

He says after masturbation, the victim only regrets the act. “The person wants to escape but cannot.”

Gerald Kiyingi, a doctor at Kawolo Hospital, says one might lose interest in his partner, which can result in instability in marriage.

Since God didn’t create man to gratify himself, masturbation is against God’s design for two people of the opposite sex to explore each other.

Besides, counsellors argue, the habit is associated with shame and low self esteem. This is because the person starts comparing himself to other people.

Prevention

According to Langa, for a person to stop masturbating, practices like reading and watching pornographic material should be stopped.

Mark Petersen, in Steps in Overcoming Masturbation, offers ideas to help curb the vice. He argues that making a decision to end the practice is itself a great leap towards victory.

When in bed, if that is where you have your problem, dress yourself for the night so securely that you cannot easily touch your vital parts, and so that it would be difficult and time-consuming for you to remove those clothes. By the time you start removing protective clothing, you will have sufficiently controlled your thinking that the temptation would leave you, Petersen counsels.

Following a programme of vigorous daily exercise could be of help. Petersen says the exercise reduces emotional tension and depression, basic requirements in curbing the vice. Double physical activity when you feel stress increasing.

If you are being tempted, you are advised to distract yourself. This can be by turning your thoughts to constructive business.

If you are Christian or Muslim, you can memorise a verse from the Bible or Koran. He adds that reading a book, visiting a friend or doing athletics can counter the vice.

Gosh, why are all things that are good and lovely, errr, evil????? Makes me thank the gods I don’t believe such nonsense! Bahhhh!

gug

Uruguay

A country in South America. First heard of it in football of course. Soccer.

But it has got to a milestone in the ‘Homosexual Agenda’- allowing gay people to adopt. Seems like a good milestone, to me. But, there are those who defer. And are vocal about it. Here

The vice president of the Bishops’ Conference of Uruguay, Bishop Rodolfo Wirz, is  lamenting the recent approval by the Uruguayan Senate of a law allowing homosexuals to adopt. The measure, the bishop said, “is a wrong decision that is going to jeopardize all society ,but especially our children” and is “a step backwards for development.”

Bishop Wirz told CNA that the Church respects homosexual persons but that when it comes to the issue of “adoption, that is, raising a girl or boy whose identity is at stake, and of the complementarity between fatherhood and motherhood, beyond the religious dimension, we think this measure is inappropriate, it is counterproductive and of no benefit to our society.”

“I think the passage of this law is a step backwards for the development of society,” he continued.  “Moreover, being the first Latin American country to pass a law allowing homosexuals to adopt is not a point in our favor; rather, it is unfortunate and sad because this is not the way to help boys and girls who need to be adopted,” he said.

Well, gay and a man, cant sleep with a woman. Ok, can, but, (pssshhhhhhh!) dont know whether would perform...! Ah!!!

So, I am still a human being. Want, feel like having children. Can support them of course. Very different from what my father wants.. Just a bigger clan. Spread my seed etc. I want my own children. To love, to teach, to laugh with and share my laugh with. Yeah, even the fact that I am gay, and happy, and married. (to a man, of course!)

So, what is bad about that?

Nothing, I say.

Everything. Says many other people. And know why they say that? In defense of the 'Family'. Which family? Certainly not mine, not the one that I want to bring up.

Life is short, sweet. We are here but for a short time. Think I should defer my joy in having children in deference to some abstract family that I can never have? Yeah, you be the judge...!

And Bravo, Uruguay

gug

Death of Brian Pande

He was 21. He was arrested last year, (or this year, my, how the year flies, time goes)

Brian was one of the Accused in the Mbale case (Criminal Case no. 347/09 Uganda vs Pande Brian & Wasukira Fred charged with having 'carnal knowledge against the order of nature' ).



Died after a short illness. Possibly a meningitis....!


Life is so beautiful in its shortness. So wonderful in its brevity.


Have a good life. Live, love, and let live.




gug

Caster Semenya

The tragedy in which that young lady is featuring is still ongoing.

Imagine the embarassment. She has been examined, and her private information has been 'leaked' to the media. And of course now it is in the public domain. She is a neither woman nor man. Or she is both a man and woman. And we all know it.

How would you feel if this was public knowledge?

How does the IAAF feel about it? They have effectively destroyed the life of a young person, because they have to prove that she is not 'cheating'. As a sop, they are leaving her with the medal that she won. So, is she a man or woman? Will she be allowed to compete anymore?

I was talking to Julius, and he told me something horrible. That traditionally, children born with ambiguous genitalia are killed soon after birth. His story tells of the trials he went through. What about Castor...

Yeah, our unbending world can be very, very cruel.

My prayers to Castor Semenya as she passes through this time of shame. Hope South Africans can still find the strength to stand by her. Just as she is.

gug

Allan Turing

I have always been impressed by the story of Allan Turing. And reminded that life is a very lonely experience.

Allan Turing, Oscar Wilde, and others like them. They remind me that life is to be lived and loved today. Not tomorrow. I never plan to be a martyr, because of the simple reason that I will not be around to 'enjoy' my martyrdom.

Recently, the British Prime Minister recognised Allan Turing. Here is the excerpt of the story...

LONDON – British Prime Minister Gordon Brown offered a posthumous apology Friday for the "inhumane" treatment of Alan Turing, the World War II codebreaker who committed suicide in 1954 after being prosecuted for homosexuality and forcibly treated with female hormones.

The mathematician helped crack Nazi Germany's Enigma encryption machine — a turning point in the war — and is considered a father of modern computing.

In 1952, however, Turing was convicted of gross indecency for having sex with a man and offered a choice between prison and "chemical castration" — the injection of female hormones to suppress his libido. His security clearance was revoked and he was no longer allowed to work for the government.

Two years later, he killed himself at age 41 by eating an apple laced with cyanide.

As Britain marks the 70th anniversary of the September 1939 start of the war — remembered as its "finest hour" — Brown said Turing "deserved so much better" than the treatment he received from postwar society.

"It is no exaggeration to say that, without his outstanding contribution, the history of World War II could well have been very different," Brown said. "He truly was one of those individuals we can point to whose unique contribution helped to turn the tide of war."

Brown said Turing was "in effect, tried for being gay." Homosexuality was illegal in Britain until 1967.

"The debt of gratitude he is owed makes it all the more horrifying, therefore, that he was treated so inhumanely," Brown said. "We're sorry, you deserved so much better."

Yeah Allan. You did deserve so much better. From a nation that has just remembered to be grateful to you.

gug

Calm

Peace, calm has returned to Kampala.

Oh, I dont doubt that the armoured personell carriers (mambas) are still patrolling the city. I dont doubt that there are thousands of plain clothes intelligence people mingling with the cautious crowds. They are there. And we know it, and so we have to be cautious.

Storm in a tea cup. But it has been and we have lost something like 8 people. And the Kabaka has not gone to see his constituents. And the govt feels like it has won.

And the Baganda? Bitterness. Angered, bitter. Well, time cools down that. At least for now, the only storm in the air is grey weather storming in from the west. Has been some time since it rained. We need it. The rainy season has not been very convincing, though lots of rain have fallen.

Tradition is funny. The President has the military might and power. He has the force of the establishment behind him. The Kabaka has only tradition behind him. That, and the people who call themselves 'his' people.
They had to prove it. And they did. It is no doubt that he is popular, and they like him. The Kabaka. And what does that do for the elected president? A problem. At least that is what I think!!!!! And, of course, the opposition has been ecstatic. Nothing like having your opponent score consistent own goals.

The President came out with a whine that rivalled those of gug. Yeah, the guy did...

I am sorry, this must be seditious, but, I must complain. The guy is the President of the country, President of the republic. The Kabaka is a traditional leader of just a part of the population. But, do you know why we have had this fracas? The President told us.
Apparently, the saga has been ongoing for a long time. The Kabaka and the Baganda want something. Return of some land, political, and federal power back to the Kabaka, and others. The president refused to negotiate that. So, the Kabaka, over years, becomes the de facto leader of the opposition. He hides behind the opaqueness of tradition, and challenges the President. Man!!!!!!

But that is politics, I thought. That is life...! Why complain that water is fluid?

So, know what the President complains? That this Kabaka has not been answering his phone. I swear, that is what the guy did. He first gave us a long lecture on how bad the Baganda and the Kabaka and Mengo, the Kabaka's government are. The Baganda kingdom has a 900 year history. The President was merciful to us. Instead of giving us a litany of how bad they were before, he concentrated on the last 100 years or so. He listed them down, he analysed. He listed down the many reasons that the Kabaka and the Baganda have to be thankful to him. He had the whole country as a captive audience. And he really did it.

Museveni is no Barack Obama. He reads his speeches. Slow, tedious, boring. The guy had written it down in long hand, if I am not mistaken. And it was a whine and whing, which dear gug can do, well, much better!!! The de facto cause of the impasse was the Kabaka visiting a part of his kingdom. The real cause, two bulls in the same kraal.

You know, during that speech, I was thinking, man, you are the president of the country. Yes, Museveni is His Excellency the President. The whine just did not suit him. Not at all.
The Kabaka came off much more 'leader like'. More, ahem, Presidential...! He was quiet. According to custom, he only speaks through surrogates. Not once was his voice heard. But the Baganda responded.

And the heavy handedness....! Dear President, have you thrown away your wits? Can you sincerely threaten, abuse, demean the Kabaka (yes, you did just that) and expect you are not abusing the Baganda? Oh, I know them. They are proud, cantankerous, not easy going. After all, I have grown up in the middle of Kampala. I do know them. They do have pluses and minuses.

But, let us put that tribal sentiment aside.

To me, it sounded like the President put aside statesmanship in his ego fight with the Kabaka. And, worst of it, it showed. Badly!

No, Mr President. You did yourself a disservice. You are the President of all Ugandans. Including the Baganda. And, at that particular moment, you had singled out a particular tribe to lambast with abuse. And it was very, very ugly.

Yeah, ugly enough on the side of the populace... The rioting, the deaths, the heavy handedness, the loss of property. It was ugly. And I felt that ugliness, reminded me of the many days we have spent without such pain. But Mr President, it was beneath your dignity. You are the President. Act Presidential.

That is the opinion of a poor, obviously disturbed and, (of course) embarrassed gay Ugandan.

Yeah, I know this rant is going to be taken as seditious. But, human beings are human beings, arent we????? Tell me that I am wrong, I will shamefully, and gladly correct myself.


gug

Cry, Uganda

Cant sleep. Literally.

My country is going up in flames. And I don’t think I can do a bloody thing about it.

The saga of the two bulls in the same kraal. Both determined to fight, and god damn the grass that will suffer underneath. Nothing that we will do will stop the fighting. Nothing will stop the egos from touching off nuclear triggers. Nothing and no-one will talk them into sense.

Yesterday I got tired of twittering.

There is some relief, as always, in getting the facts out into the cyber, when I know that there is some kind of logic. But that is personal. That is something that is intangible on the ground. I can report. I feel damned helpless. My country is going up in flames and I am powerless to do anything about the bloody thing!

Early in our partnership, my lover and I realized something. We are inter-ethnic. Yeah, he comes from one tribal group, and I come from another. They have not been always friendly. There are traditional rivalries which boil up now and then. Coupled to the fact that we also think different on the political spectrum. The thing that kept us together was love, the reality of the hostility of our environment to our being together. And a tacit understanding that we don’t discuss politics, and religion. Because we are realized that that would cause chaos.

Its coming to nine years. We have hang out fine.

But the tribal, inter-ethnic fires which suddenly erupted yesterday were too much. We suddenly were fighting. Taking up sides, staking them out. And we couldn’t talk. Each fervent in the side that we supported.

It was amusing. For like five seconds. It deteriorated rapidly afterwards.

Inter ethnic violence.

First the riots were spontaneous. Oh, it was understandable. The Baganda were offered a finger in the eye, the largest insult that they could have, an insult to their cultural identity. An insult to the Kabaka, the king of Buganda.

I could understand the anger. And the spontaneous outpouring of violence.

But the extent was too much, too fast, too ugly. Soon, the rioters had paralyzed the city. The roads were cut, and ugly scenes of mayhem persisted. Scenes of the police and military brutally beating up people were on the television. Until they disappeared. Because the television stations believed they would be shut off for ‘inciting violence’.

The rioter targeted government cars, but soon started targeting those who are different. Anyone who comes from the western part of the country. They made roadblocks, asked people to recite their clan and clan totem if they said that they were Baganda. Madness.

They targeted Asian businessmen. An easy target.

And I was in the confort of my place, listening to the news available, not daring to go out, but, and a big but, it was becoming more ugly. The violence was in most big towns of Buganda. And it was as ugly, and undirected.

Yet, there was a talk show, with a live phone in. NTV, ‘On the Spot’. The discussants were Buganda’s attorney general. (Come to think of it, the Buganda establishment is very, very strong. A 600-700 year history, a tradition and culture that has stood the test of banishment. And the allegiance of the biggest ethnic group.) Yes, they are numerically important. Why have I never thought of that? Damn, but I am politically insensitive.

Anyway, Buganda’s attorney general was put side by side with the official government spokesperson. A lady minister. Ethnically, she is a Munyoro princess. A traditional rival of the Baganda.

I listened as the lady minister tried to paint the face of an injured government. She believed what she was saying. The govt had been provoked.

I listened to the Buganda attorney general. Well, they have the facts and the truth behind them. You have to give them that.

But, and a big but, these guys, after riots which have shut down the city couldn’t agree to disagree. The government was standing by its injured status. And the Kabaka is going to go ahead and tear apart the country.

Two bulls in a kraal. Battle lines drawn. First clash. Others to follow.

My country is tearing itself apart. And I, I cant seem able to do a damn thing about it.

gug

Chaos in Kampala

Gosh, I started this as a joke. Sort of releasing some pressure.

But, and a big but, something is happening that is out of norm.

Riots throught the city of Kampala. And civil disobedience, and fracas.

See, I put up the other post. At that time was kind of off base. I was not really interested. Kind of comes from a news news for news’ sake.

But it has become serious.

Started with news that the Katikiro, prime minister of Buganda kingdom had been refused entry to Bugerere. That touched off riots in Kampala, and these have spread, spread and spread. A real, bonafide people’s revolt.

Fire in the streets. Empty streets. The main roads are closed. And chaos reigns supreme. And the anthem of the uprising, the Buganda anthem. God, how many people knew it before now?

Apparently, the chaos is taking place throughout Buganda, which is a sizeable region. This is going to become worse. No longer a laughing matter.

PS. The government tv station is showing a debate in parliament. They are debating a ban on alcohol packed in polythene paper. Kampala is burning…

Two bulls, the same Kraal.

I have blogged about this before. And now, that the likes of George Oundo and Ssempa are giving me some respite, I am seeking for something to blog about.

‘Course I can burden you with my poetry. Sniff…!

But, I live a full life. So the one sided blogging here is just a sliver of my life. Yes, I try to live a full life. In my other guises.

Anyway, two bulls in the same kraal. Recipe for a fight.

Has been brewing for some time, and seems to be heading for a climax. Saturday. This Saturday.

Ok. Some background.

Before the white man stepped into Uganda, country was politically organized in tribal kingdoms. Many of them. Diverse. And of course looser chieftains and other entities. Come independence, they were still there. But the old and the new found co-habitation a problem. A federal system was established at independence. So, the then President of Uganda… No. My history is wrong. The Executive Prime-Minister fought a war which deposed the President in 1966. The President at that time happened to be the Kabaka of Buganda. King of the most numerous tribal group, the Baganda.

What followed was war. War, and more war.

Kingdoms were abolished. The leaders were exiled. Cultural history extinguished, in the name of a new and better Uganda. But, and a very, very big but, tribal identities are an enduring part of what makes us Ugandans, and Africans.

So, after a turbulent 70’s, and 80’s decade, came Museveni. Popular uprising. Successful rebel. And populist. At that time, he thought, why fear the tribal leaders? Reinstate them. And, of course it was very, very popular.

So, the tribal leaders were reinstated.

The Kabaka of Buganda came back from exile. He was crowned. And there was a lot of joy. Part of Museveni’s southern strategy. He is from the west. And he knows that, with a popular vote for the presidency, the north was out of control. (Would never believe, like in Khazai’s Afghanistan that 100% of the vote from an opposition stronghold goes to the incumbent. Elections are not rigged that way…!)

So, the Baganda were happy. The Banyoro were happy, and the Basoga happy.

Then came problems.

Remember, the ‘cultural’ leaders are not supposed to be ‘political’. What a farce. What nonsense!

For some time, they seemed not to be.

And now, they have gotten tired of the central governments restrictions. And, the powerless, disorganized opposition has seen some very ripe ground for campaigning.

And, the very politically astute Museveni has decided to score some very funny own goals. See, the power of the ego. He is the big bull. And these small bulls are absolutely aggravating. They are pecking at him, pulling, pushing. And doing the unthinkable, supporting the opposition!

Museveni is very astute. When he realized that the traditional rulers were becoming restless, he started playing them against each other. The Baganda are the biggest. So, play them against their traditional enemies, the Banyoro. A sort of stalemate. And try to break them up.

So, suddenly, though the Kingdom of Buganda is recognized as whole in the Constitution, Museveni has found some ‘sub kingdoms’ to champion. Those within Buganda. Busoga is a mess… thanks to some very devious sleight of hand. There are rival kings in place. So, …!

The Kabaka, or king of Buganda was slow, or restrained. Till now.

War was declared. In very diplomatic terms. That was about a month ago.

Now, the next part of the saga has been started.

The Kabaka declared that he was going to visit a part of his kingdom. The Central govt warned him that it was not ok. He asked why, and the answers were couched in political problems. It was not ‘safe’ for the Kabaka to visit part of his kingdom. So says the Police. So, the police, under orders from on high, teargases and stops the advance parties.

Suddenly, Baganda are springing out of the woodwork. They are reacting like they have been abused. Of course they have been.

The president is trying to do some damage control. He has called the Baganda MPs to State House. Oh, they have refused. At least some have, including those of his party. At the same time, the police have the same orders. Stop the Kabaka from visiting his constituency, on the pretext that it is unsafe. Because a migrant community does not want the Kabaka visiting. That is the proxy reason.

Anyway, the visit is to be on Saturday. This Saturday.

But, with tear gas and riot police on the way, this is a story that is still happening. Of course the opposition is jumping up and down in glee. What a fantastic campaign…! They are joining the Baganda, and making common cause. Hey, I know that, traditionally, the Baganda are supposedly pesky, but… Viva, says the opposition. Matter of fact, the consensus seems to be the north plus the Baganda. Plus the east. What an ‘unholy’ alliance.

People power. It seems as if all roads lead to Bugerere. That place where the Kabaka is supposed to be visiting. The Kabaka’s prime minister, the Katikiro, has been refused entrance in the constituency. He is on the advance party. My neighbours are galvanized. They are all going to that place. They are going with their Kabaka. Well, Kampala is in the middle of the former Buganda kingdom, so, most people around me are Baganda. Not all, but most.

Well, well, well!

Hey, I wont tell you what tribe I am. Course, some of you know, but….! Still anonymous. And I do love my take on what is happening. It is unique. All me, all gug. I love it.

Anyway, developing story…!

gug

Hypocrisy.

Sometimes I am a hypocrite. Other times I get flabbergasted by the hypocrisy of some people. Dear George Oundo.

Remember, he was chucked out of ‘ex gay Uganda’ for being, well, ex-ex-gay? According to the ‘red rug’ he held a press conference which confused most of the press people. It was gate crushed by the ‘real ex gay Ugandans’. Oh, he was telling all and sundry how bad dear Martin Ssempa is. Only the red rug published the happenings. The other news orgs were kind of leary. Don’t know why. Could be something to do with the whole ‘Ssempa-Oundo’ saga. But the last of that story is not yet written.

Dear George is sending us text messages. He happens to send them every now and then, in his special dialect of the ‘Queen’s English’. Anyway, here is one of them. Yeah, let me do him a doubtable favor.

DIS GEORGINA, HI MY SIS LONG TIME& ITS LONG STORY HOW A U GENERALY,?2 ME I HAVE A LOT 2 TEL U I WIL LATE U KNOW, NOW AM AT GROUND ZERO MY V NEDS SOME THING & AM LOKING 4 IT,DIS MY PONE NUMBER I MIS U ALL, I REALY MIS EVERY, LET EVERY KNOW DIS ,WE ARE BORN LIKE DIS & NO CHANGE, I WIL NEVER CHANGE, HOPE 2 HEAR FROM U SOON"  +256715595407

yeah, from dear George, aka Georgina…!

gug

Intersex and the LGBTI cause

I have been trying to make people understand why the Intersex people are important in the whole LGBTI politics thing. Kind of hard to explain, to many people. I am a gay man. I don’t want to be a woman. I don’t think of myself as a woman.

And many other kuchus stop there.

Explained it this way to my lover. When society looks at the Intersex, they see human beings that they cannot ‘classify’ conventionally. And medical science comes out and says, hey, wait, the reasons are ‘bona fide’. This person is neither man nor woman, and these are the physical, verifiable facts. And us kuchus are the same. But, and it is an important difference, we don’t seem to have physical backing for our differences. We look like everyone else, and since we cant ‘proove’ our differences, we are taken stigmatized for being different.

Ok. Am not fresh enough to pull it off. Explain what I mean, I mean.

Maybe this article explains it better…!

From our friends in Kenya, an analysis.

Kenyans and the man-woman thing: Thanks Semenya!

Caster Semenya of South Africa celebrates after she won the women's 800 metres final during the world athletics championships at the Olympic stadium in Berlin, August 19, 2009. REUTERS

By CABRAL PINTO

Posted Monday, September 7 2009 at 16:54

Kenya’s own Janeth Jepkosgei lost the recent 800 metres race at the World Championships in Berlin to Caster Semenya of South Africa. Kenyans seem to be waiting for the answer to the question, “Is Miss Caster Semenya a woman?” If the answer is in the negative then our own Jepkosgei gets the gold medal. I want to urge Kenyans to simply go beyond the gold medal and bring the Semenya controversy close to home. How do we deal with our Semenyas in various fields of excellence? Shall we disown them or glorify them?

If Semenya is intersex – has sex organs of both gender – is the IAAF going to make a scientific decision or a social decision? Who has the right to determine her gender if she is intersex and has decided she is a woman? Does this issue not tell us that we are dealing with a complex issue, may be the end of gender as we know it?

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Intersex grown ups

We tend to dismiss the issue of difference by casting it in moral or cultural arguments. I know that many intersex babies in Kenya have operations the moment they are born, here the decisions being made by the parents. As one would imagine, the majority of these babies end up being male. Problems crop up later when the adults want to reverse those decisions by their parents. It is also common knowledge that intersex grown ups who seek operations after making their own decisions invariably find surgeons who ask them to seek the permission of their parents, their adulthood notwithstanding! It is not that as Kenyans we do not know this problem. We do. We seem to refuse to treat it with the humanity it deserves.

We are also a very homophobic nation, although I believe we have not reached the horrific levels of Uganda’s President Yoweri Museveni and Zimbabwe’s Robert Mugabe. Do we regard LGBTIQ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex and queer) people as human beings who are simply different? Can we on any legal or moral basis argue that gay people should be killed on the basis of their sexual orientation? Should we condone discrimination in whatever form on the basis of sexual orientation? What do we do when our relatives are gay? Do we announce from the rooftops that they are sick and unmitigated sinners? Why should we play God in these matters? The foremost bastions of homophobia in many countries seem to be religious institutions although I am sure they have no problems pocketing the offerings of gay people.

God's role

We need, as a nation, to correct the issue of discrimination. As we discuss a new constitution we may want to discuss these issues of difference and discrimination. Most of the gay groups in East Africa are founded by young people who crave for understanding and respect for their rights to be different. Cursing people who are gay, killing them, discriminating them in jobs, housing and in health will not make them disappear. If we are, indeed, religious we need to accept God’s role in the creation and in the difference and at least discuss the issue. I believe the first place where we should start this discussion is in the family and cultivate understand that can perhaps permeate to the rest of society.

One final word of advice to all Kenyans who want to stand up and be counted in the struggle for equality and rights of the sexual minorities is the realisation that you do not have to be gay to protect gay rights.

I wonder if Semenya was Kenyan we would have flocked the JKIA to welcome her. Her family, relatives and the wilder society in South Africa glorified her victory. May be Semenya’s controversy will keep Kenyans thinking through these broader issues and not the gold medal. Thank you Semenya!

(cabralpinto2009@gmail.com)

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Gosh, the article is so good that I have ‘borrowed’ most of it here. Follow the link for the full article.

gug

Ignorance is a Curse.

Short story.

Ok, I had a very, very long night. Out partying. Continued sleeping into the early afternoon. And what with sex and sleeping again. Am exhausted!!!!!! Oh well, one is only young once. Let us party….!

Someone, a visitor to Uganda, came across this blog. Was kind of tickled. He decided to write a long letter to me. Instructive.

There were a couple of paragraphs that I would like to share with you. This is his experience. In his words.

“Reading your blog today about the water based lube, reminded me of a discussion I had with one of the guys when I was there. They had had a meeting of lgbt people shortly before I visited. They had discussed the use of condoms and someone mentioned that condoms were being used and people were still getting AIDS. The problem was attributed to the fact that being made in India and old, they tended to break. Then in my conversation with my friend , he mentioned they were using petroleum jelly. Needless to say, I was flabbergasted. I said "A--, if you use PJ, there is no point in using a condom!" He informed me that non of them could afford to buy KY jelly . I had a large tube of KY with me (hope runs eternal), I gave him the KY and later learned several people used it and as we say here, it was the best thing since sliced bread.”

Yeah, and I have come across this too many times. In this day and age, with HIV raging in the country for this long, gay men in Uganda still use Vaseline on their condoms for sex. Horrible.

And ignorance is a powerful weapon. This is the kind of knowledge that we should have, that every gay Ugandan man should have from when they first have sex. Sadly, it is proscribed information. Deadly knowledge.

I read a lot of irrelevancies. Or, relevant nothings which find their way into the blog. In Uganda, we have anti-condom activists. Their logic is that promoting condoms promotes promiscuity. Pastor Martin Ssempa. A condom burner.

They use the same logic to deny gay Ugandan men of an HIV prevention programme. It is horrible because it promotes the Homosexual Agenda. Should I quote Martin Ssempa again? And, the same kind of argument is being used in the US against a vaccination that prevents cancer. See, it is supposed to be given to young girls before they have sex. So, if you give it, you promote promiscuity. (and prevent a deadly cancer at the same time…!)

This kind of attitude jars my mind. The logic is so flawed that I find it impossible to believe that someone does believe in it. But people do. And justify it in the name of god, and angels and religion. And, they are strong enough, and subtle enough to influence policy makers.

Anyway, if you are gay, have your sex. Use condoms, don’t use the readily available Vaseline. It makes the condoms useless. What should you use….????

Unfortunately, at the moment, I have no answer for you. We don’t seem to have a cheap ‘water based lubricant’ for sex, except the expensive KY Jelly. But use that, if you can afford it. Okay? And if you cant… well, doesn’t hurt for you to know what works and what doesn’t, does it? Is a hard world out here…!

Is your life anyway. Isn’t easy to live with HIV, so, help yourself, and your family, and everyone, stay HIV free. Yeah, I know. Sex is sweet. (Despite the marathon, planning to have more before I sleep tonight. Bite me, it is great, is sex!) But, don’t sell your life for a few minutes of heavenly pleasure. Aint worth it.

Use a condom. Use a water based lubricant. Have wonderful sex.



gug

FUFA does not discriminate; Kayanja and Ssempa

Or does it? Will Ayieko survive the smear of being labelled homosexual? At least he seems to be back in his job.

But, does FUFA discriminate or not? FIFA will want to know. If Ayieko had been 'prooved' to be a homosexual, would he still be able to play the beautiful game? Check this out.




And, the New Vision's City Beat is out. It list the top 100 Ugandan Celebrities. Hidden somewhere in the article is this sentence.

Pastor Robert Kayanja of the Rubaga Miracle Centre, at 13 was the highest ranked religious figure, followed by Martin Sempa of the Makerere Community Church.

Now, you can understand why dear Pastor Ssempa hates Kayanja so much.... It is all about, politics, stupid.

gug

Police clears coach Ayiekoh of sodomy allegations

Time for Ayieko to play up his heterosexual credentials, dont you think?

Thursday, 3rd September, 2009       

BY JAMES BAKAMA

THE Director of Public Prosecution DPP will not prefer charges of sodomy on Horizon FC coach Charles Ayiekoh due to insufficient evidence.

Ayiekoh, who has been under investigation for two months, was on Tuesday cleared of the accusations by the Criminal Investigations Directorate CID.

Ayiekoh is now considering legal action against those who made capital out of his woes.

Radio journalist Ivan Kyeyune and Isaac Omara, a bar attendant, accused Ayiekoh of sodomy during the Inter-Regions soccer championship in Lira in June.

According to Lira District CID officer Denis Oola, the clearance followed police investigations and perusal of the case files by Lira Resident State Attorney and the DPP's office in Kampala.

“The files were later returned to police with instructions to close the case in the interest of justice because of insufficient evidence,” reads the release.

“I am greatly relieved. It's been a very traumatizing situation. My family was devastated. But most important, the truth has prevailed,” said a visibly happy Ayiekoh yesterday.

“There was a deliberate smear campaign to destroy me.

“I have in the process of the bad publicity, also lost several opportunities,” explained the tactician.

He wondered why his accusers didn’t follow up the matter.

“They claimed to have evidence from earlier cases, Why couldn’t they present it”, the coach asked.

Clearance also implies the effective return of Ayiekoh on the bench.

He was on a Uganda Football Coaches Association suspension list pending clearance.

Homosexuality is a crime under Uganda's penal code.

There have however been numerous reports of the act in the country’s football circles. But no tangible steps have been taken to eradicate the vice.

Corrective, Curative Rape: What a blasphemy!

Law Failing Lesbians on "Corrective Rape"

Nathalie Rosa Bucher

The 07-07-07 Campaign, named after the gruesome double murder of Salome Masooa and Sizakele Sigaza in 2007 seeks to end the targeting of lesbian women for their sexuality.

CAPE TOWN, Aug 31 (IPS) - "Women are getting killed in the Western Cape," says Ndumie Funda, who runs LulekiSizwe in her "cabin" in the township of Gugulethu near Cape Town.

The project is named after her late fiancée, Nosizwe Nomsa Bizana, who was gang-raped by five men and subsequently succumbed to crypto meningitis, and Bizana's friend Luleka Makiwane, who contracted HIV when she was raped and later died of AIDS.

The initiative provides support for lesbian women in the township, most of them teenagers and young adults, many in their final years of high school. According to Funda, young lesbian women aged between 16 and 25 are most vulnerable and often get evicted by their families.

"Police are often remiss in their investigation and victims are often subjected to secondary victimisation from homophobic police officials, the justice system is slow, struggles to cope with cases of gang attacks and it is hard to convince prosecutors of the importance of hate as a motivation for crimes," Emily Craven, Joint Working Group co-ordinator explains.

There are no authoritative figures on exactly how many incidents of hate crime are committed in South Africa.

The horrific levels of sexual violence in South Africa have been well documented and publicised. According to police statistics, 36,190 rapes and attempted rapes were reported to the South African Police Service (SAPS) between April and December 2007.

The number of unreported cases, however, is estimated to be ten times that. A study released by the Medical Research Council (MRC) in June this year found that of the 1,738 men interviewed 27.6 percent had perpetrated the rape of a woman or girl.

A crime with many names

There are no solid statistics for the frequency of what is known as "corrective rape".

"While the problem has most certainly existed for years, our recorded understandings of the problem has mushroomed over the last couple of years," Emily Craven of the Joint Working Group explains. While she has recorded an increase in reported cases - early June even saw the first trial for a rape case of a gay man - Craven suspects that this is still only the tip of an iceberg.

"There is no awareness around hate crimes and corrective rape," activist Ndumie Funda insists. "We need a programme of action, we need intervention and research, a budget to find out the problems lesbian women encounter."

Bernedette Muthien, co-founder and director of Engender, a Cape Town-based NGO, insists on the term "curative rape": "Curative is more powerful. It’s rape as a cure for your queerness," she says. The 07-07-07 Campaign, named after the gruesome double murder of Salome Masooa and Sizakele Sigaza on Jul. 7, 2007, used the term "hate rape" in a recent press release.

"From New York to Afghanistan, to the Balkans, across Africa, Latin America. I’ve been to many conferences and asked the questions. (Curative rape is) a global phenomenon and it’s often friends and family," says Bernedette Muthien, co-founder and director of Engender, a Cape Town-based NGO.

"It has always been in society since the onset of patriarchy and been used as a tool to control people’s sexuality, women in particular ways and also some men. Many, many of my women friends and comrades themselves are survivors of curative rape."

The MRC report urged a much broader approach to rape prevention. "This must entail intervening on the key drivers of the problem which include ideas of masculinity, predicted on marked gender hierarchy and sexual entitlement of men," it reads.

When the law is no protection

Craven said that one of South Africa's peculiarities is that legally-speaking, it is one of only seven countries in the world that allows same-sex marriage; its progressive constitution and laws were intended to protect LGBTI people but fear and violence reign in the LGBTI community. "People trust those laws and their decision to come out on the basis of them in fact places them in danger by making them targets."

Speaking at the Western Cape End Hate Alliance March gathered in St George’s Cathedral in Cape Town on Aug. 7, Nozizwe Madladla-Routledge, former deputy minister of health and still member of the African National Congress (ANC) National Executive Committee (NEC) said: "We don’t have enough understanding of the constitution especially around equal rights. Everyone has inherent dignity."

She also advocated guidelines to be developed. "We need to include these issues into the school curriculum, address issues around gender and sexuality we’ve avoided for too long."

A number of high profile cases, such as the murder of Eudy Simelane, a star player for Banyana Banyana, South Africa's national women’s soccer team, the murder of Zolizwa Nkonyana in Khayelitsha in 2006 or the double murder of Masooa and Sigaza, have resulted in campaigns to create more awareness and demand justice.

"These cases certainly have given momentum to our cause and they are very important to us not just in terms of getting justice for the victims involved - though this is of course a huge priority - but also in terms of setting some legal precedents around hate crime and hate motivation for crime and to send a strong message to the population that no matter how much you may hate gay people you will not get away with assaulting, raping, murdering LGBTI people," Craven states.

"There is no specific hate crimes legislation in South Africa and so setting precedent by getting a judge to find and record that homophobic hate motivated an attack is very important."

Justice delayed

Also speaking at the End Hate March, Craven stated that hate crimes were not "normal murders" and accused government of refusing to engage with the problem. "The police and prosecutors refuse to investigate on the basis of hate, the criminal justice system generally is slow and we live in a violent society. For every one murdered there are scores of victims," she said.

In the case of Nkonyana, the trial has been delayed 20 times.

"Zolizwa is certainly not the only one; people are reluctant to report cases," Funda says. "Cases are not taken serious, the police laughs, they’ll tell you ‘you’ve asked for it because you behave like a man’," she adds.

"Masculinity is key to our understanding of all homophobic hate crime and all gender based violence which we feel homophobic attacks are a part of," Craven elaborates.

Art against hate

South African kwaito singer Thandiswa Mazwai denounces rape and child abuse on her latest album "Ibokwe"; "same sex is shame sex, is assault with intent to grievous bodily harm, is justifiable homicide, constitutional suicide," rails poet Khadija Tracey Heeger in "Untitled Poem".

Dancer and choreographer Mamela Nyamza has conceptualised "Kutheni", a performance piece in which two women in love are faced with hatred and violence.

"Kutheni", Nyamza explains, means "why" in Xhosa. The piece was staged at the FNB Vita Dance Umbrella, South Africa’s premier dance festival earlier this year, and later – more pertinently - in the township of Gugulethu.

"I always wanted to do it and I was scared. But I saw the need," says Nyamza. "In the communities, some people didn’t know it was happening! I want the kids to be educated. The kids were explaining to me what they saw. I hope this can change these kids. Art is a way of changing one's life."

"I wanted to bring it to the people and where it all happened," says Nyamza. "People didn’t bring up issues, they’d say: "Well done, when are you doing it again?"

The piece was staged at KwaMlamli, a shebeen frequently turned into an art space by local art collective Gugulective.

Nyamza said that people were excited about a performance happening in their area. "The neighbours were so supportive, they watched the cars… They were seeing new art, not the African dance they’re used to - which I love, but let’s go beyond our roots," Nyamza explains.

"Kutheni" has since been performed at schools in other disadvantaged areas.

"We understand hate crime broadly - it’s not just about one person saying I am a lesbian and another saying I hate lesbians and killing them or raping them. It’s about gender presentation, it’s about subverting male power in society, it’s about women who don’t need men either for financial support or sexual pleasure, it’s about women who wear clothes that are considered unfeminine or drink in taverns late at night or fight back when attacked."

Asked what she thought was at the root of the violence against LGBTI people, Funda said that perpetrators of hate crimes were themselves scared of something they didn’t know, fuelled by the inability to accept their own sexuality.

Even out and outspoken lesbian say women must be careful. Butch lesbians challenge African patriarchal tradition. "I haven’t been to the bush (reference to Xhosa rite of initiation where young men get circumcised and spend time in the bush), I’m not a man!" Funda concedes.

"I’m very careful. I don’t go to the shebeens. I avoid notorious areas such as Nyanga (neighbouring township). I’m careful about who I sit with, who I talk to," Funda says.

"Townships and rural areas are seen as having higher levels of homophobic hate crimes," Craven explains. "This is where we find that schools show high levels of corrective rape and other abuses of LGBTI learners. Especially in rural areas, beyond the reach of LGBTI organisations and NGOs, the outlook with regards to support for survivors is bleak."

Media's role

Asked about the role of the media in creating awareness about the issue, Muthien thought that the media had helped by publicising the problem and making it more public. "The ways in which it has been reported in the popular media, however, is deeply problematic, either sensationalised or ripped out of context, there’s no exhortation when those cases come to the fore, for communities to take charge, to say that the lesbian who was so brutally murdered, has a mother, might have children, has a father, has brothers, sisters, had neighbours."

"In Khayelitsha you have sections where due to active community policing forums you have lower rates of violence especially gender violence and curative rape. We need to work more consciously at that level seeing that the criminal justice (system) has failed us."

"People hush but I’ve never been threatened," says Funda who has managed to gain the respect of some community members and insists that to do the work she does, she has to live in Gugulethu. Besides offering support, at times shelter to women in distress, she also runs a street soccer club and is affiliated to a range of other LGBTI organisations. "We even hosted Township Pride in 2005 and 2006 right here at the Gugulethu Sports Complex and received an amazing response from the community."

"Mandela said ‘my road is long’. Same here. Nobody knew Madiba. Or Biko. But we fought for them. I’ll fight until the last drop of my blood," Funda states defiantly.

(END/2009)

Department of Un-necessary Censorship.

Apparently, publishing this injures the reputation of the president of the republic. Here is the offending cartoon.

Three executives on the Ugandan bimonthly magazine The Independent were interrogated by police for four hours because they published an allegedly seditious cartoon that was critical of the president, Yoweri Museveni (see it here). They must return for further questioning at the weekend.

Why should this appear here?

Well, I have gotten interested in the issue of ‘rights’. Its easy. You have an excuse to deny one person human rights, yu get the excuse to deny another one. So, as homosexuals seem to have no rights to talk, why not gang up with other people when their right to express themselves is threatened? Maybe they will remember our support in time of need...!

gug