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Sexual Orientation and Human Rights: Putting Homophobia on Trial

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Abstract

This chapter analyzes and critiques homophobia in Africa and argues that as a matter of general historical practice, Africans did not discriminate against, or socially stigmatize, gays and lesbians. The author contends that modern homophobia in Africa can be traced directly to mission Christianity and Islam whose doctrinal teachings have been used to promote homophobia. The writer takes the view that it is the normative obligation of human rights thinkers and advocates to deconstruct the intellectual bankruptcy of African homophobes and reconstruct a rights discourse that affirms the dignity of homosexuals. It is not un-African to be gay, as some have argued. Nor is there anything racial – or ethnic – about any form of sexual orientation. The author concludes by calling for a struggle based on anti-subordination to combat all forms of human powerlessness, including sexual orientation.

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... Indeed, as evidenced in the genocide of the First Peoples of the Americas, colonial legislation was 'imposed on indigenous peoples without interest in or inquiry into the indigenous view of homosexuality' (Shoko, 2010: 645-6). These Indigenous views are being increasingly made available and enacted in contemporary non-Western settings as ongoing forms of resistance, decolonization and national independence (Fumanti, 2017;Hodge, 2015); and these movements in countries of origin need to be made available to migrants and refugees in countries such as Australia who may be holding onto views of SSAGD from their countries of origin from the time they left (Hamilton, 2010;Mutua, 2011). ...
... So, as in any society at any time, SSAGD existed in multiple forms with multiple responses before the coming of Europeans, Christians and Muslims. As Mutua (2011) traces, the sexualities and genders of Africans have been the focus of diverse, repressive regimes beginning with some pre-colonial societies with harsh patriarchal hegemonies in which the normative prescription for propriety of women and procreation were paramount. This was followed by the era of the slave trade wherein African sexualities were centered on procreation and reproduction of a highly productive and profitable labor force. ...
Chapter
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This chapter will present an overview of some of the contestations and confluences (both intentional and coincidental) regarding the uncovering, recovering and discovering of pre-colonial, pre-Westernized SSAGD cultural and faith heritages that have been erased or re-written due to what Wieringa (2009) calls ‘postcolonial amnesia’. Researchers find that many pre-colonial cultures were ‘historically more accommodating to sexual difference than present-day homophobes allow’. In the case of African countries, ‘it is the dogmatic intolerance of same-sex sexuality that is “un-African” as it largely reflects imported Christian missionary ideology and colonial law’ (Epprecht and Egya, 2011: 369). Indeed, as evidenced in the genocide of the First Peoples of the Americas, colonial legislation was ‘imposed on indigenous peoples without interest in or inquiry into the indigenous view of homosexuality’ (Shoko, 2010: 645–6). These Indigenous views are being increasingly made available and enacted in contemporary non-Western settings as ongoing forms of resistance, decolonization and national independence (Fumanti, 2017; Hodge, 2015); and these movements in countries of origin need to be made available to migrants and refugees in countries such as Australia who may be holding onto views of SSAGD from their countries of origin from the time they left (Hamilton, 2010; Mutua, 2011).
... She further explains that homosexuality became a prominent issue during February 2003, when homophobic fears were prompted by a recommendation originating from a section of the women's movement that "urged and proposed Equal Opportunities Commission (EOC) to address the rights of homosexuals as members of the category of marginalized groups in Uganda" (Tamale, 2007: 17). Since then, there have been notable physical assaults, threats, and virulent verbal attacks against activists who are working to improve the status of gay and lesbian organizations in Uganda (Mutua, 2011). Despite this hostile environment, activist groups continue to operate and push boundaries, working to educate Ugandan citizens on the dangers of anti-homosexual campaigns and attacks. ...
... Despite this hostile environment, activist groups continue to operate and push boundaries, working to educate Ugandan citizens on the dangers of anti-homosexual campaigns and attacks. 8 Some African scholars suggest that there is a public perception in Uganda that support for the rights of homosexuals is largely funded and instigated by gay and lesbian organizations in Western Europe and North America (Mutua, 2011;Tamale, 2007). 9 Taken together, these arguments and observations suggest that young women and homosexuals in Uganda are extremely disadvantaged groups susceptible to multiple forms of exploitation and abuse. ...
Article
In this study we discuss how gender relations are influenced by a ‘girls only’ martial arts-based sport, gender and development (SGD) programme that aims to improve young women's discipline, leadership skills and self-defence capabilities in a rural Ugandan community with widespread domestic and gender-based violence (GBV). The results of our qualitative research with a Ugandan non-governmental organization (NGO) staff members and martial arts instructors demonstrate that the young women's participation in the martial arts programme challenged gender norms and improved their confidence. However, the exclusion of boys and men from the programming, combined with the cultural inaptness of girls practicing martial arts, may have contributed to the girls' subordination. Our data also revealed that young men were also the targets of GBV. Overall, we argue that an exploration of the relational impact of gender in the context of SGD, and sport for development and peace terrain more broadly is necessary in order to: (1) understand how social relations shift and change in the face of variable and fluid gender dynamics; and (2) challenge gendered assumptions about prescribed/predetermined gender relations by acknowledging that young women may not be the only targets of violence.
... The western approach towards LGBTQIA+ people can be a veritable lesson for Africa. The practices in Western nations give clue in relation to acceptance, solidarity and inclusivity (Mutua, 2011). The provision of this support is needed because most times, these individuals beyond their variance in identity are embedded with talents, innate abilities and other inventive capacities that could drive societal improvement and development. ...
... This, in part, can be attributed to an aggressive impulse in some writers to offer counternarratives to the framing of same-sex sexualities and gender variance as un-African. Several scholars have since observed that the dominant narrative of a straight African sexuality has been mainstreamed by different regimes of power and has its sources in Western religion, the perceived conservatism of African cultures, colonial memory, and the anxiety of recolonization by the West (Mutua, 2011;Msibi, 2011;Apprecht, 2013;Olaoluwa, 2018). It is however interesting to notice that, while those who strive to relegate queer genders and sexualities to the margins of "Africanness" act from the fear of recolonization, mainstream gender and sexual realities on the continent are very much shaped by colonial discourses that regard Africa as the other place and Africans as the other people. ...
Article
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This article analyzes how contemporary queer African writing participates in decoloniality by queering (hetero)normative knowledge systems for social and epistemic transformation. In my reading of Akwaeke Emezi's The Death of Vivek Oji (2020), I argue that Trans/Queer African literature participates in a very important epistemic project of counterfactualism by offering alternatives to perceived and systemically imposed African gender and sexual realities. The novel achieves this by deconstructing the hetero-naturalization of temporality to locate queer time and queer space within indigenous African modes of worldmaking. In their rendition of the Igbo myth of the Ogbanje spirit children in narrating the transgender life of their protagonist, Emezi not only ascertains the indigeneity of queerness to Africa, but goes further to demonstrate how some tropical epistemologies are already queer in their non-binary imagination of life and death, human and spirit, gender and sexuality. By representing otherworldliness and possibilities of being 'out of order'-beyond the heteronormative framing of identity, space, and time-the novel debunks the pervasive notion of African queerness as recolonization and ascertains the flexibility of tropical knowledges against perceptions of their rigidity.
... a Sagrada". cos, o arcebispo traz à tona não só a politização da homossexualidade, mas a teologização da homofobia. É a partir dessa teologização que, segundo van Klinken e Chitando (2016), líderes políticos usam uma retórica bíblica para descrever a homossexualidade e os direitos civis da população LGBTQIAPN+ como uma ameaça moral aos seus países.Mutua (2011), ao discutir se, ao ser gay, a pessoa seria un-African, declara que há uma falta de consistência nesse discurso homofóbico religioso, pois ataca a homossexualidade como "estrangeira", mas abraçao cristianismo como autêntico. Para o autor, quando o ex-presidente do Zimbabwe Robert Mungabe, por exemplo, declarou que pessoas homossexuais s ...
Article
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Apesar de haver, no Brasil, uma discussão ainda escassa sobre as questões queer em África, várias obras literárias buscam representar o ser africano queer na contemporaneidade. Entre elas, está a coletânea de contos Queer Africa 2, em que se encontra “The day he came” de Amatesiro Dore, corpus deste trabalho. Este artigo busca, dessa forma, trazer uma análise do conto pautada na interação entre mundo da arte e mundo da vida, buscando compreender o contexto da homossexualidade na Nigéria, espaço ficcional escolhido por Dore e país onde a homossexualidade é criminalizada, e sua relação com o discurso religioso (pecado), legal (crime) e tradicional (un-Africannes) a partir das vozes, em sua maioria, de intelectuais africanos que se debruçam sobre o tema. Verificou-se que, no conto, o autor, mesmo estabelecendo o mundo ficcional na Nigéria, prioriza o discurso religioso e não a questão legal ou tradicional como a fonte principal dos conflitos vividos pelo protagonista Peter.
... In Kenya, much of the population believe that same sex intimacy is a Western importation (Finerty, 2012). However, it has been argued that even in Kenya, homophobia is not 'homegrown' but a product of the country's colonial past (Mutua, 2011). Homosexuality is criminalized in the country under sections 162,163 and 165 of the Kenyan Penal Code. ...
Chapter
The argument in support of the rights of sexual minorities in sub-Saharan Africa should be secondary to the argument for the decriminalization of consensual same-sex intimacy. So long as sexual minorities are classed as criminals and deviants, it might be difficult to champion sexual minority rights as a human right. This chapter adopts an approach that queries the criminalization of same-sex sexual conduct among consenting adults in private. The chapter discusses crime from the perspective of the criminal law theories of harm, morality, and paternalism. It is argued in the chapter that because states determine what rights are guaranteed within their jurisdiction, if states can rethink what conduct of behavior should be criminalized, then states might guarantee sexual minority rights as human rights. The chapter recommends repealing laws criminalizing consensual same-sex sexual conduct among adults in the states in sub-Saharan Africa.
... In Kenya, much of the population believe that same sex intimacy is a Western importation (Finerty, 2012). However, it has been argued that even in Kenya, homophobia is not 'homegrown' but a product of the country's colonial past (Mutua, 2011). Homosexuality is criminalized in the country under sections 162,163 and 165 of the Kenyan Penal Code. ...
Book
The book offers perspectives on the rights of sexual minorities in the Global South. In several countries, consensual sexual activity in private amongst persons of the same gender is still criminalized. The argument is that same-sexual relationships are 'uncultural' or 'unnatural'. In countries where anti-gay laws persist, the rights of LGBT persons are not considered human rights. The book seeks to examine the cultural and religious issues that influence anti-gay laws in juxtaposition with the need to protect the human rights of sexual minorities in the 21st century. The book adopts the following disciplinary prisms – legal, sociological, political, religious, and anthropological. There is a growing appetite for research in this area in order to advance the need for the decriminalization of same-sex sexual activity amongst consenting adults in private. The book examines the core issues from an interdisciplinary perspective. It serves as a resource for scholars in diverse fields who research this area such as lawyers, policymakers, and academics in the fields of religion, philosophy, law, anthropology, sociology, and criminology.
... 11 Hak ini membolehkan seseorang berpartisipasi dalam sebarang bentuk kegiatan seksual termasuklah dalam mengekspresikan emosi, seksual dan daya tarikan romantik kepada lelaki, wanita, keduadua gender atau kepada seseorang yang tiada gender. 12 Pelapor Khas PBB, Paul Haunt pada tahun 2004 menggunakan istilah hak seksualiti dalam laporannya mengenai right to health. Kenyataannya sebagaimana berikut: ...
Conference Paper
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There have been immense debates on whether to accept or to oppose the practices of sexual rights, in the context of universal values and cultural relativism. Both values are discussed in various discourses concerning human rights, with some in favour or differ, with their own arguements on the matter. Similarly, sexual rights goes without saying. This paper highlights the fundamental concepts used to support or oppose sexual inequality. An analysis is conducted by using some synthesis on various facts and arguements brought forward by both parties, to enable reconcilation on some similarities and differences of issues. The effect of sexual inequality on people's lives is also mentioned, with special reference to Malaysia and Indonesia. This study is qualitative in nature. Thus it uses some data to triangulate information gathered from various sources. Observations indicate that the acceptance of universal sexual inequality is due to one's belief in liberalism; that regards priority as the basic foundation of the existence of rights. In contrast, in the context of relativism, the doctrine of liberalism, influence of faith, and cultural norms of the society are platforms to oppose its practices.
... Most Kenyans hold the view that homosexuality is foreign and an importation from the West (Finerty 2012). However, Mutua has argued that this perception, although deeply rooted in the minds of Kenyans, is the direct opposite of the fact as homophobia is not 'homegrown' but traceable to the country's colonial past (Mutua 2011). ...
Article
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The Abrahamic faiths and received colonial law have been identified as the driving force behind the criminalisation of homosexual activity in most of the Commonwealth States of Africa. This article, therefore, seeks to question the role of criminal law in proscribing sexual activities amongst consenting adults of the same gender in Commonwealth African states. A recurring question in the paper is the propriety of criminalising a consensual conduct amongst consenting adults in private when no harm or injury is done to other citizens or the state in line with JS Mill's principle of harm. The article finds that the misconception that the main aim of criminal law is to legislate the moral values of the majority, forms support for the view that homosexuality can be learned and unlearned and if this is the case, a paternalistic approach by the state would help mould citizens' behaviour. A comparative and case study approach was adopted for the discussion in the article. Four Commonwealth African states, namely, Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, and Uganda were selected as case studies. The article recommends a much more robust approach for the support of sexual minorities in the Commonwealth.
... Orientasi citasanggama ialah keadaan manusia yang merupakan perkara yang dianggap peribadi dan merupakan kepercaman sosial. Tiga kategori utama orientasi citasanggama ialah heterocitasanggama dan dwicitasanggama yang meliputi kumpulan heterocitasanggama eksklusif sehinggalah kepada kumpulan citaliwat eksklusif dengan pelbagai jenis kumpulan dwicitasanggama di tengah-tengahnya (Mutua, 2011). ...
Article
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The origin of the existence of homosexuality is often discussed based on two main theories of essentialism and social constructivism. The conflict in the field of homosexuality develops when theory of essentialism addresses the natural existence of homosexuality in human being. Nevertheless, social constructivist theory emphasizes that homosexuality is the product of social interactions in the community. Thus, this article aims to evaluate both theories from Islamic perspective with special reference to the related Quran verses. The results show that in Islam, homosexuality is an inherent consequence of social construction.
... heterosexist and patriarchal inclinations, Lewis (2011:209) observes that researchers should '…extricate African sexuality from binaries that define heterosexuality as normatively African and homosexuality as deviant and Western' (Msibi 2013). The supposed 'un-African' nature and non-existence of homosexual practices on the African continent have been refuted by several studies that document the existence of same-sex practices as part of the African culture for centuries (Dlamini 2006;Mutua 2011). Consider, for example, Epprecht's (2005:142) critique of this invisibility of homosexuality. ...
Article
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This article provides a theoretical contemplation on how reciprocation of an assimilationist, liberationist and/or transgressive approach by lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex, queer and/or questioning (LGBTIQ+) individuals on university campuses may encourage transformation initiatives in South African universities. The author ascribe to the contributions of previous research studies on a social constructionist approach to resilience to debate how individuals potentially navigate the disparity between sexual structure and agency within their ideological and physical construction and enactment of their academic and student persona. A theoretical basis is provided for the influence of social resilience to emphasise the localised, intersectional and plural experiences of LGBTIQ+ individuals as opposed to a monolithic and universal ‘either/or’ account of their being solely docile victims or free agents in a heteronormative context.
... En Occidente, la descriminalización de la homosexualidad se hallaba lo suficientemente extendida como para que distintos países comenzasen a considerar la posibilidad de legislar en favor del matrimonio entre personas del mismo sexo, el derecho de adopción para familias homoparentales y la introducción de la orientación sexual como una categoría susceptible de protección y de derecho (Sanders, 1996). En paralelo, los discursos que aseveraban que la homosexualidad era una orientación "genuinamente blanca, occidental y contraria al espíritu y tradiciones africanas, así como a Dios", comenzaron a extenderse para introducirse después en la agenda política de líderes africanos (Epprecht, 2008;Mburu, 2004;Mutua, 2011). ...
Article
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This article explores the problem of post-colonial homophobia vis-á-vis discourses, violent masculinities, intersectional discrimination, and HIV-AIDS in Africa in general and in South Africa in particular. The aim is to understand the existing dynamics between post-colonial homophobia and patriarchy, masculinities, and the new discourses about sexuality in Africa, as a continent with the highest number of states that criminalize sexual diversity. The author aims to identify how homophobia is reproduced in the South, since its post-colonial elements distinguish it from other realities.
... However, most people who are opposed to LGBT rights have little or no personal contact with openly gay people. As a result of the criminalisation of same-sex sexual relationships by the Botswana government and the religious dogma and hate-mongering that is preached by religious groups, many individuals are loath to accept LGBT people as deserving of equal respect and protection (Mutua 2011). ...
... However, most people who are opposed to LGBT rights have little or no personal contact with openly gay people. As a result of the criminalisation of same-sex sexual relationships by the Botswana government and the religious dogma and hate-mongering that is preached by religious groups, many individuals are loath to accept LGBT people as deserving of equal respect and protection (Mutua 2011). ...
Chapter
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Human rights in relation to sexual orientation and gender identity are at last reaching the heart of global debates. Yet 78 states worldwide continue to criminalise same-sex sexual behaviour, and due to the legal legacies of the British Empire, 42 of these – more than half – are in the Commonwealth of Nations. In recent years many states have seen the emergence of new sexual nationalisms, leading to increased enforcement of colonial sodomy laws against men, new criminalisations of sex between women and discrimination against transgender people. "Human Rights, Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity in The Commonwealth: Struggles for Decriminalisation and Change" challenges these developments as the first book to focus on experiences of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex (LGBTI) and all non-heterosexual people in the Commonwealth. The volume offers the most internationally extensive analysis to date of the global struggle for decriminalisation of same-sex sexual behaviour and relationships
... (HRW &IGLHRC 2003: 46-47) The incantatory power of the homosexual figure for a certain prevalent kind of muscular African political, religious, and cultural leadership and its failures is therefore important to consider in furthering thought on the uses of homophobia (and associated violence) for heterosexual masculinity in Africa. Events in the last few years in Cameroon, Malawi, Senegal, Uganda, Zambia, Zimbabwe, and elsewhere suggest the utility of the homosexual bogeyman as figure of displacement or a scapegoat for failed leadership (see, e.g., BBC 2009 ;Epprecht 1998 ;HRW 2004HRW , 2010aHRW , 2010Mutua 2011 ). People's sexual desires, relationships, and identities quite often are put to use toward sociopolitical and economic objectives by governments and societal leaders when they cannot live up to their promises to their people or own up to their failures. ...
Article
Based on two relatively well-reported cases of homophobia in Malawi and South Africa, this article aims to show some of the ways in which hegemonic African men and masculinities are unsettled by, but also find ideological use for, the existence of homosexuality and nonheteronormative sexualities. Deploying the notion of psychopolitics, the article traces the interpenetrating psychosocial and sociopolitical aspects of homophobia. The argument is that analyses of issues of lesbian, gay, and "othered" sexualities are vital for a fuller understanding of the production of hegemonic forms of gender and masculinity in Africa. The article suggests that the threat posed by homosexuality is used as a distraction for some of the socioeconomic development-related failures of Africa's ruling men but also, more significantly, for the impossibility of hegemonic African masculinity itself.
... Unique and widely available spaces are being created to work out identity and status, manage relationships and friendships, figure out social cues, and help each other to come up with ways to negotiate public life (boyd, 2007). Therefore, because young people who transgress the hetero-norm face severe hostility in an increasing number of African contexts, and are often at risk of encountering violence if they do explore, perform, and discuss their sexual identity and rights in offline spaces (Bennett et al., 2010;Muholi, 2004;Mutua, 2011;Anguita, 2012), these technologies have the potential to be indispensible tools in the struggle to find ways to express and advocate for these rights. ...
Article
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Amina Mama argues that once the diversity and heterogeneity of African history, society and culture is recognised theoretically, researchers have the ability to dispel myths about ‘essential’ African culture. This paper would like to contribute to this project by focusing on the ways in which young queer African women are making use of Web 2.0 technologies to engage in issues related to gender and sexuality, to challenge myths and negative perceptions about the lives of sexual minorities in African contexts. Various examples are used to show that that even though young African women are often faced with severe homophobic and heterosexist realities, a growing number of women are embracing social networking tools to challenge oppressive gender and sexuality norms and to build community. Blogs such as HOLAAfrica! and Adventures from the Bedrooms of African Women provide an online platform for African women to share their stories and thus co-create knowledge that reflects diversity and the heterogeneity of queer African experiences. Facebook and Twitter also provide spaces that allow for the presenting of new subversive identities. The space that is created by using multiple Web 2.0 technologies allows for communicative identity constructions that are assisting women to challenge understandings in their contexts that see sexual identity as something that is fixed, natural, exclusively heterosexual, and not to be disturbed.
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Storytelling has been, and is being used globally as a tool to advance the queer rights cause through diverse media and on various platforms. The rise in queer representation in stories, and shift from negative to more dignifying portrayals have also played roles in the advancement of queer rights globally. Storytelling existing solely within the disciplinary focus of literary, academic or media production serves its disciplinary focus to create, contribute to, change and shift dominant frameworks of knowledge within the academic or socio-cultural context. However, through a transdisciplinary lens and for the purpose of advancing human rights, generally, and queer rights in particular, our expectations of stories may be extended to serve more functions when used jointly with international human rights soft law. Nigeria is faced with dire queer rights conditions. The hostile queer rights situation in Nigeria exists within the context of several international human rights treaties and other legal instruments that proscribe discrimination and violence on the grounds of actual or perceived sexual orientation, gender identity and expression. One of these instruments is Resolution 275 on the protection against violence and other human rights violation against persons on the basis of their real or imputed sexual orientation or gender identity (Resolution 275), adopted by the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights (African Commission). Being a soft law instrument, Resolution 275 lends itself to be used not only as a persuasive tool for the protection of queer persons on the African continent, but also as an instructive interpretation of the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights (African Charter) in respect of the dignity and eradication of violence towards queer person. Yet, like many other soft law instruments, Resolution 275 lies mostly silent, with its potential largely untapped. There are queer rights advocacy organisations in Nigeria that carry out commendable work to advance the human rights of queer persons using the tenets of various disciplines including legal advocacy and policy advancements. The Nigerian government has repeatedly demonstrated its hostility towards queer persons and queer rights. However, studies have shown that Nigerian university classrooms afford opportunities for queer-inclusive conversations. It is important, while thinking of state obligations, to conceptualise queer rights advocacy in terms of pedagogies as well. Written from a practise-based transdisciplinary perspective, this thesis explores the legitimacy of an indigenous storytelling pedagogy, constructed in the course of this study, as tool for the advancement of non-violent attitudes towards queer persons while jointly promoting of Resolution 275. This transdisciplinary intervention involves a legal analysis of the history and state of queer rights in Nigeria, the legal and pedagogical potential of Resolution 275; the construction of an indigenous storytelling pedagogy; an analysis of the technical and theoretical configurations of this study’s indigenous storytelling pedagogy; and the analysis of the reception of the storytelling pedagogy across three Nigerian universities.
Chapter
This chapter locates the queer African figure within custom, culture and traditional practice. It focuses on the chinkhoswe, a traditional Malawian matrimonial agreement, between Steven Monjeza Soko and Tiwonge Chimbalanga Kachepa. Arrested for holding the chinkhoswe, the couple stood trial and were found guilty under provisions of the Penal Code for ‘illegal acts of sodomy and indecency’. An analysis of the relevant literature contextualises the chinkhoswe and surrounding events. This provides the basis for an examination of the judgement which shows how the court’s decision attempts to abstract queerness from Malawian culture. Contesting this, I argue that Steven and Tiwonge’s chinkhoswe subverts the idea that queerness is un-African. A qualitative interview with Tiwonge shows the agency that queer people exercise in their occupation of living custom. Tiwonge’s cultural labour troubles the deployment of essentialist notions of ‘post-colonial Malawian culture’ and this contributes to the possibilities for queer Africans to re-imagine the customary. This possibility provides a mode for queer Africans to survive, desire and resist in a way that furthers a queer African futurity.
Chapter
The “War on Drugs” in the Philippines resulted in the arrest of unprecedented number of suspects of drug-related crimes. Legal professionals managed this deluge of cases by embracing the device of plea bargaining, previously banned from those types of cases. Given the weakness of the legal cases of drug-related offences assembled by the police, conviction of the accused is often in serious tension with the duty and commitment of legal professionals to decide cases on the basis of law and evidence. At the same time, acquittals appear anathema both to the government’s aggressive anti-drugs campaign and legal professionals’ own moral judgement of drug users. Plea bargaining allows legal professionals to avoid these unwanted outcomes and satisfies their belief in rehabilitation. This chapter draws from interviews with prosecutors, public attorneys, and judges to explore their moral discourse against poor defendants and how it affects the justice system’s response to drugs cases. Locating the “war on drugs” within an understanding of neoliberalism as the ascendance of “markets-and-morals”, the chapter shows how legal professionals’ embrace of plea bargaining continues the weaponization of morality against the poor within the criminal justice system.
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Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex, queer, and plus all other (LGBTIQ+) people often are being "corrected" by families through religious and cultural beliefs because of their sexual orientation, gender identity, expression, and sex characteristics (SOGIESC) that destabilises stable constructs of heteronormativity. For these belief systems, LGBTIQ+ people threaten the concept of family and associated values that inform the so-called social fabric and cohesion of sexuality and gender norms. In recent years, LGBTIQ+ people, human rights defenders, and academics have shed light on the practices of "conversion therapies" on the African continent in various forms as practised by religious and cultural communities. "Conversion therapy" is also called "reparative therapy" or "gay cure" interchangeably to describe different practices that are out to change, suppress or dissuade LGBTIQ+ people's sexual orientations, gender identities and expressions. This article will use short narrative audio video interviews conducted by openDemocracy to give voice to survivors of "conversion therapy" on the African continent. In these videos, survivors speak about the intersectional reality of family relations, mental health and religion's impact on their well-being. Over the last few years, there has been a reappreciation of the doctrine of the Trinity. Bisexual Latin-American theologian Marcella Althaus-Reid views the Trinity as a critique of heteronormative binaries. Therefore, this article explores whether Althaus-Reid's Trinitarian theology offers a counter theological narrative against "conversion practices" as advocated by families based on religion.
Article
In a recent article, C.O. Akpan argues that it is “unnatural for a man to sleep with a man as with a woman, and the idea of marriage in this sense is an abomination” (“The morality of same-sex marriage: How not to globalize a cultural anomie,” Online Journal of Health Ethics, 13(1), 2017, p. 9). Arguments in favor of same sex marriage, he claims, are “driven and motivated by the human right fad” (p. 9) that is inappropriate for African countries. We argue that the specific arguments Akpan employs against the morality of homosexuality and same-sex marriage are flawed. Our paper also presents evidence that human rights are not simply a fad, nor are they of concern and appropriate only to the West. Finally, we examine the case in South Africa, the only African nation to include LGBTQ+ rights in its constitution. In particular, we show that by doing so, South Africa has increased the health and safety not only the LGBTQ+ community, but of the nation’s citizens at large.
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This book addresses different challenges that endanger the lives of children in South Africa from an ethical perspective. The text is meant to position itself as a resource for specialists (and practitioners) in ethics and childhood studies. The content is systematically and intersectionally presented, based on scholarly analyses, insights, reasoning, and expertise – originating in different disciplines and backgrounds. It endeavours to help especially those who study the sociocultural contexts of children and families in terms of challenges and opportunities, and for possible support.
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This book addresses different challenges that endanger the lives of children in South Africa from an ethical perspective. The text is meant to position itself as a resource for specialists (and practitioners) in ethics and childhood studies. The content is systematically and intersectionally presented, based on scholarly analyses, insights, reasoning, and expertise – originating in different disciplines and backgrounds. It endeavours to help especially those who study the sociocultural contexts of children and families in terms of challenges and opportunities, and for possible support.
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In recent times there has been an upsurge in the rejection of gay orientation. A number of African countries have openly legislated against homosexual acts to undergird the belief that such orientation is alien to being African. The vitriol directed at gay people does not make much sense apart from displaying either a deep-seated resentment for the persons or their orientation. What seems valuable and worth of engagement is the claim that being gay or upholding same-sex orientation, is essentially un-African. By setting up a charitable interpretation of what opponents of same-sex relations could possibly take African reality to be, I chart a way that seeks to establish whether their interpretation of that reality is philosophically sound. What could be the basis of objections to homosexuality? What values do they articulate? Crucial to this consideration is the idea of harm. While societies are entitled to protecting themselves (through legislation and other actions if need be) from threats both from within and without, are there good grounds to think that same-sex practices pose an authentic form of harm to warrant taking the steps that some African nations have taken against their gay citizens?
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Resumo: A intolerância e da violência contra as minorias sexuais em África tem conquistado espaço em vários pontos do continente. As sodomy laws, uma herança colonial, ganham um novo revivalismo com novas reformas legislativas anti homossexualidade, em particular o caso do Uganda e do The Anti-Homosexuality Act, 2014. Este tipo de legislação configura uma séria ameaça às pessoas LGBTI e é o resultado de uma crescente homofobia que lavra em alguns países africanos e atinge as mais altas esferas do poder político e religioso. Trata-se de uma legislação discriminatória e injusta, que resulta numa maior marginalização e vulnerabilidade das minorias sexuais. Procurando um enquadramento global da situação das minorias sexuais no Uganda, este trabalho tem como ponto central de análise o The Anti-Homosexuality Act, 2014, o processo de introdução do projeto de lei no Parlamento do Uganda em 2009, e a sua aprovação, promulgação e posterior declaração de nulidade pelo Tribunal Constitucional em 2014. Procura também perceber o impacto desta legislação na vida das pessoas, em particular, as violações dos padrões internacionais de direitos humanos. Palavras-Chave: Homofobia, Uganda, Direitos Humanos, LGBTI. Abstract: Intolerance and violence against sexual minorities in Africa has gained space in various parts of the continent. The sodomy laws, a colonial heritage, gain a new revival with new anti homosexuality legislative reforms, in particular the case of Uganda and The Anti-Homosexuality Act, 2014. This legislation sets a serious threat to LGBTI people and is the result a growing homophobia raging in some African countries and reaches the highest levels of political and religious power. This is a discriminatory and unfair legislation, which results in further marginalization and vulnerability of sexual minorities. Looking for a global framework of the situation of sexual minorities in Uganda,
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