Shooting oneself in the foot

How Western threats of sanctions are bad for the struggle for the rights of homosexuals in Uganda

THE LAST WORD | Andrew M. Mwenda | Last month, Uganda passed the most draconian and barbaric anti-homosexual law in the world. The law has a death sentence for some acts of homosexuality but does not do the same when those same acts are committed by heterosexuals. It also literally denies homosexuals the right to healthcare and accommodation in any rented house or hotel. Western countries are justifiably and genuinely angry. Sources say they are planning a scorched-earth response involving economic and travel sanctions and aid cuts. This is where good intentions collide with a complicated reality to fulfill the law of unintended consequences. The very response the West is seeking will ultimately strengthen the case of Ugandan homophobes.

Uganda’s homophobe groups argue that homosexuality is an external imposition on our society. They say that there is a grand conspiracy by Western countries to turn every Ugandan (and African) into a homosexual. Some extreme version of this conspiracy theory claims Western powers want to use homosexuality to annihilate the black race. That they spread homosexuality to contain Africa’s population growth. Many frightened elite Ugandans talk of “massive recruitment” of young people in schools into homosexuality as if it is a cult. They claim that huge amounts of money have been poured into the country, the school curriculum has been changed to include books and videos “promoting” homosexuality.

I have been asking these Ugandan elites to produce evidence of one child in one school who has been “recruited” into homosexuality. Their answer is: recruitment is everywhere. “We know you,” many Ugandans tell me with a straight face, “you have made a lot of money promoting homosexuality. You are an agent of this Western conspiracy. How can you deny a problem that is everywhere. Are you blind? You have been corrupted by money.” By claiming homosexuality is ubiquitous, these Ugandans are correct. Many young people in Kampala today openly identify as homosexuals, a shock to our society that is undergoing tremendous social change. However, the assertion that there is “recruitment everywhere” is because they have no specific evidence to prove their prejudice-driven claims.

Ugandans cannot accept that Uganda’s homosexuality is homegrown, as indigenous as the famous long-horned Ankole cattle. And it is into this minefield of fantasies that Western countries walk with their threats of sanctions, travel restrictions, cancellation of investment plans etc. If Uganda’s homophobes are short of evidence to back up their claims of a foreign conspiracy to “impose” homosexuality on the country, these Western threats do the job. “Can’t you see they are determined to force homosexuality down our throats even at the point of the gun,” many Ugandan homophobes say.

Well, given Western (read American) hubris to spread their “values” such as liberal democracy and human rights by force of arms (Iraq, Libya, Afghanistan, etc.), who can blame them. America and its choir singers in Western Europe have dominated the world for so long they have lost all sense of diplomacy. They think they can and should impose their will on other societies with threats. These threats have created a siege mentality in the heads of many elite Ugandans. They feel their “traditional family values” (never mind this is invented tradition) are being undermined by the rich and powerful nations of the West. They dig-in to defend what they cherish. Ironically, these “traditional Ugandans” rally around Christianity, a Western religion imposed upon us through colonial conquest.

Up until the 1960s and 70s, homosexuality was a crime in nearly every Western society. In fact, homophobia in Uganda was imported by the British colonial authorities and their Christian missionaries. Before this current law was passed, the provisions of our Penal Code Act against homosexuality had been written by the British. Homophobia, like Christianity, fascism, communism, terrorism, anarchism and all other isms are Western ideologies, practices and attitudes imported into Africa via the colonial and neocolonial experience. Many precolonial African societies did not care about one’s sexuality and those that did, tolerated, accepted or even encouraged homosexual relationships and liaisons.

Ugandans (and Africans) do not need assistance from Western powers to defend the rights of sexual minorities. The West should abandon its hubris of presenting itself as the moral policeman of the world always flexing its economic and military muscle to get its way. This debate on homosexuality is a debate about moral tastes. People cannot change their moral values in one night due to foreign intimidation. It takes time for societies to adjust their beliefs and prejudices. Many African intellectuals, journalists, academics, religious leaders, businesspersons, activists, jurists etc. are willingly defending the rights of homosexuals in our societies. The best way to advance this debate is to keep it as a domestic matter, a conversation among citizens in the church, school, community and family.

I know many citizens of the West are appalled by the barbarity of our new law. But their leaders should tell them to look back forty years ago in USA and Europe to see where Uganda is coming from. An open debate will always make people listen, digest the issues and over years become initially tolerant and finally accepting of a change in their moral tastes. This draconian anti-homosexual law (and the previous ones before it) has furnished us with an opportunity for robust debate on matters of sexuality in this country. Contrary to Western doomsday impressions, Uganda will in future (most likely) turn out to be the most liberal and tolerant country on homosexual rights in Africa. This is because attempts to pass anti-homosexuality laws have led the country to open debate on the subject.

I understand the pressure Western politicians and diplomats must be facing from their home constituencies who are demanding something must be done. But Western leaders and their citizens should also understand the pressures our politicians are facing from the population. Over the last 70 years, the West has been involved in trying to shape different societies in Asia and Africa into a mirror image of itself. This project has always failed and most recently and spectacularly in Iraq, Libya and Afghanistan – even when done under bombs and with trillions of dollars. The lesson the West should learn is that you cannot engineer a society from without. Societies need to be left alone to change at their own pace and in directions that their people see as beneficial. This may be hard for the powerful to accept. But the West should learn that this is about us, not them. Please leave us to settle it by ourselves.

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amwenda@independent.co.ug