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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The Kuchu’s Right to Faith and Belief (1)

We Africans are a spiritual people.
The reasons for that might be myriad, and frankly un-understandable to me as an individual, but, it is an enduring fact of social existence on the continent. Growing up and living here, one cant help but be impressed at the depth and breadth of spirituality and beliefs.
Kuchus, (LGBTQ+) Africans, are also deeply spiritual people, like other Africans.
That is also matter of fact. These are our people, we cannot reject our people, even when the leaders disdain and attack us. We are, for all our putative crimes, we are African. With the blessings and curses that come with that identity.

Most, Africans, in Africa, strongly and vigorously prescribe to an inalienable right to faith, belief and religions, as a strongly held convictions.
An apparent paradox to that is that many of my fellow Africans would seek to deny the Kuchu, the (LGBTQ+ African) the right to belief, on account of their sexuality. Indeed, many fellow Africans fervently seek to convert the Kuchu to their own interpretation of faiths and scriptures.

I am African. I reverently and fully embrace my identity as African. And yes, poke my finger in the metaphorical eye of any who would seek to deny my identity as African.

My inalienable right to faith and belief I also embrace.
Oh yes, I do. I do not believe. And, I strongly believe that as strong as your right to believe what you believe is, that is as strong as my right not to believe in what I don’t believe in.
Oh and yeah, it started off being cheeky…, ended up…, well, an earned scepticism.

Quite a number of fellow Africans have interpreted my lack of a confirmed faith as a result of my sexual orientation. That is not accurate. The vast majority of kuchus that I know are people of faith. They believe, and are members of the major faiths and religions.
And, Kuchu believers have a right to faith, as inalienable as that of any other African’s.

Logical, isn’t it?
Yet I have sat across a table from and listened in wonder as prominent ‘believers’ sought to impress on me how faithless it was to be kuchu. That because I am kuchu, that definition totally defines my spirituality as godless, demon possessed, anti-god, anti-morality, anti-humanity. Anti-gay rhetoric in Uganda, and quite a bit of Africa denies our humanity, and much of the semblance of what, in our African eyes, marks a human being. Check out this, a report on the debate on an anti-homosexuality bill in the parliament of Ghana on 5^th of July.

 

“Minister ..,Dan Botwe, who described as “madness” the activities of lesbians, gays, bi-sexuals, and transgender (LGBT) humans.. a Satanic force that should not be allowed to fester.., For him, “eternal vigilance” should be exercised by the country”

 

It is the rhetoric of dehumanisation, embraced by the prominent influencers, and firmly believed by leaders, political, religious and spiritual in a lot of Africa.
We inhale all that toxicity, and we kuchus also tend to believe it, till we stand up and assert that, hell on earth, we are still demonstrably human, and our spirituality, an inherent part of our humanity, cannot be taken away from us. Simply because we are as human as those who are throwing the stones, the anti-gay.

After the debate on the anti-homosexuality bill in the Ghanaian parliament this month, it was time for Ghanaian politicians to go all out and preach and articulate their hate of the Ghanaian Kuchu.
Hey, I am a Ugandan. The cycles of hate are becoming quite predictable, in Uganda and outside.
Hon. Amidu Chinnia Issahaku (MP for Sissala East) of Ghana is apparently cashing in. He was hitting the airwaves, and took the time to pen titled Ghanaian Culture and the Gay Menace. Ironically regurgitating the talking points of the American Far Right in American Cultural Wars. The originality was…, distinct, is the word.

But, Hon Issahaku first had to impress on his Ghanaian audience how much against scriptures the kuchu is.
He quotes Christian scripture, and Islamic scripture. He hints that African religion, pre-colonial, was anti-homosexual (that assertion is suspect to say the least)
Preaching to the converts, as most anti-gay activists in Africa do, and love to do. The aim is to shower up their credentials as upright and moral human beings, prominent members of society.

A distinct fact they ignore, as Amidu Chinnia Issahaku did ignore, is that Kuchu (LGBTQ+) Ghanaians exist.
And, they believe. They are human beings, and have a spirituality that is undeniable as human beings. And, of course they have come to a reconciliation of their faiths and beliefs, and their sexualities.

Amidu Chinnia Issahaku believes that because he interpretes religion as unwelcoming to Kuchu Ghanaians, that there are none that welcome them. Thankfully, we do have alternative communities that welcome us. And, the Rt Honourable member would be quite flabbergasted that the reigning Pontiff of the Catholic Church actually welcomes us. And there are quite a number of alternates to his apocalyptic vision of our evilness.

Of course, there are some like me…, ahem, ahem, ahem.
I sincerely don’t believe, even though I believe in your right as a human being to believe.
But, I have come across ‘believers’ who insist on quoting their scriptures in my surprised face…, and I ask myself, what part of ‘I don’t believe’, don’t they understand? I get them.., I am an African, a human being. Surely I must believe…,
Those discussions have evolved my thinking, but I sincerely don’t appreciate being informed of how bad I am supposed to be according to your scriptures, however holy you believe them to be. I just don’t believe.

In all his fervency, Amidu Chinnia Issahaku and other anti-gay people in Uganda, like Martin Ssempa and Stephen Kaziimba, fail to grasp something important. Which is quite frustrating, to them, I imagine. They can use their powers to silence us, but, because we are, and we are human just like them, we will always claim and embrace our basic humanity.
Their counter is dehumanising and objectifying us; classic pathways of prejudice, still balking at the basic fact challenge. Our humanity; we are human.

We are Kuchu. Our right, as human beings, and as Africans to faith and belief is a pragmatic matter of fact. We are. And, we are human beings. And, we are spiritual.
Faith is a personal thing…, and we will always embrace our own spirituality and spiritualties. Dehumanising rhetoric, however holy and righteous it sounds runs counter to our experience of humanity. Its like the struggle one has to impress another that a rock is bread. Reality wins out.

Or at least so we hope.

 

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Myths and misconceptions from Gideon Byamugisha’s article

Reading Reverend Gideon Byamugisha’s article, a few things rubbed me the wrong way.

True, ours is a toxic environment, and his was a great call out of the pharisees in the churches, but I had to remind myself that allies are allies.
Kuchu (LGBTQ+) allies are necessary.., we are a minority. In our countries, in most of Africa, our allies literally speak for us. In many cases that is because we cannot speak on our behalf, for one reason or another.
But, they don’t necessarily truly know us.

We are a minority, however much the haters mobilise more hate by painting the farce of us ‘taking over’, or ‘turning the world homosexual’ as Archbishop Kaziimba and President Museveni believe. Sincerely held beliefs.
(Snigger, ridiculous and sad as it is, the President and Archbishop believe we homosexuals have an agenda to literally destroy the world.., in some way, and that is from their own mouths.)

Reverend Byamugisha is also a person in the Ugandan environment. He has been influenced by the lies, disinformation and myths that are peddled without challenge in Uganda. (Just like we, kuchus, internalise the homophobia in our environment).

In the first paragraph Byamugisha states

 

“Our grave challenges from some selfish homosexual practice recruiters and promoters notwithstanding…”

 

It is important to assert, again and again. We do not ‘promote’ homosexuality. We don’t need to promote what comes naturally to us. We just are. The rest is an invention of those who literally hate and tell lies about us.
In the same breath, we kuchus have to assert, we do not recruit into homosexuality. If one really thinks about it, it is a very ridiculous assertion, a BIG LIE that has taken root, especially in Uganda, promoted literally by anti-gay activists like Martin Ssempa, transplanted as is from the American Far Right. We kuchus, LGBTQ+ people, do not recruit! We don’t make people gay. We dont have an army to ‘recruit’ for. That language and the lies have only one purpose, to dehumanise and demonise kuchus, making us feared and hated by the public. To increase the prejudice against kuchus.

It infuriates me.., that the world has fallen for this false narrative of LGBTQ+ ‘recruiters and promoters’.
Byamugisha is stating what is general belief in Uganda. Homosexuals are dangerous because of ‘recruiters and promoters’. Apparently we as homosexuals have the itch to increase in some way. Thus the ‘recruiting and promoting’.

It is not only in Uganda. It is not only the ‘under-educated’ masses in Africa who believe this nonsense, though we are an easy mark. The anti-gay activists like Family Watch International (FWI), right wing proselytisers have been quite successful pushing the narrative that we kuchus of the world are ‘recruiting and promoting’ homosexuality. And of course the icing on the cake, we homosexuals are supposed to be ‘coming for your children’.

And the world believes that nonsense.

It shows a basic lack of understanding of sexuality. And an underlying desire to believe any and all evil of a stigmatised group. A willingness to suspend common sense, when the target is wrapped in ignorance, myths and there are some willing to push the big lie, in the name of religion or culture, or sovereignty…, or for whatever the reason is.

It is a lie. It is believed. And that is what is…

Yet I still wouldn’t want an ally to drop into the cesspool of thinking that we kuchus have this agenda to ‘recruit’, ‘promote’ and of course ‘come for their children’.

Yes. I know. ‘Promoting’, in the minds of anti-gay forces, especially in Uganda, means me defending myself, like I am doing in this post, debunking myths. That is what is called promoting…, and it is currently illegal in Uganda (Bite me. If that is promotion, I will promote…!). This blog is a shameless promoter of homosexuality.

Rev. Byamugisha also states

 

“Just like people living with HIV/Aids, suspected homosexuals suffer…”

 

Byamugisha has experienced first hand the stigma and prejudice of HIV/AIDS. And in his mind, the stigma and prejudice of ‘homosexuality’ in Uganda might seem similar.

I don’t think it is, though the processes might be similar in social psychology. Ultimately, HIV/AIDS is an infection. Its stigma was largely based on fear. The stigma and prejudice due to homosexuality especially in Uganda and much of Africa is different. Most people don’t realistically fear that they will become homosexual. We are a small, marginalised population which is not growing, despite the anti-gay hype. We are not going to make YOU homosexual! Most adults confident in their sexuality would not believe it so…, but, the anti-gay activists play to that fear, extensively.

HIV infection particularly affects kuchus. We then suffer a double stigma. Stigma of HIV infection and the stigma due to our sexuality.
In Uganda, at the moment, it is easier to come out as a person living with HIV. It is much, much harder to come out as kuchu. And those of us who are forced to come out would embrace being HIV positive before we embrace or come out as kuchu. That is brutal, but it is what is on the ground.

In the end, Rev Godfrey Byamugisha was very, very courageous. Calling out one’s bosses for moral failings is suicidal…, metaphorically speaking. But, he does it. And he does it on behalf of a minor, marginalised, persecuted social group, the kuchu in Uganda.

Damnation…, whenever I start cementing my belief in the evil of religion; Christian and Islam in Uganda and Africa…, there comes someone with the guts to call out my budding prejudice.
Most Christians and Moslems would lynch me, literally and metaphorically in Uganda and Africa, because of my sexuality. But, most does not mean all. There are a brave few willing to challenge the rivers of hate flowing.
Yeah, they do deserve a certain respectful notice. The Godfrey Byamugisha’s, Justin Welby and Pope Francis’ of this world. They are boulders rolling against the flow of rivers of institutionalised hate, and deserve my respect.

 

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Reverend Gideon Byamugisha; Breath of (fresh) good air

 

Reverend Gideon Byamugisha. An interesting man of courage. It is definitely courageous for a Ugandan to come out with a pro-gay attitude. Political correctness in Uganda is to be virulent, emotional, hyper-holy,  anti-homosexuality. And, as a priest in the Church of Uganda, with the bishops and Archbishop of the Church leading the anti-gay crusade in Uganda…, I must say it is courageous of him, penning and having that article published.

True courage. When he first publicly admitted that he was living with HIV, it was at the height of anti-HIV prejudice in the country. The virus was feared, and taken as a curse to the wicked. And here came a Reverend, a man of god, admitting that he was living with the virus. A special kind of courage indeed.

And what does he say about the debate on homosexuality in the country?
I think the most important thing is that he is talking with the gravitas of an elder, and church person, steeped in the Ugandan psych.
Yeah, condescending. But, that kind of tone is the norm in Uganda. His points are stated in a way that resonates, or would resonate with Ugandans. Fact, he is not going to be listened to, because the prejudice is embraced by too many ‘influencers’, religious and otherwise.

 

“I find the moral language used, the emotions generated, and the levels of psychic aggression and spiritual violence generated around this community unreligious and uncultured too”

 

Interesting language. A basic call out to decency. Common decency. The likes of Martin Ssempa of the Pentecostals, Stephen Kaziimba of the Anglicans and Archbishop Ssemogerere of the Catholic Church embrace anti-gay rhetoric as THE confession of their holiness and righteousness. Calling them out, in the face of their continued publicly embraced opinions will exert a price. Because it is accurate, and few would say otherwise. They say it is a matter of African Culture. And our African religion. Bullshit…, but, that is what they embrace. And he is calling them out, as a matter of common decency.

 

“It is not correct to continue glossing over our own spiritual shortcomings, our moral gaps, and our pastoral care failings towards those we unfairly stigmatise and self-righteously ridicule year after year without a deep reflection on how our own individual and collective actions or inactions could have contributed to their unique ‘being’ and ‘experience’.”

 

Blasphemous…, Rev Gideon Byamugisha.
How dare you accuse Uganda’s anti-gay Saints of ‘spiritual shortcomings, moral gaps and pastoral care failings’? How dare you go beyond not joining the anti-Homosexual Crusade, to actually attacking the leaders of the Crusade?!!! Blasphemy… I can imagine Martin Ssempa spitting on your metaphorical grave on live TV. HOW, DARE, YOU?!

A quirky turn of phrase..,

 

“.., equally loveless and non-repentantly self-righteous.”

 

Spot on…, in my clearly biased view. We, Ugandans are the typical, proud Pharisees of the times of the Nazarene… We are actually out-christianing the people who brought the religions in our colonial periods, demanding that they ‘repent’, of the sin of loving homosexuals, of course! More angel than the very angels, indeed!

Oh, Byamugisha doesn’t spare the self-righteous tools of the men, and women of god.., the sneaky politicians.

 

“I pray that in the future, our Members of Parliament should not table and debate laws against minority Ugandans with such deep and toxic levels of personal anger, social prejudice, civic disgust, and spiritual hate.”

 

Come on, Rev Byamugisha. How else would the honourable politicians take advantage of such a popular ‘moral’ issue? How would they deflect from the stealing of mabaati from the desperate Karamojong citizens of Uganda? How would they duck the heady winds of corruption? Good theatre, claiming the moral high ground;  the expression of ‘such deep and toxic levels of personal anger, social prejudice, civic disgust, spiritual hate’. All good politics…, and you want to deny them claim of that rich political capital, in the name of some spurious benefits (with the sins are so ‘self evident’?)
You, Rev Byamugisha, are only one person. They have shade from the influential Bishops, Archbishops and mega pastors!

I am gay, a Ugandan kuchu. I confess that, unreservedly. But, Byamugisha calling out the simply evil ways that anti-gay forces in Uganda operate is interesting. And funny. And a poke in the eyes of influential, powerful others..

 

“When people or certain communities divert most of their energies from innovation and production to spying on, lying about, hunting, and destroying each other; …”

 

Oh yes.., remember the ‘Pastor Wars Saga’, which are continuing, even if low key at the moment.
Am kuchu. It is funny realising that all the sins and evils that I am accused of in Uganda are actually a daily tool of choice by those who are supposedly holy and immaculate in their righteousness.
Byamugisha calls them out.

Will Rev Byamugisha be heeded?
Most probably not. Strike that…, Byamugisha will certainly NOT be heard or even listened to. Too many politicians, of the state and the churches and mosque are invested in anti-gay rhetoric. He will most likely be punished, if not openly, but definitely covertly. He dares to be ‘pro-gay’. Even Archbishop Welby of the Church of England was derided for being a homosexual promoter and demanded repent of the sin, by none other than Archbishop Kaziira of the Church of Uganda, who is Rev Byamugisha’s superior and boss.
But, it is good to have a breath of good air, in the toxic anti-gay smog and fog in Uganda. Byamugisha does the one thing that I fail to do.., speak in language that is understandable to Ugandans.

 

 

gug.