Two Divergent Opinions. In Uganda

Debate, in the Monitor.

Yes, they seem commited to debate. Independence is a funny thing. Monitor journalists may be homophobic personally, but, they are susceptible to reason. So, when there is a debate on, they dare to tackle debate about homosexuality in Uganda.

Sadly, the biggest circulation paper is the New Vision, a government daily, which once upon a time was strongly inclined towards debate. Now, it is so silent that you may laugh. They are hobbled. By ‘policy’. Poor New Vision…’for a better Uganda’!

Here are two opinion pieces from the Monitor.

We must not lose the battle against homosexuality

REV. DR. FRED S. MWESIGWA senior lecturer at Uganda Christian University, Mukono 

fsmwesigwa@educ.ucu.ac.ug

And, why MUST we NOT lose this war? His arguments run along this.

• A minority have NO rights in a democracy.
  I quote “I strongly argue that this will be a bold statement about how democratic Uganda is. Madill has a wrong notion of democracy that subscribes to the view that a minority who decide to promote un-African and un-Godly sexual expressions should have their rights safeguarded in a democratic country.”
  
  
• In the ‘West’ Christians are running away from homosexual accepting churches.
  
  
• We should not allow a ‘dictation’ by the minority through ‘political correctness’
  I quote, “one of the main problems of the western world is the acceptance of the dictatorship of the minority whereby in order to be seen to be politically correct, the majority will eventually give in to any wayward group to save face. In some countries of the western world, it is now a human right to walk naked in some areas and some beaches have been gazetted nudist by naturists. Question is, if you concede ground to homosexuality, aren’t you opening a flood-gate for other aberrations like bestiality?”
  
  
• We should not ‘compromise on moral issues’
  And, in Uganda of course, homosexuality is a bigger moral issue than rampart corruption. Of course.
  
  
• Ugandans are ‘some of the most loving human beings on earth’ “but they hold true to strong cultural and religious values that abhor the sin of homosexuality, much as they love the homosexuals and desire to see them change.”
  Well, I am a Ugandan who is gay, and, I am yet to see this very starling characteristic of my countrymates. Hey Christians, when will you ever understand the hypocrisy of loving the sin and hating the sinner… or the other way around!
  
  

And, we end with this dire prediction. “The time is now for Parliament to declare whether Uganda should dance to every tune that is played by western countries. If the Anti-homosexuality Bill fails to be passed, as sure as night follows day, I can visualise a plethora of sexual aberrations that will be fronted as human rights issues in Uganda in the not so distant future”

Well. what a BROADSIDE!

But, there is a divergent opinion, which seems weak besides that well coached and arousing call to action.

It matters to understand uniqueness of gay people

KIFLU HUSSAIN

Mr Kiflu is an Ethiopian Refugee living in Uganda

kiflukam@yahoo.com

For a moment, I thought I had written the story. Yeah, the ‘uniqueness of gay people’!!!!!

But, then I saw first the laying down of heterosexual credentials. NB. In Uganda, you MUST be able to convince others that you are not gay.

But, he brings about another of those things which, for some reason, Africans see as wrong. Left handedness. I can vouch for such a story. I do remember, in my primary, a child being beaten for writing with his left hand. Made an impression that has never deserted me.

• “Except me, all my family members are right handed. That left handedness was discovered when I began to go to school. Right away, a self-righteous teacher made it her mission to set me right from the devilish position of the leftists. She didn’t succeed except leaving in my psyche a lasting negative impression of schools.”
  
  
• Almost three decades later, I found myself in a concentration camp at the outskirts of Addis Ababa.
  “One early morning, I heard someone screaming. When I followed the voice, a habitual offender jailed for the second time for aggravated robbery and another one sentenced to life for murder, was brutally clubbing a fellow inmate in front of a prison guard. When I asked the guard, why he sanctioned the beating, he answered simply “he’s dirty.” Another inmate who noticed my bewilderment told me that the hapless boy is gay.”
  
  
• Then, he comments on the Public ‘Dialogue’. Well, it is good that my impression of the football hooligan atmosphere was not a figment of my mind. And, I also was impressed by the pseudo-science of Mr Stephen Langa.
  ”While the panelists from Hon. Bahati down to Prof. Tamale presented their respective position well, the audience, especially, those favouring the bill behaved almost like football hooligans.”
  
  
• Unfortunately, since the bill itself is intended to feed on peoples age-old prejudices, it’d have been no wonder to witness worst scenarios. Still, thanks to that dialogue that inspired me to do my own little research, I found out that Mr Stephen Langa’s assertion on the possibility of a homosexual being converted has little scientific foundation. From Sigmund Freud down to successive scientists confirmed that conversion for the most part is neither possible nor desirable. Hence, I concluded that despite Langa’s commendable effort to cloak his presentation with pseudo-scientific facts, the scholarship of Prof. Sylvia Tamale and the pragmatism of Major Rubaramira Ruranga carried the day.”

It is a pity the guy is a ‘foreigner’, an Ethiopian. I would have lauded his reasoning. Of course! But, he is at least an African (Sniff!). We are not totally hopeless…!

gug

A Not so Private Conversation

It was private, that is, until I decided to put it here. I am just being cheeky.

Some background. In Uganda, we have two major English dailies. The red rug is a rug, so I will not grace toilet paper with the ‘news’ monica.

The New Vision is the government owned newspaper. Once upon a time it was fairly independent. That was till the end of 2006, when the President decided that it was not fitting that the government paper criticizes the government. So, it lost its independence. Now, it only speaks what the govt wants. And gives editorials like the totally confusing one here and here.

And there is the Monitor. An independent. I think at the moment it is owned by the Aga Khan or something like that. Has a reputation of independence.

So, last year, when we wanted to have our national outing, Monitor was a very good place. Maybe the only place we could go to! And they did us some good things. I mean, they did report very objectively. It riled Ssempa so much that he started a campaign against one of the Monitor Reporters, an intern from America. Her crime, according to Ssempa, was ‘promoting homosexuality’. No, the newspapers editors said, she did not do that. She was just doing her job, reporting what her editor had asked her to.

But Monitor staff are Ugandan. Maybe we lucked on an American intern as a total bit of serendipity! So, even when we had generated that debate, there used to be a quirky kick from some of the Monitor staff.
This past Saturday, the Monitor headlines were searing. ‘SODOMY IN BOARDING SCHOOLS’. I cringed. Did not read the article till the next day. Oh yes, I posted it here. Doesn’t mean I read it! Just the fact that, a straight person would also not like to be accused of all the 'straight' rapes that occur... And I knew that something like that was going to happen. In fact, as a letter from a reader puts it in today's Monitor, 'Research has shown a close relation between homosexuality, drug abuse and spread of AIDS!'

[Let the witch-hunt begin. Lynch the homosexuals!]

The next day, I came across another article in that Monitor. The one from the experts. I was riled. So riled that I found little relief in the post. Experts do need to be experts.

And I thought I should send it to the letters to the editor.

I was surprised to get an answer. Usually, letters to the editor are either trashed (majority) and a very few answered. I know that!
Now, I will let the correspondence do the talking…

---

gug has sent you a link to a blog: Blog: GayUganda Post: Demonised? Are these 'truths' true? Link: http://gayuganda.blogspot.com/2008/06/demonised-are-these-truths-true.html

Man [or woman?],
Just leave us alone. We are clean and ramrod straight.
H

--
Leave me alone. And just do not sell your papers on innuendos and untruths about me.
Mr H, LEAVE ME ALONE. I NEITHER SOLICITED FOR YOUR ATTENTION, NOR DID I ASK YOU TO WRITE UNTRUTHS ABOUT ME. JUST LEAVE ME ALONE.
You just have to learn that we are human beings, and we do suffer from your irrational hate. If you were to ignore us it would be ok. But you go ahead and write lies from 'experts'. Then what the hell will the red pepper do?
Leave us homosexuals alone. It should be us saying that, not you.

GUG

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Who sent me the link in the first place?

And secondly, it does not matter to me what this or that western ‘scientific’ agency says or does to whitewash sodomy, it is very easy to see where they would be coming from, if you read my meaning. Why else are you clowns fighting tooth and nail to get yourselves accepted if sodomy was acceptable to nature in the first place?

H

--

Hi H,

thanks for the information.

I did not send you the link. I sent the link to the Letters Editor at Monitor. I thought that is what we are supposed to do, write letters to the Editor? Forgive me if I got it wrong.

Thanks for your raging hate. Thanks for accusing me of things which you have no idea that I do or not.

All that you know of me is that I am gay and Ugandan. And of course that I was riled at the monitor article, citing 'experts' which a cursory search of the web would have shown to be ill informed.

No, I expected better of the Monitor. Of the Red Pepper, I did not expect anything better. Sorry, I thought I bought a copy of the Monitor, not the Red Pepper.

Be well H,

and god bless your hate with love.

Gug

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Ok, and there ended the correspondence! Yeah, I was not my cool suave self. A bit over the top and all that. A bad day, I admit!

Gay Marriage

I have been thinking a lot about the gay wedding in Senegal.

Guess it is because our circumstances are so similar. Despite the fact that a continent divides us. And, yeah, I have been thinking of it relative to my situation.

I am a gay man. It is great that I have accepted that fact. I am a gay Ugandan, living and working in Uganda.
And I am a gay man that lives with his gay lover, in Uganda. And we have done that for the last seven years.

In some ways it seems like a dream. A beautiful dream for me. But there are things which we forget. We live with danger to such an extent that we have occasionally to be reminded that something lurks out there. That there are people who would see our love as something abominable. Yes, like my dear brother. (Met him since, was not able to discuss it with him.)

It was in 1999, late, that one of the local newspapers, New Vision, published a front page article of two gay Ugandans getting married. Not in Uganda, in London!
The usual furor, and hate speech followed. Yet it was notable that that was when our dear president (er, the current one), came out strongly homophobic, ordering the Criminal Investigation Department to arrest and imprison us.
There was fear in our community. I do remember it well.

Somehow, it fizzled out. Must say we were more closeted than we are at the moment. Maybe they did search for kuchus!

My partner and I have lived together for some time, but we cannot have any acknowledgement of the fact that we are a couple. Not by my relatives, who know that we are. Not by his relatives.
Sometimes it is frustrating. Like Sunday I attended a family gathering. Birthday party for my dad.
Typical African man, would not have acknowledged it but for the fact that seventy is a milestone, and he has not been very healthy the last couple of years. When he told me, and I told one of my sisters, a 'suprise' party was planned.
Not all could make it. Turned out to be a gathering of the grandchildren. He has 20, and counting.

I had to leave my partner home.

We talked about it. I wanted him there, since the old man knows. But my partner thought it would be 'unfair' to make him unhappy on his special day. And of course he is very sensitive to the fact that some of my brothers and sisters are maintaining a hostile silence.
Anyway, I went alone. But felt lonely in the mass of happy kids.
Felt I would like to be acknowledged that he is my family.
When will that ever be?

He would like a wedding. A real, wedding, with church and a kasiki etc.
Will that ever be?

Maybe it is wishful thinking. But I will dare to hope.

Last year, November, a couple, friends of ours invited us for their wedding in South Africa. A real live gay wedding.
We could not attend.
I wrote them a poem, but didnt send it.

Now, the wedding in Senegal has made me thoughtful. It is something to remember that we have love, and that we celebrate it in the face of a lot of opposition. Yes, it is good to love and be loved back. And we will acknowledge it to ourselves, even when we cannot do so before our society.

Here is the poem. I did not send it because I did not think it was good enough. Editing now seems not to improve it much, but here it is.

Two Equals, Now One United

A marriage of two equals

that day you celebrate-

two equals united one

mysterious unity thence.

Before were you one and one equal,

now you are two in one equal;

together, blessed, touched, consumated

May the flame of love that you united

burn ever stronger, ever longer, ever wider;

may its base grow wider, wiser;

may its light the doubters light,

and grace sceptics with awe 'n wonder

May you know love eternal

lookin' in one the other's eye.

May differences melt in communion,

as the love you share pours out sweetly.

Usikelele Afrika

land that your union blesses;

the blessings and shower of love

follow your steps and mis-steps,

united in love, now, forever more.

(c)GayUganda

The Un-reported Facts

Yeah, by now the whole world knows. How gay Ugandans, Kuchus went out and held a press conference. And they did it in masks and talked about HIV and discrimination and being in hiding. It was published in the papers. The New Vision, held back by the government policy could not but hold back. The Monitor is more expressive. For example, there was none of the obligatory mention of the law which is the official symbol of oppression and criminalisation.

But there were a lot of unreported facts.

I was there. I saw. I witnessed, and I was impressed. Deeply impressed by the energy of these few people. I was deeply impressed by the fact that they did organise and were able to pull it off. The opposition to them is considerable. Not only are there problems amongst them, coming out to themselves, but there is a problem coming out to the world.

There was quite a bit of the untold story in the papers' records. Of course, in keeping with my 'anonymous' self, I was invisibly visible. Maybe for a little while longer. But not much longer I think.

Julie Victor Mukasa. Out for the entire world to know. The architect of the conference. The leader, and a pretty effective one. A man in a woman’s body, she told us. And she was mesmerising as she uttered the un-utterable words. Shocked the reporters, I could see. A few others were unmasked, but the majority were in masks. And the masks were telling. Not the black, 'Hamas' like masks. But some more comical, effectively hiding the faces but not the persons. I could recognise them, though not others!

The language of delivery was Luganda. That was an impressive strategy. We are told that we are not Ugandan. That homosexuality is not Ugandan. And as the kuchus of Uganda claimed their birthright, they did it in the mother tongue of a number of them. It was impressive. The word 'abasiyazi' is like a curse word at the moment. It means homosexual in Luganda/Lusoga. And they used it, bravely, repeatedly, making sure that they were not hiding in semantics. I winced the first few times. It was shocking to my socialised self. I have grown up as a product of my culture. But soon it grew normal to my ears.

Brenda Kizza. A trans-gender. She featured in the news last weekend. And she came out. A man in body. A woman in mind, and she claimed it, calmly, openly, shocking the reporters. This is a patriarchal society. A woman claiming a man’s mentality is taken to be not so unusual. A man claiming a woman’s mentality is shocking. She talked, the voice cracking. She showed the dentures that had replaced broken teeth. Talked about the months of imprisonment, and the beatings that she has suffered at the hands of the police. She is a woman in a man, and the trans-status makes her an easy prey. She talked of how she was forced to suck the penises of two policemen in order to release her.

What of the supporters, Beatrice Were, wowing always in the background. Sarah Mukasa, frank feminist. And one lady who was HIV positive and talked of the shame that it was the government of Uganda which was suppressing HIV prevention efforts for homosexuals in Uganda. I was touched.

There is too much which was done in those few hours. And it has had an impact on me. Personally, as well as generally. A few kuchus I talked to were disdainful. They think we are not ready to have this done. But hell, it is high time that it was done. It is great that I am alive to see it done.

Viva to all the brave kuchus who risked the stigma in the country to put a face to homosexuality in Uganda. May they be left in peace.