My identity as an African, as a Ugandan is constantly under attack by those who believe that homosexuality is ‘foreign’. So, aren’t I African?
It is a potent attack on our
psyche.
How can we be African when we apparently identify with a ‘foreign’ vice. [To
the ignorant, homosexuality is always a ‘foreign vice’. It is foreign
everywhere.]
For strength, I will post again the words of Sojourner Truth.
She was black. An actual former
slave. A black woman former slave.
In her time [1851], she was the lowest of the low.
At a meeting of women advocating for women's right to vote in the US, she embraced
her various identities, and articulated why, in spite of the apparent lowliness
on the social statum, she still counted.
“Well, children, where there is so much racket there must be something out of kilter. I think that ‘twixt the Negroes of the South and the women at the North, all talking about rights, the white men will be in a fix pretty soon. But what’s all this here talking about?
That man over there says that women need to be helped into carriages, and lifted over ditches, and to have the best place everywhere. Nobody ever helps me into carriages, or over mud-puddles, or gives me any best place! And ain’t I a woman? Look at me! Look at my arm! I have ploughed and planted, and gathered into barns, and no man could head me! And ain’t I a woman? I could work as much and eat as much as a man – when I could get it – and bear the lash as well! And ain’t I a woman? I have borne thirteen children, and seen most all sold off to slavery, and when I cried out with my mother’s grief, none but Jesus heard me! And ain’t I a woman?
Then they talk about this thing in the head; what’s this they call it? [member of audience whispers, “intellect”] That’s it, honey. What’s that got to do with women’s rights or Negroes’ rights? If my cup won’t hold but a pint, and yours holds a quart, wouldn’t you be mean not to let me have my little half measure full?
Then that little man in black there, he says women can’t have as much rights as men, ‘cause Christ wasn’t a woman! Where did your Christ come from? Where did your Christ come from? From God and a woman! Man had nothing to do with Him.
If the first woman God ever made was strong enough to turn the world upside down all alone, these women together ought to be able to turn it back, and get it right side up again! And now they is asking to do it. The men better let them”
Potent and powerful, that speech resonates with me, an African man, in Africa, Uganda today, intent on a basic human right to life and liberty and happiness.
Aren’t I an African?
Aren’t I a Ugandan?
Yes, haters [indeed, haters in
Uganda, and in much of Africa]; haters will bring a million reasons why I am
not equal to them. And seek to deny who I am because of my sexuality.
I assert that I am. We gay, queer, LGBTQ, kuchu Africans assert that we are AFRICAN.
gug
