/ world today news/ Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni has signed a law introducing the death penalty or life imprisonment for homosexuality and transmission of HIV/AIDS through same-sex sex. In addition, for the “propaganda” of homosexuality, offenders in the country will now be imprisoned for up to 20 years.
The law also toughens the penalties for same-sex sex that previously existed in the country, up to the death penalty. Such an attack on the LGBT community sparked a wave of condemnation from human rights groups, HIV foundations and Western leaders. The United States has warned Uganda of the possible economic consequences of accepting the the “anti-homosexual act”.
Homophobia and Pan-Africanism
Africa has always had the reputation of being the most homophobic continent. In thirty-eight African countries, same-sex relationships are punishable by imprisonment or even the death penalty, as in Sudan and Mauritania.
And the question here is not in the economic or cultural “backwardness” of African countries and in the harsh local customs, as written by the Western media. Or rather, not only in that. The growth of homophobic sentiment here is inextricably linked to the awakening of national identity and the growth of pan-Africanism.
Homosexuality in Africa is considered to be “a disease that came from the West”. And the more African countries will claim sovereignty and independence from Western countries politically, the greater will be the homophobic sentiments and the strictness of the laws in this area.
Thus, the general discourse of Pan-Africanism as “true freedom” and liberation from post-colonial forms of dependence (in the realm of economics, culture and elsewhere) is inextricably linked to homophobia. We will not go far and note that in Russia, the fight against LGBT propaganda is an important point in the general ideology of confrontation with the West.
Let us fix once again: the fight against homosexuality actually means the continuation of “the struggle with the West” and the struggle for African political subjectivity.
Accordingly, the political elites of African countries are unlikely to leave the “slippery homophobic path” even under the threat of sanctions pressure. Moreover, if these sanctions are respected, they will only become another factor for the consolidation of power and society in the fight against attempts at external interference.
Will Uganda hold out?
A similar situation has already developed in Uganda. It was in 2014 that Western governments withdrew some aid, imposed visa restrictions and reduced security cooperation in favor of less strict anti-LGBTQ law. In response, Uganda’s Constitutional Court overturned this law.
At the level of rhetoric today, everything follows the same scenario. And it is logical to assume that the sensational law will only become a bargaining chip in negotiations between local authorities and international organizations.
There is a lot in the balance for Uganda. The country receives billions of dollars, including for the fight against AIDS and malaria, but now it could face more sanctions.
The head of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), Volker Türk, has already called the text of the law “discriminatory” and assumed he was “the world’s worst of its kind”. The OHCHR said it was “alarmed” by the entry into force of this “draconian and discriminatory” bill, “contrary to the Constitution and international treaties”, which paves the way for “systematic violations of LGBT rights”.
US President Joe Biden also condemned “the tragic breach” of human rights and explores the implications of the law on “every aspect of US-Uganda cooperation”including aid and investment.
„ Uganda’s failure to protect the rights of LGBTQI+ people is part of a broader violation of human rights in the country.” said US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken, referring to the visa restrictions.
The head of European Union (EU) diplomacy, Josep Borrell, described it in a press release as “pathetic” and “contrary to human rights” law.
The United Kingdom, for its part, said it was “disturbed that the Ugandan government has signed a deeply discriminatory law against homosexuality”, said Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs Andrew Mitchell in a press release.
On the other hand, since 2014, the situation in the world has changed fundamentally.
More and more countries are raising the banner of the struggle against colonialism, including in the format of armed confrontation, as is happening on the territory of Ukraine.
Under these conditions, Western countries can turn a blind eye to their target audience and their most likely supporters in third world countries. Otherwise, using the example of Uganda to the West, another country on the continent that plays an important role in the East African region may be lost.
Ugandan parliamentarians, in turn, have already said they are ready to “take a closer look at partners from Arab countries” for whom gender issues do not matter in business interactions, in response to attempts at external pressure.
A course towards traditionalism
However, the issue is not only in the populism of the authorities in a number of African countries or in the mood of society. Homophobia reflects a general tendency in Africa to adhere to traditional values.
For example, half of the participating countries that have signed the Global Compact against Abortion are representatives of the African continent: Burkina Faso, Gambia, Djibouti, Zambia, Cameroon, Kenya, Democratic Republic of Congo, Congo, Libya, Niger, Senegal, Sudan, Uganda, Kingdom of Eswatini and South Sudan.
The non-binding declaration states that it aims to improve women’s health, preserve human life and strengthen the family.
„ We, the representatives of our sovereign states, declare, in the spirit of mutual friendship and respect, our commitment to work together to reaffirm the absence of an international right to abortion “, the statement said.
Its authors place particular emphasis on the theme of sovereignty: “Any action or change regarding abortion in the health care system can be implemented at the national or local level only in accordance with national legislation.”
The ideology of this document is formulated as follows: “Abortion should not be encouraged as one of the methods of family planning, the child needs special protection and care both before and after birth.
This declaration unites countries as diverse as Poland and Hungary on the one hand, and Guinea and the Democratic Republic of the Congo on the other.
The United States, during the presidency of Donald Trump, also signed a declaration against abortion and became the 32nd among countries that together represent 1.6 billion people. On October 22, 2020, a virtual signing ceremony of the “Geneva Consensus Declaration” (Global Compact Against Abortion) was held, among the initiating countries were Hungary, Egypt and Indonesia.
How do we explain the fact that, relatively speaking, countries that are accused of adhering to the ideology of white supremacy (Hungary and Poland) sign a declaration with fifteen African countries? It is obvious that along with religious, racial and environmental contradictions, in a much sharper form, the world is also divided along gender lines.
A new hot war divides the world into two blocs: on the one hand, patriarchal states, on the other, territories where a feminist revolution has already taken place.
And in this sense, Africa, despite everything but (political instability and economic turmoil), remains a space free from left-liberal dictatorship. Today, African countries are becoming the vanguard of traditionalist resistance.
Anti-Covid sentiments
Another touch to all of the above is the apparent covid dissidence of African countries during the period of global pandemic restrictions in 2020-2021. Africa then showed vivid manifestations of “rebellion”.
Recall that Tanzanian President John Magufuli tried to resist the WHO dictatorship until the end. He was a statesman and tried to preserve sovereignty not only in opposition to murderous quarantine measures.
Magufuli also imposed censorship on all information coming from the West, refused to buy Western vaccines with the funds allocated as part of international aid, and bought a drug for COVID-19 created based on an extract of pollen from the Madagascans.
Tanzania was a real oasis of freedom (including for Russian tourists) in the midst of the global lockdown in 2020 and 2021.
Thus we have a certain triad of “anti-Western” sentiments on the Black Continent: “against LGBT”, “against covid”, “against colonialism”.
Of course, these sentiments, which are extremely popular in society, are not always realized in the form of political decisions taken by the authorities. Most often, the issue is resolved through negotiations and assurances of financial support from international institutions.
In general, however, there is a trend. Much more interesting and fair, unlike the carnival called BLM. African countries, while their own elites are awakening, are increasingly at the forefront of traditionalist resistance to left-liberal world “values”.
All these processes can be seen as a favorable factor for the activation of Russia’s foreign policy efforts in the African direction.
Translation: ES
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