By Eleanor Day.
Originally submitted as an assessment for Freedom and Nation: The State in Post-Colonial Africa, 1956-2006.
Earlier this month, Uganda celebrated its 57th year of independence outside of British rule. In the same month ‘radical’ legislation was threatening to pass in the form of the Anti-Homosexual Act (AHA), a reminder that Uganda is still held in the restraints its colonisers left. Historian and activist Walter Rodney argued that European colonists were under-developing the nations they sought to develop. [1] In agreement with Rodney, I will argue that in the post-colonial world, the influence of colonisers has left Uganda struggling against the ideals left behind. In attempt to shun their past colonial identity, Uganda is sabotaging its own development in response to its past oppressors, as seen in the very recent attempt to pass dangerously homophobic legislation.
This legislation dubbed ‘Kill the Gays Bill’ was first introduced into government and nullified five years ago. The Bill stated that prompting or participating in homosexual behaviours would be punishable by death.
Following the trend in the 1990s of ex-colonial African countries to reinstate the laws the colonisers left behind; Uganda was the leading country in this process. In 2005, Uganda introduced a constitutional amendment prohibiting same-sex marriage, in the same year is spread to Nigeria, Zimbabwe, Kenya, Tanzania and Gambia. [2] In 2014, the so called ‘Kill the Gays Bill’ was attempted in both Uganda and Nigeria, however the Constitutional Court declared the AHA unconstitutional as it didn’t achieve a majority vote. [3] Recently, Simon Lokodo, Uganda’s Ethics and Integrity Minister, shared his support for the bill by arguing that homosexuality is not natural to Ugandans. [4]
This statement is loaded with different ideas of post-colonial Uganda. Whilst in Uganda, the British, persecuted same sex relationships. The language of the Indian Penal Code, a law which also persecuted ‘intercourse against the order of nature’ in India was transferred to most of British Africa. [5] This is the first sign of British labels of sexuality, homosexual and heterosexual, assigned to Africa. Which raises the question against Lokodo, if ‘homosexuality is not natural to Ugandans’ then why would the British need to create legislation combatting it. [6]
Homosexual relations were common across Africa however not under the labels used in western countries like Great Britain. In the 1590s, English traveller, Andrew Battel made observations on same-sex relations among the Imbalanga in what is now Angola. [7] These practices were neither encouraged nor punished, it was a societal necessity. The more partners a person had, of both sexes, the larger the kinship group the greater the quality of life, as they have more trading partners and trade is the path to power.
It is these labels Lokodo is referring to when the claimed ‘homosexuality is not natural for Ugandans’.[8] When the winds of change swept through Africa, groups pushing for independence picked away at the legislation introduced by the colonisers. Nationalists such as Jomo Kenyatta argued that homosexuality was introduced to African by white people.[9] Hard-line Marxist-Leninists and Maoists went even further to argue that homosexuality was a symptom of western, capitalist decadence, a betrayal of Africa’s toiling masses.[10]
In attempts of independence, these groups were trying to separate and push themselves away from any colonial influence, however by doing so it hindered their development reversing ideologies referring to sexual relationships, further assigning themselves to sexual ideals of the west. By enforcing only heterosexual relationships, it closes the door on traditional ideas of kinship groups.
Uganda is in a battle to forge its own identity, after 60 years of independence, Britain and other western organisations still have a powerful influence.
Lokodo’s statement was met by upset globally, particularly LGBT groups who started to fight for the rights of Ugandans. Pepe Julian Onzeiema from Sexual Minorities Uganda, an alliance of LGBT organisations, said its members were fearful. When the bill was introduced in 2014 ‘hundreds of LGBT people were forced to leave the country as refugees’, Mr Onzeima said three gay men and one transgender woman had been killed in homophobic attacks in Uganda this year’. [11] A boycott towards a fast food chain, Chick-Fil-A, began as it was discovered that their profits funded a ‘charity’, who spend $25,000 lobbying Congress to not condemn Uganda’s Kill the Gay’s Bill. [12]
Whilst Twitter storming can damage popularity in Ugandan government, there was greater concern in terms of international donors. After the European Union, World Bank, The United States and Global Fund pressured President Museveni to make a statement, who announced ‘there is no plan by government to introduce a law of that nature. [13]
To blame its past oppressors and the western world they sit in, Uganda is trying to create its own rules, however in the process they are pushing the west intrinsically closer. Blaming the west pushes aside the traditional society of pre-colonial Africa and contradicts the believe that Europeans brought with them homosexuality. The backlash created in these laws exposes Uganda’s reliance on external funding, the threat of withdrawal forced the president into making a statement. As Rodney argued ‘Europeans underdeveloped Africa’[14] however in the post-colonial world it is Uganda who is continuing this trend, by rejecting the attempts to be more acceptant they are forced to sabotage their development. All of these motives exposed in a statement: ‘Homosexuality is not natural to Ugandans’.[15]
[1] Walter Rodney, How Europe Underdeveloped Africa (London: Bogle: L’Ouverture Publications, 1972), p.224.
[2] Jjuuko, Adrian, and Monica Tabengwa. ‘Expanded Criminalisation of Consensual Same-sex Relations in Africa: Contextualising Recent Developments.’ In Envisioning Global LGBT Human Rights: (Neo)colonialism, Neoliberalism, Resistance and Hope, edited by Jjuuko Adrian, Nicol Nancy, Lusimbo Richard, Mulé Nick J., Ursel Susan, Wahab Amar, and Waugh Phyllis (London: School of Advanced Study, University of London, 2018), p.65.
[3] Ibid. p.65.
[4] Samuel Osborne, ‘ Uganda announces ‘Kill the Gays’ Law imposing death penalty on homosexuals’, Independent (10th October 2019) https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/africa/uganda-death-penalty-kill-the-gays-homosexuals-lgbt-a9151411.html
[5] Jjuuko, Adrian, and Monica Tabengwa. ‘Expanded Criminalisation of Consensual Same-sex Relations in Africa: Contextualising Recent Developments.’ p.72.
[6] Nita Bhalla, ‘Uganda denies plan to impose death penalty for gay sex amid global concern’, Reuters (15th October 2019).
[7] Jjuuko, Adrian, and Monica Tabengwa. ‘Expanded Criminalisation of Consensual Same-sex Relations in Africa: Contextualising Recent Developments.’ p.70.
[8] Samuel Osborne, ‘Uganda announces ‘Kill the Gays’ Law imposing death penalty on homosexuals’.
[9] Marc Epprecht, Heterosexual Africa? The History of an Idea from the Age of Exploration to the Age of Aids (Athens, Ohio: Ohio University Press, 2008) p. 126.
[10] Ibid. p.126.
[11] Samuel Osborne, ‘ Uganda announces ‘Kill the Gays’ Law imposing death penalty on homosexuals’, Independent, (10th October 2019)
[12] Nita Bhalla, ‘Uganda denies plan to impose death penalty for gay sex amid global concern’.
[13] Ibid.
[14] Walter Rodney, How Europe Underdeveloped Africa, p.224.
[15] Samuel Osborne, ‘Uganda announces ‘Kill the Gays’ Law imposing death penalty on homosexuals’.
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