3 Popular Ugandan, and African Parsing of Homophobia

 

This is a 3 part reply to an article written by one, Mathew Otieno, a Kenyan, published on a mecatornet.com . This is Part 3.

 

Finally, I would like to challenge Mathew Otieno’s assessment of the effects of the Anti-Homosexuality Act, 2023 in Uganda.

From Mathew’s assessment, this is going to be very little. According to him, few people were arrested under the old sodomy laws, and it is difficult to prosecute adults for consensual sex.

“The older law was, however, never used to convict anyone. The new law makes it easier to prosecute and convict offenders. However, since it still relies on self-reporting for most of the violations, it’s unlikely to result in a significant rise in convictions.

Additionally, Uganda hasn’t executed anyone in nearly 20 years, and is unlikely to do so any time soon, having struck down the mandatory death penalty in 2019.”

But, with all due respect, I would like to point out that heterosexual Mathew Otieno hardly understands the lived realities of kuchus (LGBTQ+) individuals on the ground, in Uganda, and apparently in Kenya too. Prosecutions did happen with the old law.

Here is the story of a teacher and her lover in Jjinja, who were arrested and jailed, now out on bail, under the old law. What’s reported in the papers is tenuous at best, but this is a couple that was suspected, and it became an issue on social media, leading to parents rushing to the school to remove their children because there was possibly homosexual recruitment going on in the school.

And, another story of 6 young men arrested, most likely still in jail the last 4 months, because a less than 60 second digital film of them having sex leaked on social media.

Those are not the only examples out there.., those were the ones most widely reported. And that was even before this, the ‘enhanced’ Anti-homosexuality legislation.

I, as a Ugandan kuchu living and working in Uganda, I am liable to mandatory life in prison, no parole, if I am caught having sex with my lover. As the law puts it, our mutual consent to have sex is no defence. If I am caught another time, as a ‘serial offender’, the death penalty would apply to me. If I am HIV positive, the death penalty enhancement applies. And, in prison, the State can enforce ‘treatment’ for my sexuality, to turn me straight. That is the law.
These threats are not theoretical, as Mr Mathew Otieno brushes them off (of course to him they are a theoretical challenge). They are a lived reality of my life.

And, the Anti-Homosexuality Act 2023 is not just about catching me having sex. It is also about empowering anyone who knows that I am gay.  Those who know can report me, and are handily protected.., by the Whistle-blower’s Act. I can be attacked, because I am suspected of being so, and I can be lynched, in an exuberance to arrest the homosexual, like happened to this couple. A gift to the police who would get bribes from me, and from blackmailers and others. That is the lived reality of most kuchus, in Uganda, (and in Mathew Otieno’s Kenya) at the moment, under the old ‘sodomy laws’, post colonialism.

Uganda’s Anti-Homosexuality Act 2023 is very broad. It is good that you have a link to the whole piece of legislation. But, it is more important to actually read and understand its scope.

 

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2 Popular Ugandan, and African Parsing of Homophobia

 

This is a 3 part reply to an article written by one, Mathew Otieno, a Kenyan, published on a mecatornet.com . This is Part 2.

 

Mr Otieno also commented on the various ‘threats’ supposedly made by the US.

I am a Ugandan, living and working in Uganda. Over the last 5 months, news has been rife with so-called threats. Most were not threats but assessments of possible results of the Anti-Homosexuality Act 2023. It is politically expedient by Ugandan politicos to label them ‘threats’.

For example, the US is spending millions of US dollars annually in the HIV program for research, prevention and treatment. This is at risk, because of the broad provisions of the Anti-Homosexuality Act 2023, with a reporting mandate of homosexuals to police, protecting ‘whistle-blowers’.
With Ugandan officials angrily denying any connection between the Anti-Homosexual legislation and Health programming, the US embassy had to, and did secure an assertion from President Museveni that health workers were not to report homosexuals to police. Only after that were funds released.
Shameful, yes. A comedy of errors, all self defeating, own goals scored by Uganda. Accusation of ‘blackmail’, ‘bullying’ by the US were bandied around. Our leaders were shamelessly claiming ignorance.., unfeigned.

Another instance of bullying and threats, as reported widely, embraced by politicos in Uganda was international companies pointing out that the legislation was bad for business.  Their concerns are valid. Facebook was banned in Uganda, after a tiff off, 2 years ago with Museveni’s government. Potentially falling foul of this law as ‘promotion of homosexuality’ is something the tech giants in ‘Open for Business’ have to consider seriously. That is, if they still want to do business in Uganda.

After the Anti-Homosexuality Act 2023 became law in Uganda, another widely reported instance of ‘bullying’ was noted in the Ugandan press and by Ugandan politicians and anti-gay advocates, an updated US travel advisory.
The responsible thing to do.., not a ‘threat’ or punishment, as conveniently assessed by Ugandan politicos. Of course it was totally predictable. The US has LGBTQ+ citizens, and it informs and admits responsibility to them.

And, it is stupid to think that Uganda, dependant on tourism, would attract LGBTQ+ visitors. That is not a threat. It is matter of fact logic and sense. Better, as Uganda Parliament’s public relations official smugly put it, ‘not to be gay in Uganda’.

The Anti-Homosexuality Act, 2023 is the law in Uganda. Its possible and probable results to tourism, business investment and others are logical, until politicos feel the need to claim heroic resistance to racism and colonialism and run to media reporting being threatened, as MP Peter Kaluma is doing in Kenya.

 

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1 Popular Ugandan, and African Parsing of Homophobia

 This is a 3 part reply to an article written by one, Mathew Otieno, a Kenyan, published on a mecatornet.com . This is Part 1.

First, I am kuchu, (LGBTQ+ Ugandan

The article was interesting. Refreshing. In Uganda, a down to earth examination of issues is hardly publishable.

Mr Otieno seems to write under the illusion that ‘what should be’, is ‘what is’, reality.
For example, he asserts that

“the New York Times, went downright colonial by trying to connect the law’s passage with the American conservative backlash against the LGBT+ agenda, laying the blame partly at the feet of organisations like Arizona-based Family Watch International, which has organised and participated in pro-family conferences in Uganda. This is rubbish”

Matter of fact, the rubbish is Mr Otieno’s assertion. The reporting might have been inconvenient, but it was accurate.

That US Arizona  group Family Watch International (FWI) was involved in the first 2014 Anti-Homosexuality Act in Uganda.

On the weekend after the Anti-Homosexuality Bill 2023 was first passed by Uganda’s Parliament, FWI held a 2 day conference for African legislators in Entebbe, Uganda. Supposedly supporting African sovereignty and ‘family rights’, its focus was on its staple 3 ideological issues: anti-LGBTQ+, anti-contraception and anti-abortion; against ‘Comprehensive Sexuality Education’.
Museveni made an appearance. He was so convinced of the threat to humanity paused by homosexuality that he called on Africa to save the world.

One of the attendees, Kenyan MP Peter Kaluma left for home (Nairobi, Kenya) trumpeting on Twitter his determination to table an anti-Homosexuality bill. Indeed, he did so, the Family Protection Bill, directly reflecting FWI rhetoric, and some of the provisions, an FWI wishlist. He admitted the influence.

FWI in its Africa specialisation, talks about our ‘sovereignty’, and plays deftly on ‘western hegemony’ and the ‘LGBTQ+ agenda’. ‘Racism’ and ‘colonialism’ are always in the background, cards to play.
Frankly, they cone us. They understand, just as Mathew Otieno reacted, those are trigger points for Africans post colonialism.  They can manipulate us, and do so.  Winking and nudging they intimate that their governments are playing colonialism. We fail to ask WHY they would go against their national interests.

Reacting with knee jerk reflex like this blinds us to the obvious manipulation from the likes of FWI. And, Mr Otieno fell into the trap, angrily claiming agency, our sovereignty in the face of colonialism and racism. We are sovereign in FWI’s eyes only as long as we follow their agenda, grounded in our ignorance and prejudices, which they reinforce.

 

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