Mother Nature’s Natural Diversity of Sexuality

Quite often, those who don’t understand us claim we, Kuchus (or LGBTQ+ people) are ‘un-natural’. So wicked and deformed that ‘even animals don’t do what we do’. That is, have sex between individuals of the same sex.

That accusation can be quite potent, and cutting, in Africa. In Uganda.
In our environment, we are soaked in ignorance about sex and sexuality; a conservative reticence about such intimate issues, a general lack of understanding of sex and sexuality and, complete ignorance and myths about sex other than heterosexual sex (in the missionary position). We kuchus have to educate ourselves to the facts of life, swimming past the prejudice, and ignorance, and frank lies as told in our world.
Because Mother Nature and the Creator, in their purported wisdom and knowledge, don’t know the constraints that we humans hand to them.

Sexual Diversity is natural and part of nature.

I don’t know about ‘making them male and female’. I don’t know about the ‘couples of Noah’s Ark’.
What I know is that the natural world has abundant evidence of Same Sex behaviours in multiple animals and birds. And that there are quite a number of examples in nature of animals switching sexes (true) and even flipping genders as necessary. Without provoking hell fires and brimstone, no.

Humans are naïve and inquisitive.., and of course sex is one of the most interesting things on earth (I confess!). The little that we know as a matter of fact is amazing. Anti-gay, anti-homosexuality activists who dismiss us as being ‘un-natural’, ‘worse than animals’, ‘deranged’ are simply ignorant, a very common human ailment, curable by knowledge.

Nature has galleons of evidence of Same Sex behaviour.

To date, same sex behaviour has been observed and confirmed in more than 1,500 animal species. The more we study animals and observe them in sexual behaviour, the more that is confirmed. Multiple studies. Multiple observers. Over a whole length of time since we humans started observations, from our domesticated animals!

In some species, experts actually note:

 

… 'Within a select number of species, homosexual activity is widespread and occurs at levels that approach or sometimes even surpass heterosexual activity.'

 

And, with regards to how widespread same sex behaviour might be, it is noted;

 

““Some studies claim homosexuality may be a common as being found in up to 95 percent of all animal species””

 

Those observations apply to observed same sex behaviour by animals. And birds. And yes, even insects and others!
It is important to appreciate that Same Sex Behaviour is not simply sex: genital contact to orgasm. It is nuanced and varied. Grooming, genital contact, and frank intercourse occur. But so does social coupling, courtship, forming of long lasting pairs, parenting and nurturing of offspring like eggs, taking care of younglings as a couple. Seems like instead of ‘copying’ what heterosexual couples do, as our detractors say,( laughing at LGBTQ+ families,) we are actually reproducing in human life what occurs spontaneously in nature. Even to the forming of family/clan groups that are safe spaces for the same sex couple, (kudos flamingos!).

 

Sex switching, gender switching.

 

And, shame…, we worry about the rightness and wrongness of human sexual behaviour? Nature, in nature, there is shameless switching and flipping of the sexes. Go worry about your ‘morality’, and the simple changing of the dress covering you (or girls dressing like boys etc)…, nature very conveniently and naturally switches the sex, as and when nature believes it necessary. Now, isn’t that amazing!

 

“For example, clownfish exhibit gender nonconformity. All clownfish are born male , but the dominant males in the school turn female to lay eggs and reproduce.”

 

“Hawkfish, on the other hand, are even more gender nonconforming. They are born female, but once reaching adulthood, they can switch back and forth between male and female depending on the favorability in a given situation.”

 

And those are not the only sex switching animals. Check out this site on Wikipedia. Just follow the references at the bottom of the page.

Why, why that humongous diversity in mother nature?

I don’t know the reasons why. It is, which is simply amazing to the likes of me. But as to why there is such a huge diversity of sexuality in nature, I don’t know, and apparently the experts themselves don’t know.

Some speculate that it is nature being nature. It simply doesn’t have to explain to proud, hubris prone humanity what is. We observe, we perceive and see what is. We accept, or not. Nature continues to be nature. If we haven’t worked out the reasons, that is OUR problem as inquisitive humans. Nature simply is. We speculate this;

 

“There have been many different theories – including not enough females, establishing dominance, or blowing off steam – that may explain why animals might engage in homosexual behavior.
But the researchers believe their observations actually support a whole new theory – that the males who have sex together have an evolutionary advantage over their heterosexual counterparts.”

 

Others speculate that same sex behaviour helps to protect the pack directly or indirectly, protecting the group’s child-bearing members or even an insurance policy for offspring. The pack benefits in passing on genetics to off-spring, rather than a particular individual. Or it is practice for more effective sex leading to child bearing. Or it is to aid in social bonds. The reasons are many, and pure speculation. We don’t know. We just know it is.

Nature is humbling. Truly humbling.

It would be a lie to say I knew all this stuff before; and of course lots of people, kuchu and non-kuchu don’t know it. Maybe in the rarefied airs of universities.., but this is real life, nature out there, breathing and thinking and moving, even as we hit each other on the head. It is humbling.

Utility? For now, I don’t know. But good news to know that I am not weird, nor as ‘un-natural’ as I am famously known to be in Uganda, and in Africa. The mud is muddy, and sticky. Takes good knowledge to challenge and slough it off. And to actually wonder, what else is actually hidden, right out there in plain sight?
I humbly use the final words in the short article that set me off on this investigative journey.

 

“quote from Alex Johnson of Orion Magazine, who wrote about this topic:

“What, then, is natural? All of it. None of it. Instead of using the more-than-human world as justification for or against certain behavior and characteristics, let’s use the more-than-human world as a humbling indication of the capacity and diversity of all life on Earth.””

 

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The Power of A Story

 

Most Kuchus (LGBTQ+ Africans) on the continent relate to this strongly. We have been accused, heavily and with deep passion, of targeting children ‘recruiting children to homosexuality’. That was the Church of Uganda Anglican Archbishop’s 2022 Christmas message. Anti-LGBTQ+ advocates preach of our legendary perversity. Politicians shed crocodile tears. Apparently we have recruitment centres in schools!
Its infuriating. Most kuchus know it is simply untrue. Reputed allies are disturbed by the possibility. I commented on Rev Gideon Byamugisha’s fear here once. Anti-gay activists repeatedly harp on it, a dishonesty I will hold to their feet. They are liars. Many know they are. It is simply impossible to believe the likes of Martin Ssempa don’t know that most kuchus are not paedophiles. That he harps on it is a simple sign of his capacity at lying. Oh, I once blogged about Ssempa and his lies…, He has mastered the Art of the Big Lie. And if that demonises kuchus, that is well and good. Yes, I know.., he is a Pentecostal Pastor.

Back to the power of a story, or anecdote.

As opposed to a statistic, a story is something that an audience hears, understands and relates to. Real people, in real circumstances, doing real things, good or bad. A story communicates very well, to a wide audience.

I remember watching tv during the early days of CORVID-19; A press conference, President Trump and Dr Fauci.
The President was advocating for some weird treatment; chloroquine, or bleach as a cure. And Fauci stands up, quite bravely, contradicting His Excellency. What His Excellency had stated was not true: He had told a story, an anecdote, of a treatment curing corvid. But that was a story of one person, one patient, one individual. "n is equal to one”, said Fauci, puzzling us all.
You don’t make decisions from an anecdote; they might help you understand what is happening, but you need a bigger and better sample size of thousands or millions, instead of one.

What does that have to do with kuchus and LGBTQ+ individuals and ‘recruiting’ of children in Africa, what we are blamed for?
Very simple. The anti-gay people are picking and choosing anecdotal information, pointing to show what the ‘dreaded homosexuals’ are; and coming for your children.

Remember Ssempa in 2012-14 showing gay porn in church and other public spaces. Gross, XXX pics and movies of extreme sex; that that’s how we (‘homosexuals’) had sex! Which kuchu would dare contradict the ‘man of god’? He was the expert, the Anti-Gay Saint of Uganda, expert on homosexual sex.

The press in Uganda and Africa does the same. Stories on ‘homosexuality’ or ‘sodomy’ sell papers. The more lurid, sensational (and fabricated, pushed by anti-gay activists), the better. A straight line to silent, bewildered kuchus.

Here is one such story.
Of ‘defilement’ Ugandanese term for sex with an under-age person. A child (under 18, Uganda). The child is the 'victim’.
It is not a pretty story. A 19 year old man allegedly had penetrative anal sex of a 2 year old male child; neighbour’s child. The lurid details.

Almost as an afterthought, the following statement ends the report.

~~~

~~~

‘Defilement’ cases in Uganda are almost exclusively of male perpetrators. That report of is 12,780 cases of heterosexual ‘defilement’, with the rest being of male victims, and thus presumed ‘homosexual defilement’. And this is from the Police Annual Crime report for the calendar period 2022.

From that report springs out the factoid, small but significant. Most of the reported cases of sex with under-aged, children, were heterosexual in nature.
My calculator of those figures shows that heterosexual ‘defilement’ cases of 2022 reported by Uganda Police in their annual report were actually 98% of the total. The presumed ‘homosexual defilement’ cases were 2% of the total number of reported cases of defilement.

So, the lurid story in that article ’19 year old detained over sodomy’ represents 2% of cases of defilement occurring in Uganda over a calendar year.

This article, useful in demonising ‘homosexuals’ in Uganda, represented 2% of cases.
Instead of a wave of ‘homosexual recruitment of your children’, what is happening is in fact ‘heterosexual recruitment’ of the said children.

That is the power of the ‘anecdote’ in the minds of the masses.
The story can be cherry picked, not representative of reality on the ground, can be picked to mask the real story, hiding what should be obvious in plain sight and might be a distraction. That is what happened with Fauci and Trump above. That is  what is happening in Uganda.

It is sad, on very many levels.

We are an insignificant, demonised and stigmatised minority. Prejudice by the majority is a heavy blanket muting us. Even our cries of ‘that’s a lie’ are not heard.
The politicians say we are the ones lying. The pastors and sheikhs and bishops all say we are the ones lying. We don’t even have a place and space to say we are not lying. That would be ‘Promotion of Homosexuality’.

But, the facts and figures don’t lie.
We are accused of ‘homosexual recruitment’ of Ugandan children. In actual fact, ‘heterosexual recruitment’ of Ugandan children is occurring. Instead of what is happening in 98% of cases being discussed and solutions sought, anecdotes from 2% of case reports are blown up and out of proportion, and used to bay for our blood, in the literal sense.
Sleight of hand, yes. Quite effective, true. Doesn’t solve the problem; only masks the issues and scapegoats a minority. Yeah; Ugandan, and African style.

 

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Kuchus and HIV in Africa; The Failure of Africa’s Medics & Health Care Workers (2)

 

We esteem our doctors, medical and other health care workers tremendously in Africa. We should. In a continent with a dire lack of education, they are our educated elite. They also struggle to work under some pretty tough conditions, because of a lack of funds, lack of necessary instruments of care, and lack of political and other support.

With knowledge comes power, socially.

Medicine and the health sciences have a very rich background of study of my sexuality, because we are different from the common heterosexuality. It is not a new thing.
 I mean, we Kuchus (LGBTQ+) human beings, have been under study since life immemorial. We are a uniquely different part of humanity that persists in life to the contrary of expectations.

So, why are our African medical and health care professionals so clueless with regards to sexuality and other sexualities?
The excuse that it is not taught in African medical schools is not a good one. This is the internet age.
But our doctors have failed to explain issues. Yeah, Museveni asked twice, but I don’t think he wants a real answer… But his questions reflect a lot of the ignorance in Uganda. He is not wrong to ask our in-house docs. Even while he doesn’t listen.

Even lay people can educate themselves about a subject as interesting as homosexuality, and of course human sexuality.

The words of a Seniour psychologist and professor in Ghana pulled me down this line of reflection. I posted on it: - Kuchu Mental Health in Africa; The Failure of Africa’s Medics & Health Care Workers (1)

But, there is an even more immediate and urgent example of medics in Africa failing Kuchus as individuals and our nations collectively  because they are prejudiced on homosexuality. The case of HIV/AIDS.

When the Anti-Homosexuality Bill 2023 was signed into law by the President of Uganda, UNAIDS/PEPFAR/Global Fund released a cautionary statement on the possible impact of the law.

 

“.., are deeply concerned about the harmful impact of the Ugandan Anti- Homosexuality Act 2023 on the health of its citizens and its impact on the AIDS response that has been so successful up to now.”

--

“Progress has been made thanks to the implementation of large-scale prevention, diagnosis, treatment and care programs, all provided on the principle of access to health care for all who need it, without stigma or discrimination. This approach has saved lives. The strong health systems built to support the AIDS response serve the entire population of Uganda.”

--

“Uganda’s progress on its HIV response is now in grave jeopardy. The Anti-Homosexuality Act 2023 will obstruct health education and the outreach that can help end AIDS as a public health threat.”

 

The resulting media storm was quite embarrassing. Shouts of ‘imperialism’, ‘colonialism,’ ‘promotion of homosexuality’, ‘blackmail’.
Winnie Byanyima, a Ugandan our country woman, currently Director General of UNAIDS was vilified and shamed in the papers and the people of her old constituency in Mbarara.

And why blame Uganda’s medics?

The issue was HIV/AIDS. Ugandan trained medical workers have a good grasp of HIV/AIDS. When UNAIDS, literally the World’s Most Important Specialist Doctor on HIV/AIDS comes out with such a statement, It was reasonable to expect Uganda’s HIV specialists to explain why UNAIDS was concerned. What was wrong? Why was there a problem? Why would PEPFAR, UNAIDS and Global Fund gang up on poor, homophobic Uganda?

And where were Uganda’s specialists to explain the problem?

They did. Medics say no to UN, US claims on gay Aids was the title headline in the Monitor.
The text revealed tremendous ignorance and our under current of homophobia. Of course these, our Ugandan medics, were much more believable than UNAIDS, even headed by Winnie Byanyima.

 

says Dr Daniel Kyabayinze, the head of public health affairs at the Ministry of Health

““Americans are trying to frame it as if we are against certain groups. I don’t know why they are attaching the Anti-homosexuality Act to the Ministry of Health. It has nothing to do with health,””

 

Sorry Dr Daniel Kyabayinze for calling you out, but that statement is really…, out there ignorant. That the Head of Public Health Affairs at the Ministry of Health of Uganda can actually state that legislation that criminalises Kuchus (LGBTQ+ individuals) has nothing to do with health and HIV/AIDS programming reveals considerable ignorance, and prejudice.
Blaming the Americans for our ignorance is not okay. HIV/AIDS has been about LGBTQ+ individuals and communities for the last 40 years of the pandemic. Why don’t you know it?

In Dr Kyabayinze’s defence, not many medics in Africa equate HIV/AIDS to homosexual sex. Heterosexual sex, yes. But Dr Kyabayinze is the Head of Public Health Affairs of the Ministry of Health. He is not ‘all doctors’.

If the Anti-Homosexuality Act 2023 doesn’t concern the Ministry of Health, why is it a long time policy of UNAIDS to strongly advocate for decriminalisation (removal of laws that criminalise homosexuals)?
This is a long standing policy of UNAIDS, the ‘Americans’ are not to blame...

As Head of Public Health in the Ministry of Health, Dr Kyabayinze should have been explaining to the Parliament of Uganda and the President, this long standing HIV prevention measure, and why it is important.

Another influential medic, and person living with HIV, also couldn’t help but reveal his ignorance. And his bias.

 

Dr Stephen Watiti, a person living with HIV/Aids (PLHIV), and chairman of the National Forum of People Living with HIV/Aids
““I know some of them who have HIV. [But] the majority of those people are not even HIV positive. Many LGBTQ members also get their medicines from abroad. The majority of those who are speaking here don’t even have HIV,””

 

The chairman of the National Forum of PLHIV should be aware of the actual issues. To him the problem was the politics, not the science. As a heterosexual person living with HIV, he doesnt understand. He has no understanding of the DOUBLE STIGMA of HIV and homosexuality.
Rev. Gideon Byamugisha also showed this lack of understanding even though he is also a PLWHIV. It is a reality of our kuchu lives.

And Dr Watiti, according to the statistics, I most kuchus living with HIV are actually Ugandans living in Uganda.

It was a crucial point in time.
At that time, the hype making the rounds was all about the big and bad and dirty, extremely evil Americans who were daring to caution that there was a problem with the very beautiful and lovely Anti-Homosexuality Act, 2023.
In these cringe worth moments, when fellow Ugandans are puffing out their chests and loudly shouting how tough they are in standing up to ‘the Americans’, proof of their holy aims…,

And, our doctors, who should be in the know, failed us. Spectacularly.

 

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Promoting Homosexuality: Uganda’s Anti-Homosexuality Act, 2023 text;

     I came across an article, questioning tongue in cheek whether Pope Francis would be guilty of ‘Promotion of Homosexuality’ in Uganda.

Knowing how broadly Uganda’s Anti-Homosexuality Act 2023 is written, it made sense. Would Pope Francis’ embrace of kuchus (LGBTQ+) individuals be ‘promotion of homosexuality’?

In the context of Africa and homosexuality, the question is not theoretical. Archbishop Welby of the Church of England was accused by the GAFCON Primate of

 

“becoming a spokesperson and advocate for LGBTQIA+ rights..”

 

Archbishop Welby’s apparent crime was writing this letter to the Archbishop of the Church of Uganda. It reminds all that Anglicans are supposed to be committed to ‘pastoral care’ of the homosexuals and non-criminalisation of homosexuality.
Archbishop Welby was emphatically told to ‘repent’; apparently of the crime of LGBTQIA advocacy. From my reading of the text of the Anti-Homosexuality Act, 2023 (below), for being a ‘spokesperson and advocate’ for LGBTQIA+ rights, Archbishop Welby is ‘promotion of homosexuality’ in Uganda.

As for Pope Francis, lets examine the text before we condemn or exonerate the old gentleman.

 

11.   Promotion of homosexuality

(1)    A Person who promotes homosexuality commits an offence and is liable, on conviction, to imprisonment for a period not exceeding twenty years.

(2)    A person promotes homosexuality where the person—

(b)    knowingly advertises, publishes, prints, broadcasts, distributes or causes the advertisement, publication, broadcasting or distribution  by any means, including the use of a computer, information system or the internet, of any material promoting or encouraging homosexuality or the commission of an offence under this Act;

 

(The blog is Promotion of homosexuality. Of course!)

 

(c)    provides financial support, whether in kind or cash, to facilitate activities that encourage homosexuality or the observance or normalisation of conduct prohibited under this Act;

 

(Funding for Kuchu (LGBTQ+) organisations is prohibited. Funders (finance, in kind) are targeted here. Should also mean UNAIDS and PEPFAR and Global Fund…, they support Kuchu HIV clinics…!)

 

(d)    knowingly leases or subleases, uses or allows another person to use any house, building or establishment for the purpose of undertaking activities that encourage homosexualities or any other offence under this Act

 

(Criminalising our landlords is a low blow indeed)

 

(e)     operates an organisation which promotes or encourages homosexuality or the observance or normalisation of conduct prohibited under this Act.

 

Yes. That takes care of LGBTQ+ organisations in Uganda.

[What about our kuchu clinics for HIV/AIDS?
No wonder the American ambassador was adamant to get the President’s word. The Americans refused to announce grants until the Ambassador met the President who then publically announced the HIV programming was not going to be targeted. It was only then that they released funds.
I don’t think USAID is going to be accused of ‘promotion’ … They are guilty ‘promotion of homosexuality’, according to the letter of the law. But, oh well. Good they did step in when they did.]

Continuing on Pope Francis’ guilt or not- from the text of the law above, Pope Francis is guilty…
Not the Catholic Church in Uganda. They are not guilty of ‘normalisation of conduct’. But Pope Francis is very guilty of ‘normalisation of homosexuality’. I can even cite page and verse. I would add the Catholic Catechism, but it is very apparent from the Catholic Fathers’ silence that the document gives a lot of leeway for action. They are not guilty of ‘promoting homosexuality.
Pope Francis is Guilty of ‘Promotion of Homosexuality’ in Uganda. Just like the Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby.

A broad, comprehensive attack on the Kuchu, (LGBTQ+) in Uganda.
The individual Kuchu,  our organisations, our allies are under attack, directly and indirectly. Even our landlords are targeted. How the poor landlords should be liable for our activities is beyond imagination…, but that would be in a sane and rational world. Not Uganda

 And the sentences?

 

11.   Promotion of homosexuality

(3)    Where an offence prescribed under this section is committed by a legal entity, the court may—

(a)    impose a fine not exceeding fifty thousand currency points for breach of any of the provisions of this section;

(b)    suspend the licence of the entity for a period of ten years; or

(c)    cancel the licence granted to the entity.

 

The sentences are prison (custodial, up to 20 years, (11; (1) above); fines, and suspension of operating licences and de-registration of offending organisations.

 

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Lynching the suspected Kuchu in Africa, How real is the risk?

 

This is a post that I should have written long ago. But I am reluctant to do it. Because I am an African, a Ugandan, and I am a kuchu living in Uganda.
It is true. I as a kuchu in Uganda, and in Africa, I can be killed, by a mob of enraged Ugandans and Africans, if and because I am suspected to be kuchu.

There. I have written the cursed words.

Why the reluctance?
I am a human being. I am conflicted, knowing the potential for fatal violence of my lived reality, even as I block it out. Of course I block it. I am a human being, and that is how we treat unpleasant realities. Denial.
It works. But it also means that I am reluctant to pen an article that will strip away my blinders, make me look at the nakedness of danger I flaunt every single day.

Yeah, I am at risk of being killed by a mob of people who come to know and suspect that I am kuchu. An LGBTQ individual.
Plain fact.

So, why write the post now?

Started with a twitter post. Someone was killed in Kakuma refugee settlement in Kenya.
Kakuma is known amongst kuchus in Uganda. If you dare take the risk of getting out of Uganda, seeking asylum on the strength of persecution for our sexuality,  that is where you will end up. But, it is also a violent place. One report quotes:

 

“the "extreme discrimination and violence" faced by "several hundred" LGBTQ+ people living in the camp, which hosts 200,000 refugees and asylum seekers in north western Kenya.
They find themselves victims of "hate crimes, acts of violence, including rape, and other serious human rights abuses",”

 

One might argue that those are special circumstances. Displaced people in a camp. I am a kuchu living in my community, in my village and hood, so to say. Am I at risk?
Unfortunately the answer is yes.

Violence targeted at people’s perceived sexuality is a world wide phenomenon. Widespread and quite severe, in South Africa, and Brazil. In much of Africa, it is the vigilante attack by a mob of mobilized citizenry that is the danger hanging over our coming out.
Here is a reminder and note from the recent debate of an anti-homosexuality bill in the Parliament of Ghana (July 2023). The person quoted was on a television broadcast.

 

“"I don't accept that when someone is caught in the act, they should be beaten to death. No! We are against their acts but it doesn't mean they are not humans," he said”

Dr. Benjamin Otchere Ankrah has sounded caution to Ghanaians not to inflict bodily harm on any person suspected of or caught in the act of homosexuality. According to him, though he strongly supports the anti-gay bill before Parliament, he however cautions the citizenry not to take matters into their own hands.”

 

That is a very real possibility for an Kuchu in Africa to consider. And be aware. And move circumspectly.
(Never mind the condescension in that opinion. Benjamin Otchere Ankrah above doesn’t want us kuchus ‘bodily harmed’, but strongly supports the bill. Parse the difference…, he is a very upright and moral human being, whose love for sinners like us is..!)

The updated US travel advisory alluded to the risk of vigilante violance.
Thing is, however incensed Ugandans might feel that the US gave the advisory in revenge for them passing the Anti-Homosexuality Act 2023, the concerns of the US state department are specific and pretty spot on. The updated travel advisory states:

 

“LGBTQI+ persons, and those perceived to be LGBTQI+, … could face harassment or attacks by vigilantes.””

 

Remember the lesbian couple in Jinja, arrested in March 2023 and in prison over the Easter period? A mob of parents in fear of the contagion of homosexuality went to the school where one of them was teaching. They would have lynched her, if she wasn’t in custody at that particular point.

True, the judge in her case then denied her bail for some time, reasoning to protect her from her community… I think that was bullshit. The judge just wanted the ‘suspected homosexuals’ in jail…, even without being convicted. And indeed, they both got bail.
We are kuchus. We know how to negotiate our safety. We have several years’ practical experience doing exactly that. Not perfectly, but believe me, we would rather risk death by mob outside prison than the mercies of the state’s guests, thank you very much.

A more typical example was this report in another part of the country; Kamuli, Uganda. The report of the article was 13^th March 2023

 

“Rogers Wabuya and Derrick Wamwangu, both residents of Bukiabi sub-county were rounded up by residents from a lodge in Bumbo town council on Saturday.

Fred Timbwa, an eyewitness, says that residents stormed the guest house following a tip-off from one of the workers. Mathew Nabiswa, a paternal uncle to Wamwangu, says that the residents stormed the guest house armed with machetes, axes, stones, bricks, and sticks to lynch the duo but were saved by the Bumbo town council LC III chairperson, Joseph Kamuli.”

 

Take good note of those few very relevant details. A couple went to a hotel, presumably seeking some privacy to have sex. Consensual sex. A worker at the hotel noted them. The worker then went out of their way to tip off others. A mob mobilised. They stormed the ‘guest house’, armed with ‘machetes, axes, stones, bricks and sticks’
From the eye witness account, it was luck that there was a noted leader who prevented a mob killing at that particular moment in time. Most likely they were beaten.

Sadly, that is the reality of what can happen to any of us kuchus in Africa. It was the same scenario that that commentator in Ghana was thinking about in the quote above.

Two countries, miles and miles apart; one in East Africa, the other in West Africa. And the same kind of ‘spontaneous violence’ to lynch the suspected homosexual is a risk that is understood as part of what is possible.

Why is this so? Why would this be so?

 

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