The (Much Maligned) ‘Americans’

 

Ask someone on the streets of Kampala about the premier foreign supporters of homosexuality and the most probable answer will be ‘the Americans’.

Who are these dastardly ‘Americans’?
That answer has lots of nuances which a poor Ugandan will most likely not even understand. They just know that the name of ‘the enemy’ is ‘the Americans’; -that was no slip of the tongue from the doctor.
And, it is not only in Uganda. In Tanzania, Zambia, Ghana, Zimbabwe, it is ‘the Americans’ who are reportedly eager to press the poor African to embrace homosexuality.
It bothers me, a lot. . We are invisible! We kuchus, we the African LGBTQ+ individuals,  are not even counted as ‘promoting homosexuality’, except as agents of ‘The Americans’.  We are just the proximal cancer, the ‘cancer’ that is already here and has to be removed…, tut tut tut!

The question is also nuanced, because it is Americans who have come to Africa and told us that ‘the Americans’ are pushing a ‘homosexual agenda’.
Oh yes, the American Far Right is also American! (Check out the reporting on one such conference in Uganda)

For some reason, maybe because they come in with Bibles and talk about ‘African Sovereignty’ and talk about ‘the Americans’, we simply don’t equate those Americans with ‘the Americans’. Quite confusing…

The dastardly, bad and evil ‘Americans’ supposedly control the world, the UN system, and promote homosexuality. They are apparently characterised by President Biden and Vice-President Kamara Harris. The current administration of course.
So, who are the others, the ‘good Americans’, intent on telling us poor, ignorant Africans about the dangers from the ‘bad Americans?’

Trying to figure out the ins and outs of America’s Cultural Wars as exported to Africa…,
I am really laughing and crying and kind of feeling deeply ashamed. We are literally pawns in a forever war. We are a battle on the side, our leaders colluding in something they don’t understand at all, but are passionate and very, very willing front line warriors.

No, I am not, and I will not be apologising to my people.

I am one individual, a very poor person. I don’t have the facilities of the State. I just have an internet connection, and I read what is publicly available on the internet.
Why shouldn’t the President of the Republic of Uganda have good intelligence of what is happening in his backyard? Why doesn’t he know of what is happening with his allies the US government? Why should President Museveni be a pawn in a game that he should be very, very aware that it has been ongoing for years?

The Presidency, the State of Uganda is not one person. It is a pool of the intelligence of the nation, of all those working there.
And then of course there is the Parliament of Uganda. The MPs; Asumani Basalirwa and the others, the Speaker of the Parliament of Uganda are all willing dupes and pawns, frontline soldiers in this war. The American Cultural Wars.

It is quite disturbing to realise that even if the State in Uganda is apparently clueless, the Church of Uganda, Anglican and its Archbishop (Stephen Kaziimba), is actually quite clued in. Archbishop Kaziimba is playing on the world stage, and he knows it. So are the very, very silent Catholic Bishops. They know, and have picked a side. How can the State of Uganda claim and act ignorance?

Why does the State and other public actors like Parliament in Uganda seem to be personally unaware of the body politic of the whole wide world?
Why are they playing into the stereotype of the poor, ‘put-upon-on’, ignorant African? This is not ‘rocket science’. This is knowledge of the world.
Asuumani Basalirwa claimed to the BBC that he didn’t know because he was a Moslem, and the missionaries are Christians. Lies, on top of the bullshit. He should be even more ashamed because he is playing pawn for ‘Christian Fundamentalists’, from his point of view.

Truly, truly, Uganda is a Village.
It doesn’t help that Ghana is also acting clueless, Ugandan style. And of course so are the other nations of Africa. Believing that ‘some Americans’ come to Africa to teach us about our own ‘Sovereignty’ to fight their own government, simply for the good of old Africa.

 

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Ghana, Kenya, Uganda: With love from America ( : the Far Right)

We, African Kuchus (LGBTQ+) have the dubious honour of being constantly termed not only un-African because of our sexuality, but also some kind of super agents for the nefarious west intent on corrupting pure African morals. They (the bad, bad West), are the ones that supposedly fund our ‘recruitment’ and ‘promotion of homosexuality’.

Now, I don’t have any shame embracing, with great pleasure and passion, my Kuchu (LGBTQ+) brethren in the west. They understand me, much better than my puttated African brothers and sisters who are currently celebrating and rejoicing how they can legally put me in prison for life, and also to death.
I must admit not yet having seen the monies for ‘recruitment’, I must need a harem.., (of course I do. The anti-gay people say I do.)  and when I get that money that the anti-gay forces tell me should be on the way, I will set up my harem of nubile men aplenty.

But, besides accusing me and my kuchu brethren of being agents of the west, it is these very people who are lapping, nice lapdogs, the ideologies of the American Far Right. They are bringing the American cultural wars to Uganda, and Kenya, and Ghana…, and the proof is actually blinding.

In Ghana, after the second reading of their anti-homosexuality bill, an anti-gay member of parliament, Amidu Chinnia Issahaku (MP for Sissala East), had an oped published, on the LGBTQ+ Menace threatening God’s Holy Ghana. Here is an extract

After trying to convince why he has the support of (colonial) religions, he asserts-

 

“LOOMING DANGERS:

We have witnessed how Western countries, particularly the USA, champion LGBTQ+ rights and move beyond boundaries, imposing dehumanizing practices on their citizens. These countries have started providing gender-affirming care for minors, allowing them to change their gender without parental consent. These practices in Western countries have diminished the positive influence parents have on their children. Gender-affirming care for minors can be considered child abuse and child sexual mutilation.”

 

Looming danger indeed. I am sure any American would identify with that language currently inflaming politics in the US, the 2024 election cycle.

Matter of fact, in Africa, most of my transgendered (ADULT) friends have no access to drugs. No, they don’t.
In Uganda, even our HIV meds are paid for by those big bad Americans, gods bless them mightily, and we have 1.2 million Ugandans on the life-saving medicines. I doubt the challenges differ in Ghana…, ‘Gender affirming care for minors’? Oh gracious goodness, what a fear to wave and scare the ignorant of!

But, that ‘copy and paste’ direct from the Far Right talking points of the American Cultural Wars was part of the persuasive arguments from an African, a Ghanaian legislator.

Amidu Chinnia Issahaku   continues…, apparently speaking from the heart, of clear and present dangers, that are stalking and soon snaring, good old Ghana and the Ghanaians.

 

Through the LGBTQ+ agenda, the nuclear family's role in promoting positive education is undermined. The distinct differences between men and women are ignored, and society is forced to recognize non-existing genders. It is no longer limited to men and women or boys and girls; children in these Western pro-LGBTQ+ societies are made to believe that they could be trapped in the wrong body, resulting in body mutilation to achieve their "proper" gender.”

 

Again ‘copy and paste’ with no analysis, no further input, from the American Far Right.

Clearly I would want access to this kind of education and care for my transgendered kuchu brothers and sisters. It simply doesn’t exist. We lack the very basics of education in sexuality. Drugs for transgendered individuals? Not in much of Africa (oh yes, South Africa), but not in much of the rest of Africa.

This African leader, suckling on the breast of the American Far Right, came up with lots of ideological ‘points’, and undigested, reproduces them to justify his support for the criminalisation of LGBTQ+ Africans, Ghanaians.

And, I bet you, he doesn’t see the irony of what he is doing.
I have the excuse that I am actually a Kuchu, an LGBTQ+ African.., for embracing my Kuchu brothers and sisters outside Africa.
What excuse would this good Ghanaian, African legislator have for parroting, and believing American Far Right talking points, over and above the American citizens themselves? Who said colonialism ended years ago? Neo-colonialism, indeed.

Indeed, eyes, but they don’t see.

Oh, the phenomenon is not uniquely Ghanaian. FWI has been proselytising across Africa.

Ugandan legislators were hobnobbing and sharing with American Far Right Activists from the group Family Watch International as the Anti-Homosexuality Bill 2023 was passed.

And, the Kenyan legislator, Peter Kaluma, empowered by the same Americans, was quick to introduce another bill in the Parliament of Kenya, with similar language… again, to the American Far Right’s talking points. Please follow that link. It is quite educative. And sad.

This would be very funny, if it was not deadly serious.
African legislators, taking American Far Right talking points and crafting bills in their national parliaments that are a direct evolution, regurgitated from the US Far Right. The very country that they accuse of ‘interfering’ with their ‘sovereignty’, …

Sigh…,

I am an African. And yes, the irony and shame is palpable.

But, that is what it is. Cry, beloved Continent.

 

gug

America's Cultural Wars: Frontline Africa

 

America’s Cultural Wars.

Poor gay Ugandans, we are victims, collateral damage, in an ideological war that we know very little about. That war explains quite a bit of the homophobia current in the country Uganda, and on the continent, Africa.

American Cultural Wars.
I don’t remember when I first heard the term. I am no expert on what precisely it means, and never having lived on that continent, I can only surmise from being a conspicuous consumer of information.

I know on one side are proselytizing ideologues. The ideas that concern them above everything else are: being anti-abortion, being anti-LGBTQ+, and anti-contraception. Am probably missing other identifying characteristics. Outside the US, their watch words are ‘traditional’, ‘family’, ‘sovereignty’, possibly more.

On the other, so called progressives; asserting a woman’s right to decisions about her body, and affirmation for LGBTQ+ individuals. Anything else?

Major battleground is America. But, the world is huge. And the whole world is rich and ripe for ideologues of any shape and shade.

The African Frontline, of the American cultural wars.
An apt, very apt summary of what is apparent.
In the US, Kuchus are kuchus, as they have been world over, present, visibly so; not only tolerated but embraced. Apparently one major political party embraces them more than the other, but both major political parties do.
Whatever Americans complain about their education system, it has produced a populace which can examine and fleck off haters. Some issues like who your neighbour beds in his house are hardly world shaking, even when a ‘missionary’ on your doorstep tries to prove to you otherwise.

Africa has a huge, ballooning population. A very young, uneducated population, in the throes of cultural change, flowing off the continent in waves. But, there are a lot of Africans. And the population growth is exponential. [Odd, but I believe the Cultural warriors on the right, though anti-contraception, are also most likely anti-immigration...!!]
Largely uneducated, responsive to a brand of Christianity that we call ‘balokole’ in Uganda; Pentecostalism- fundamentalist, basic, relying on charismatic leaders of all shades.

Uganda, and Africa in general is experiencing a re-emergence of this fundamentalism in religion.
And, our preachers have been making regular trips to America. They speak in quasi ‘American South’ accents, the word ‘god’ not spoken with the usual Ugandan –oo- sound, but the American South –aaa- sound, on our TVs.
They go to America to fundraise, and bring in the cash in the mighty dollars, that our poorest find so alluring.

Battle ground Uganda.
The Anti-Homosexuality bill was passed in parliament. It was passed on 21^st March 2023. Within seven days, the American Cultural warriors had organised a party to celebrate. Invited people from all over Africa; members of parliament-  because on the African frontline, Uganda is just one battle field.
Yeah, they needed to counter the thinking that the war is won. And they needed the President to be convinced, to sign the law, of course. They did that, apparently, though it was foregone conclusion. That is when he called on Africa to ‘savethe world from homosexuality’. They were very convincing, the ‘Family Watch International’ Their leader, Ms Sharon Slater even met with the Uganda’s First Lady, and Mrs Museveni tweeted about it, sounding pleased! 

Next battle ground-
The rest of Africa; Ghana has such a bill in its parliament. Not seen as ‘urgent’ as the Ugandan one, but, not a bad idea to urge them on. US Vice President Kamara Harris has been in Africa, so, why not send out a word to those countries that she visited, to shore up opposition a little bit? And it is always a good thing to re-empasize the message. One of the Kenyan MPs who attended the meeting in Uganda has already filed a bill, in Kenya’s parliament. 

 

In Tanzania, NGOs are being accused of ‘promoting homosexuality’ in a ‘spontaneous report detailing a ‘Tanzania without homosexuality’. Ms Slater must be very pleased, with her trip to darkest Africa. From America with love indeed!!

The message?
Abortion is not such a good message in Africa. It is illegal on most of the continent. Old colonial laws. Concern is not that much. But, sometimes American messaging slips out. And the Catholic church is responsive on that topic.
Homosexuality resonates. Homosexuality is ‘un-African’, it is a matter of ‘African Culture’, a matter of preserving ‘traditional family’. Homosexuality destroys ‘the family’.

Most resonant;
Homosexuals are ‘recruiting’. They are recruiting your children. It is a clear and present danger, and you have to act now.

And, a kick back to ‘home, US’ politics, since the current federal government is not of their party persuasion; the US government is ‘promoting homosexuality’ in the guise of human rights. As we want to kill off our homosexuals, they are ‘blackmailing’, and assaulting ‘African sovereignty’. Kamala Harris’ trip was taken as proof [ahem, nothing to do with countering China and Russia!]

Frankly, we could do without that kind of love. But, Frontline Africa in the American Cultural Wars is moving, at quite a pace.

 

gug