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?

 

gug

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

Backlash in Kenya

 

Kenyan LGBTQ people won the affirmation of an important constitutional right on 24^th Feb 2023. The right to associate.

It is important because of the fact that we Kuchus are a minority.
We are never going to be a majority, that is simple common sense.
It is true that our detractors promise that if we are allowed to be, in any particular way, we are going to somehow spread and make the country collapse. It is nonsense, but powerful nonsense which people believe.

Because they were not allowed to register, Kenyan kuchus couldn’t do these basic 

“Without formal registration the organization’s ability to operate is compromised. It cannot enter into basic contracts such as leasing premises or open bank accounts, and its ability to raise funds is curtailed”

The freedom to associate is also important because we are faced by considerable opposition by majorities in our countries, even in Kenya.

Anti-gay or anti-kuchu groups have some bizarre but powerful arguments that resonate with our unwary country mates.
They used to say we were not real African, foreign. Our visible presence negated that argument.
They claim we are against our own cultures, discounting the historical evidence of the presence of same sex sexualities in our shared African cultures.
They claim we are immoral and against religion; and fight to stop us being welcomed at Church and mosque. Co-religionists of Catholics  and Anglicans off the continent welcome kuchus, highlighting the fact that real debate is occurring within their own religions. But, they deny that of us, their country mates.
They claim we are anti-family, and fight tooth and nail to make sure we (kuchus) cannot form recognised families.
They want us to stay criminalised, and are angry when we meet to try to repeal the criminalisation.

Anti-gay, anti-kuchu forces are a clear and present threat to the pursuit of happiness to any LGBTQ Kenyan and African on the continent. And the only way that we can contend and contest the huge propaganda is to organise, to be able to associate and actually dent the negative messaging.

Just across the border in Uganda, the Uganda Homosexual Death bill is waiting presidential accent. The organising powers behind it are the coalition of religious figures in Uganda. They provided the impetus. They energised a not-reluctant parliament, and passed the bill in record time over a marathon session. Yes, the bill seeks to have kuchus in Uganda killed. And has other draconian provisions.

Queer Kenyans won a great pass, but it is important for you not to forget that the challenges might increase just because your opponents are energised.
Congratulations. You won great breathing space. Use it, and use it well! Because, as you well know, this bill is in your parliament.

Oh, the backlash has begun, of course exarcebated by what was happening across your border.
The struggle continues

 

gug.

Kenya’s ‘Family Protection’ Anti-Homosexuality Bill in Parliament

Kenyan MP George Kaluma journeyed to Uganda for that conference. The conference where Ms Sharon Slater schooled Africans on matters of African sovereignty, and Traditional Family Values. [Doesn’t it seem funny that someone needs to come from Arizona, US to school these poor Africans leaders about matters of family and African sovereignty?]

Pull back a second and wonder…, but, it is a matter of fact that the people who listened to the ‘Family Watch International’ came fired up. They came energised as foot soldiers to come and protect the ‘Family’ and assert our ‘Sovereignty’ which apparently are threatened. The Americans had given a passionate presentation!

Last week, Mr Kaluma went ahead and translated his lessons into action, the practical results the ‘Family Protection Bill’, which was offered up to the consideration of the Kenyan Parliament. The language in the bill is very familiar, but, it goes a step further. It is Family Watch International propaganda, undigested. American right stuff, which shouldn’t be out of place in so called ‘Bathroom bills’ in Florida and other states. Any American following their politics will be surprised at this language appearing in a bill in an African country.

“bill also seeks to ban Comprehensive Sexuality Education (CSE) in pre-primary, primary and secondary schools education programmes. He avers that the content teaches children masturbation, Abortion on demand parental information or consent, pornography, homosexuality, and LGBTQ and that they are trapped in the wrong body.
The bill if passed will uphold the prior rights of parents and guardians to their children’s education.”

That, that was a ‘copy and paste’ operation. That is in the bill that is currently in the Parliament of the Republic of Kenya.

This begs the question, has nobody talked to these willing pawns about what is happening? In Uganda, Dr Sylvia Tamale and Nicolas Opio seemed quite aware of what was happening. Check their comments in the Guardian about the conference on ‘Sovereignty and Family’, Of course, if you have any somewhat positive attitude to kuchus in our countries, then everything that you say is tainted. But still….! Dr Tamale called it a mix of ‘manipulative organisers and gullible participants’, and MP Kaluma proves her point. He took what was ‘taught’ by rote, copied and pasted it into his brain, and from thence into a bill for the National Parliament!

Talk of gullible participants. My own president was convinced that Africa was needed to save the world from homosexuality of course!

MP Kaluma’s ‘Family Protection Bill’ of course has the Family Watch International staple on anti-LGBTQ propaganda and presumed actions.

“It will also criminalize the promotion, recruitment, and funding of homosexuality and LGBTQ behavior.
defines “sex” as the biological state of being male or female observed and assigned at birth.
The MP also wants the state to limit rights to assembly, demonstration, association, expression, belief, privacy, and employment in childcare institutions in respect of homosexual convicts. The bill further prohibits adoption by homosexuals”

Wow, talk of a ‘hate bill’ all dressed up as ‘protection of the family’, for our ‘traditional values’

Most of this stuff is well presented in the Southern Poverty Law report on Family Watch International. No wonder they label FWI a hate group. But, it is more that a hate group. It is a group of proselytizing fanatics determined to bring their vision of America to Africa. They have been suffering series of defeats in the US. In Uganda, Kenya and the rest of Africa, when they dress up issues as ‘Family Values’, ‘Traditional Values’, ‘Sovereignty’ and other catch phrases, our politicians lap it up, not actually having an understanding of what they are hearing. The cultural imperialism is camouflaged, blamed on we, African kuchus, while the real imperialist cozen with our leaders, political and religious.

 

gug

Kenya, Kenyan Kuchus and the Right to Organise

 

It seemed like a small thing, a small issue, nothing to really cry home about, or.., to cause any fracas. A group of Kenyans wanted to form a legally recognised group, to advocate for things that concerned them.
The group proudly wanted to name themselves the Kenyan National Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission (NGLHRC). Very proud name.

The registrar was tipped off by the ‘Gay’ and ‘Lesbian’ words in the name. The registration was denied. Reason given? 

“In 2012, Eric Gitari, the former Executive Director of NGLHRC, challenged the Kenya NGO Coordination Board’s refusal to allow him to apply for registration of an NGO under a name containing the words “gay” or “lesbian””

          At the High Court in 2015, the judges ruled in his favour. The case was appealed, and again the ruling was in his favour at the Court of Appeal in 2019.

A final appeal to the Supreme Court was done.
The contention was that ‘criminalised’ people shouldn’t have a right to associate. And the answer has been emphatic, even from a divided court.

“The Supreme Court of Kenya on Friday, February 24 (2023) ruled that the NGO Board’s decision to bar homosexuals from forming recognised groups is discriminatory”

A ten years journey. Multiple courts, all returning the same singular verdict.

“registration was not about the moral and religious views of Kenyans, since the constitution does not set a limit of rights.
"Every person has the right to freedom of association, which includes the right to form, join or participate in the activities of an association of any kind," the judges ruled, quoting Article 36 of Kenya's constitution.”

Kuddos to the Kuchus of Kenya. That was a fight well fought. It cannot have been easy. Sweat, toil, money. Commitment. Just to affirm a right other Kenyans enjoy as a matter of course. Congratulations, indeed.

It is the response from non-gay Kenyans that was most damning. It is summed up in ‘HOW DARE THEY?!’

“In order to protect Kenyans and respect the Constitution, KCCB members call on the Supreme Court to review its ruling and overturn the decision. “We insist that the Supreme Court of Kenya reviews this ruling,”
says the Kenya Christian Proffesionals’ Council

          The sky is falling down!!!
““Seeks to destroy life”: Catholic Bishops in Kenya “the continuity of humanity is put at risk by homosexual acts.”

          “Kenya's First Lady Rachel Ruto has declared national prayers against homosexuality in the country, declaring the practice as a threat to the institution of the family.”

Politicians were hardly less restrained.

          “The Vice President Rigathi Gachagua has reiterated the East African nation's long-standing decision not to“condone” same-sex relations.”

President Ruto kind of brushed it off; ‘homosexuality and issues around it were, however, not a 'real issue' for ordinary Kenyans as compared to issues of unemployment and hunger.’

The judges nailed the objections on the head. The Kuchus are Kenyans. They have the constitutional right to meet. That right doesn’t depend on the moral and religious objections of other Kenyans. It is as simple as that.

Of course it is not that simple. The struggle continues. Kenyan Kuchus have to actualise their win, and strengthen their work on their own behalf. Because the anti-gay forces are energised.

 

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