Module: HST5359 Freedom and Nation: The State in Post-Colonial Africa, 1956-2006
By: Mezhegan Dauod
Uganda made huge waves internationally with the passing of their highly controversial Anti-Homosexuality Act (AHA) in 2014. Uganda’s AHA criminalised homosexual relationships and made it punishable by life imprisonment. Uganda’s AHA was viewed as a major hit to the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transsexual (LGBT+) movement. Especially after many great Western powers such as the United Kingdom passed its Marriage Act 2013, which legalised gay marriage. This caused great outrage worldwide and as a result, countries such as Denmark, the Netherlands and Norway, placed suspension on its aid to Uganda. The World Bank froze its $90 million loan which was meant to develop Uganda’s health care system, whilst America placed sanctions upon Uganda. [i]
Neo-colonialism is the use of either economic or political pressure to control or influence other countries, especially former dependencies.[ii] Thus, by this definition, I believe that the loan being frozen by the World Bank as well as other countries who stopped their aid or placed sanctions was a neo-colonial attempt to force Uganda to overturn its AHA. Furthermore, by countries suspending their loans, it furthers the narrative of ‘western’ countries being the ‘civilised’ people, despite history suggesting otherwise.
Kabaka Mwanga
The history of Kabaka (King) Mwanga II is highly important to Uganda’s modern stance on sexuality. This is because prior to Uganda being colonised, Mwanga was described as ‘addicted to the practise of homosexuality’.[iii] This shows that there was a time where homosexuality was not only practised in Uganda but was also not criminalised. However, in 1885, when the leader of the Catholic church wanted to ‘protect the new convert from carnal solicitations’, Mwanga viewed this as threat to his power. Mwanga ordered the Christians within his court to renounce Christianity and when they refused, Mwanga ordered the execution of all Christians within his court. This led to a Civil War which resulted with the Protestants seeking the assistance of the Imperial British East African Company (IBEAC), who successfully ousted Mwanga from power. This paved the way for British colonial rule over Uganda and established Christianity as the dominant religion. By removing Mwanga from power due to his ‘practise of homosexuality’, which were in direct conflict with Christianity, both Mwanga and his sexuality became villainised. Therefore, Uganda’s stance on sexuality finds its origins in the ‘civilising missions’ which colonial powers undertook.[iv] As Kay Lalor stated, the ‘criminalisation of sodomy…were first imposed by the British Empire’.[v] Uganda gained their independence in 1962 but despite this, Uganda’s politics still show Britain’s colonial influence.
Penal Code Act
The British Empire’s influence can be seen in Uganda’s first Penal Code Act 1930 (PCA) which was modelled after the Criminal Code Act 1899. This criminalised ‘indecent practices between males.[vi] However, the PCA did not specify what could be considered as ‘indecent’. Thus, the AHA was passed with the intention that the ‘widest possible range of same-sex sexual acts became regulated by the criminal law and were subject to severe penalty’.[vii] For example, the original Anti-Homosexuality Bill 2009, (AHB) proposed the death penalty as punishment but this was amended to life imprisonment.[viii] The proposed bill demonstrates how entrenched and prevalent homophobia is in Uganda. The British Empire was able to successfully influence Ugandan politics to criminalise homosexuals like they had in Britain. However, the international community has ignored the origins of Uganda’s stance being the result of colonising missions and focuses on perpetuating the narrative of a ‘barbaric’ and ‘backwards’ nation.
International Reaction
The World Bank froze its aid of $90 million to Uganda. This was a devasting blow as Uganda’s economy relied on donor aid heavily.[ix] The World Bank has used its economic power over Uganda to pressure the Ugandan government to overturn the passing of the AHA. By having placed economic pressure on Uganda’s economy, this resembles closely the relationship between colonies and imperial powers. The passing of the AHA did not explicitly impact Uganda’s health care system. Therefore, there was no explicit reason for the World Bank to place a freeze on the loan as the AHA does not impact the health care development. The freeze was placed upon the loan as an attempt to ‘civilise’ and modernise Uganda but refuses to acknowledge the role western powers had in AHA’s development. The same intentions the British Empire had when they colonised Uganda.[x] Thus, the freeze on the loan can be considered a neo-colonial attempt to control Uganda’s politics. Furthermore, America also placed sanctions on Uganda as well as cutting funds to programmers America was running with Ugandan authorities.[xi] I have personally interpreted this as very hypocritical, given the intolerable nature of some states of America which has continued to refuse same-sex marriage. Therefore, the placing of the sanctions was not simply made to overturn the AHA but to also demonstrate Uganda’s reliance on aids and its lack of true independence and sovereignty. Denmark, Norway and the Netherlands suspension of its aid placed great economic strain on Uganda. This is because Norway aids the Ugandan government $64 million every year.[xii] Denmark and the Netherlands stated that they would redirect their combined $20 million away from Uganda. This demonstrates the huge economic strain placed upon Uganda’s economy which was dependent on foreign aid and the countries who imposed these sanctions or suspension of aid, did so with the intension to pressure the overturn of the AHA.
Conclusion
In conclusion, this blog post has shown that the origin of homophobia was brought and introduced by the colonising British Empire. It was upon the British Empires laws that the PCA 1930 and 1950 was passed. However, the Ugandan government felt that the AHA needed to be passed in order to bridge any misunderstandings offered by the PCA. The international reaction of either suspending their aid or placing sanctions was, I believe, a neo-colonial attempt to modernise and ‘civilise’ Uganda to match the Western view of what is morally just and in line with their politics. By suspending their aid, these countries have ignored the root cause of Uganda’s homophobia by redirecting attention onto the ‘savagery’ of an African State. These suspensions refuse to acknowledge the countries previous stance on the matter, and rather than educating Uganda on the matter, western countries have taken to punish Uganda and cripple its economy.
Mezhegan Dauod
Notes: [i] Mike Pflanz Kampala, ‘Keep your gays and you’re your aid, Uganda tells the West’’ the Telegraph 28th February 2014 https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/africaandindianocean/uganda/10668278/Keep-your-gays-and-keep-your-aid-Uganda-tells-the-West.html (Accessed 27.10.2019) [ii] https://www.oxfordlearnersdictionaries.com/definition/english/neocolonialism (Accessed 27.10.2019) [iii] Rahul Rao, The locations of homophobia, London Review of International Law, Volume 2, Issue 2, September 2014, Pages 169–199, https://doi.org/10.1093/lril/lru010 (Accessed 27.10.2019) [iv] Lalor, K. Law Critique (2019) 30: 21. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10978-018-9221-3 (Accessed 27.10.2019) [v] IBID [vi] Paul Johnson, Making Unjust Law: The Parliament of Uganda and the Anti-Homosexuality Act 2014, Parliamentary Affairs, Volume 68, Issue 4, October 2015, Pages 709–736, https://doi.org/10.1093/pa/gsu021 (Accessed 27.10.2019) [vii] IBID [viii] Rahul Rao, The locations of homophobia, London Review of International Law, Volume 2, Issue 2, September 2014, Pages 169–199, https://doi.org/10.1093/lril/lru010 (Accessed 27.10.2019) [ix] https://www.aljazeera.com/news/africa/2014/02/world-bank-freezes-aid-uganda-over-gay-law-201422874410793972.html [x] Lalor, K. Law Critique (2019) 30: 21. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10978-018-9221-3 (Accessed 27.10.2019) [xi] BBC: US imposes sanction on Uganda for Anti-gay law https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-27933051(Accessed 27.10.2019) [xii] Nicholas Bariyo, Europeans, Stop Uganda Aid after Anti-gay Law. The Wallstreet Journal https://www.wsj.com/articles/europeans-stop-uganda-aid-after-antigay-law-1393342688 (Accessed 27.10.2019) Bibliography: Bariyo Nicholas, Europeans, Stop Uganda Aid after Anti-gay Law. The Wallstreet Journal https://www.wsj.com/articles/europeans-stop-uganda-aid-after-antigay-law-1393342688 BBC: US imposes sanction on Uganda for Anti-gay law https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-2793305. Johnson Paul, Making Unjust Law: The Parliament of Uganda and the Anti-Homosexuality Act 2014, Parliamentary Affairs, Volume 68, Issue 4, October 2015, Pages 709–736. Kampala, Mike Pflanz, ‘Keep your gays and you’re your aid, Uganda tells the West’’ the Telegraph 28th February 2014 https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/africaandindianocean/uganda/10668278/Keep-your-gays-and-keep-your-aid-Uganda-tells-the-West.html Lalor, K., ‘Encountering the Past: Grand Narratives, Fragmented Histories and LGBTI Rights ‘Progress’, Law Critique, 30: 21, 2019. Rao Rahul, The locations of homophobia, London Review of International Law, Volume 2, Issue 2, September 2014, Pages 169–199,
Comments