Heterosexual Africa? Notes from the struggle for sexual rights

Image via Wikipedia

Source: Royal Africa Society

By Marc Epprecht

Not every story out of Africa is doom and gloom, even on topics like “the rise of homophobia.” To be sure, there have been some recent shocking cases of violence and hate-mongering against gays, lesbians, and trans people around the continent. Governments in many countries are meanwhile proposing to reform laws inherited from former colonial rulers, moving toward greater repression and in divergence from major international bodies and public health initiatives. Were Uganda to enact and enforce its proposed Anti-Homosexuality bill, to give one of the most notorious examples, it would be required to withdraw from the United Nations and African Union, sever links with all its major donors, and arrest a large proportion of the heterosexual population for knowing (but not reporting to the police) suspected homosexuals or human rights and sexual health advocates.

Another side of this story, however, does not get as much attention. This is the story of the emergence of a vibrant lgbti (lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans and intersex) network across the continent, of creative and courageous challenges to homophobia, of sensitive and insightful new research into “sexual secrets,” and of political and religious leaders who are resisting the demagogic tide. How many people are aware that six African nations endorsed the recent UN General Assembly resolution to include sexual orientation in the universal declaration of human rights?

Alright, the Central African Republic and Gabon are not among the heavy weight or vanguardist states in Africa. One is probably justified to suspect neo-colonial arm-twisting upon them by their major donor (and the resolution’s sponsor - France). Nonetheless, a precedent has been set. It is not politically impossible for African governments to support an inclusive definition of sexual rights as understood by liberals in the West. Sexual rights activists in Africa, with international solidarity, are actively pursuing those rights through a range of strategies and fora, including through the mass media, the courts and the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights.

This is not going to be an easy struggle. It is not just that overt homophobes seem to be proliferating in the context of intense rivalry between evangelist Christian and Muslim faiths and opportunistic (mostly American) missionaries. There is also a profound, ongoing economic and health crisis across much of the continent. This makes it extremely difficult for sexual rights and sexual health advocates to make their case in the public eye. How to convince unemployed youth, landless peasants, and women trapped in abusive marriages or survival sex work, that freedom for men to have consensual sex will improve their lives? This is particularly challenging given the widespread stereotype in Africa that gays and lesbians are economically privileged and well-connected to opportunities in the West.

Read more »

The difficulties of minorities in Cameroon: Cameroonian homosexual in asylum battle.

Samy Diko - Laisse Moi

Source: Behind the mask

By Elie Smith ( Post Watch Magazine, Cameroon)

Sammy Diko, know him? He is this Cameroonian musician who shocked many in the country by openly "getting married' to a gay White man. The wedding, in full bloom, raised more raised more than picket lines when Canal 2, a local TV station last Christmas. Many Camerooonians swore never to listen to Sammy Diko's albeit suave vibes again. The issue sets our Paris-based Elie Smith thinking outrageously outloud. Now do gays and lesbians have democratic and other rights in Cameroon? The issues discussed in here do not reflect the official position of United Media Incorporated, which position is solidly encoded in Letters of Gold in the Bible. However…

The known is that human rights violation is native to the African.

And on the African turf, bilingual (English and French are the official languages) Cameroon has a very poor human rights record.

It is common knowledge that those most likely to have their rights savaged in Cameroon are the minority Anglophones.

In fact, today, hordes of Anglophones have fled to the Diaspora; fleeing from economic and outright genocide as practised by their own government.

A different victim

While it is generally claimed that Anglophones are the prime victims of the heavy hands of the state, there seem to be other unknown silent victims of the same state.

These other victims of the state of Cameroon are gays, lesbians, women; the slaves in Northern Cameroon and children sold to an incisive form of contemporary slavery called child trafficking.

These groups find no defenders in Cameroon and their situation in country is far from improving.

Women pressure groups parading with the gender flag held high are demanding the rights of women to land, divorce and rights. "End the marginalisation of the woman!" screams the banners on women programmes on state radio.

Nevertheless the situation in the northern 'Sares' (harems) is veiled from outside eyes as Shylock Lamidos and tyrant husbands still beat up their wives nine nights a week with the 'Kobokos.' Ditto for the southern parts where husbands act Mike Tyson and turn their wives into grand punching bags.

As the minorities and the weak in Cameroon soldier on in quest of solutions to their problems, the National Fraternity of Gays and Lesbians still remain in the closet.

It is very difficult to give a clear answer. This is partly because in Cameroon, like in most of the continent, gays and lesbians are pariahs; nauseatingly untouchable.

However, the recent rejections of asylum cases filed by gay and lesbian Cameroonians in Belgium and France or in other European countries call for the re-examination of the situation of these group of people in Cameroon and African at large.

I believe that for democracy to have its full meaning minorities like gays and lesbians need strong support and help from the mainstream.

Ndiki Samuel Eleazard, Gay and gay

Were we to look at it shrewdly, it is worrisome to see and imagine that seemingly wholesome men abandon winsome women for men. It is simply not natural.

The Bible even says it is a curse Romans 1: 24-27
"Therefore God gave them over to sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurities for the degradation of their bodies with one another. They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshipped and served created things rather than the Creator - who is forever praised. Amen. Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural relations for unnatural ones. In the same way, the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lusts for one another. Men committed indecent acts with other men, and received in themselves the dire penalty for their perversion."

However, does that give anybody the right to treat gays and lesbians the way they are being treated in Cameroon? The answer is an emphatic no.

Homosexual trend are considered in Cameroon, and in most African countries as foreign and deviant; a definite import from decadent Western countries.

Gays and lesbians are either deep in the closet or ostracised whenever they show up in public.

Being a 'woman-man or the man-woman' is just an odium. Pederasty? Are you kidding?

Now Ndiki Samuel Eleazard (30) like Sammy Diko is gay.

The story goes that the young man just got up one day to discover that he found more delight fidgeting with the unsavoury reaches of the male anatomy than he did with the natural female conduit.

Ndiki's ordeal began in his native country Cameroon.

In 1998 the man registered at the University of Ngaoundere to read management.

For a time the young man pretended to be like every other boy on campus, hanging out with girls, etc.

Yet his status kept haunting him.

He turned to the services of a young 'damsel' on campus, a certain Toko Xavier. And for a while the 'couple' kept a low profile, delighting in each other's company.

Unfortunately in a spree of bravado Toko Xavier decided to kiss-and-tell, during a call-in programme called "Echo du Campus" over the state-owned provincial radio, CRTV Ngoundere .

Toko came out and declared that he was gay and went further to announce that Ndiki was his boy friend and lover.

Toko's idea was that by coming out their relationship would improve. It did not work out that way. Xavier and Ndiki, were dragged to the local constabulary and well beaten.

That declaration infuriated the Moslem authorities in Ngaoundere who tried very hard to get the radio programme banned.

However, the Minister of Communications at that time refused to bend to the whims of the university and political authorities in Ngaoundere.

Actually Toko Xavier and Ndiki Samuel were not the only gays on campus. In fact the University of Ngaoundere remains a nest for the fanatics of pederasty fanatics. In this place and in other campus there are gays as far as the eye cannot see.

Names like Ateba Luc and Manga Gilbert were floated around and about.

His father who asked him to sue for public apology and start active church attendance in atonement for his sins bailed Ndiki out of detention.

Ndiki accepted. When he was released he fled to the Central African Republic where he started doing some business in order to raise funds to leave the country for safety. The man then fled to France. Now Ndiki is living a precarious life in France.

He is now spending his nights shuttling from one emergency house to the next with dim prospects of obtaining permanent stay in France.

Homosexuality is a punishable crime in crime. Guilty gay parties may go to jail for up to six months with a fine ranging from Euros 300-2000.

Not long ago a Swiss national accused of homosexuality was jailed for 17 months.

Ndiki's fate is now in the hands of the Office of Refugees in France Appeals Committee abbreviated OFPRA . Should his plea be rejected Ndiki Samuel Eleazard is certain to go back to Cameroon and face greater humiliation and the unthinkable.

While admitting that it is nowadays difficult for officials in-charge of processing applications for asylum seekers in European countries to fish out genuine asylum seekers from the running away from the economic hardships caused by corrupt and despotic home governments, something stands out in Ndiki's case.

Why? This is because, it is almost impossible for an African, either from north, or sub-Saharan Africa to admit that he is gay.

In fact, it is a chilling form humiliation for the African to openly admit that they are homosexuals.

The African would rather drown at sea than admit that they get it from the rear.

That is why I think that Ndiki Samuel Eleazard is the real thing. A genuine Homo.

His feminine ways of doing things is another pointer.

He giggles and behaves like…Janet.

Legends
1- OFPRA: - Office française Protection de Réfugie et Apatrides.
2-University of Ngaoundere is on of the six state owned Universities in Cameroon and it
is located in one of the three main towns of the Greater Northern region of Cameroon that ispredominantly Islamic.
1- CPDM: - Cameroon's People Democratic Movement of President Paul Biya. It is the
ruling party in Cameroon.
2- UPC :- Union of the Population of Cameroon, it is the oldest political movement in
Cameroon created in 1948
3- SDF: - large extra and intra parliamentary opposition political party in Cameroon, it
was founded in May 26th 1990. The chair of the party is John Fru Ndi.