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

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.

 

gug

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.

 

gug