Sexual minorities, human rights and public health strategies in Africa

African Affairs

Volumn 111, Issue 443, 2012, Pages 223-243

  Epprecht, Marc ^a  

^a QUEEN S UNIVERSITY   (Canada)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

CULTURAL RELATIONS; DISEASE PREVALENCE; GENDER DISPARITY; GENDER RELATIONS; HOMOSEXUALITY; HUMAN IMMUNODEFICIENCY VIRUS; HUMAN RIGHTS; IMPERIALISM; PUBLIC HEALTH;

AFRICA; ARTICLE; ECONOMICS; EDUCATION; ETHNIC AND RACIAL GROUPS; ETHNOLOGY; HISTORY; HOMOSEXUALITY; HUMAN; HUMAN RIGHTS; LEGAL ASPECT; MINORITY HEALTH; PHYSIOLOGY; POLICY; PSYCHOLOGICAL ASPECT; PUBLIC HEALTH; SEXUAL BEHAVIOR; SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY;

AFRICA; HISTORY, 20TH CENTURY; HISTORY, 21ST CENTURY; HOMOSEXUALITY; HUMAN RIGHTS; HUMANS; MINORITY HEALTH; POPULATION GROUPS; PREJUDICE; PUBLIC HEALTH; PUBLIC POLICY; SEXUAL BEHAVIOR;

AFRICA;

EID: 84859648918     PISSN: 00019909     EISSN: 14682621     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1093/afraf/ads019     Document Type: Article

References (92)

1. Terminology is contested, so I follow consensus language (as in UNAIDS and the major NGO documents) or as used by activists at the time referred to (hence, 'gays and lesbians' in the 1980s).
2. My one somewhat idiosyncratic exception - but see also the Preface in Mikki van Zyl and Melissa Steyn (eds), Performing Queer, Shaping Sexuality - Ten years of democracy in South Africa (Kwela, Cape Town, 2005) - is to use the lower case for lgbti (lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans and intersex) and msm (men who have sex with men, or, more properly, males who have sex with males), a nod to my unease at the essentialism or stability which the upper-case suggests.
3. The 'coming out' story is widely attested: see, for example, Simon Nkoli, 'Wardrobes: coming out as a black gay activist in South Africa' in Mark Gevisser and Edwin Cameron (eds), Defiant Desire: Gay and lesbian lives in South Africa (Ravan, Johannesburg, 1994), pp. 249-57.
4. Neville Hoad, Karen Martin, and Graeme Reid (eds), Sex and Politics in South Africa (Double Story, Cape Town, 2005)
5. See Scott Long, More Than a Name: State-sponsored homophobia and its consequences in Southern Africa (Human Rights Watch and International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission, New York, NY, 2003).
6. Neville Hoad, African Intimacies: Race, homosexuality and globalization (University of Minnesota Press, Minneapolis, MN, 2005).
7. Sibongile Ndatshe, 'The battle for the recognition of LGBTI human rights', Perspectives: Political analysis and commentary from Africa 4, 10 (2010), pp. 4-9.
8. Ryan Thoreson and Sam Cook (eds), Nowhere to Hide: Blackmail and extortion of LGBT people in sub-Saharan Africa (IGLHRC, New York, NY, 2011).
9. See also the websites African Activist, and Behind the Mask, for country by country reporting, plus links to key documents and local associations.
10. Kenya Human Rights Commission, The Outlawed Amongst Us: A study of the LGBTI community's search for equality and non-discrimination in Kenya (KRHC, Nairobi, 2011) provides a pioneering rights argument from outside South Africa, while the summary report of the vibrant conference in Cape Town (November 2010) on 'The Struggle for Equality: Sexual Orientation, Gender Identity and Human Rights in Africa' can be found at (4 January 2012).
11. The debate 'Is homosexuality un-African?' featured Ugandan MP David Bahati and former President of Botswana, Festus Mogae, staged before a live audience in March 2011, (14 March 2011).
12. I have referred to this elsewhere as 'traditional closets' or 'cultures of discretion', aware that the term closet inadequately captures the complexity and variety of non-disclosure situations but that it is nonetheless commonly used and widely understood.
13. See Marc Epprecht, Hungochani: The history of a dissident sexuality in Southern Africa (McGill-Queen's University Press, Montreal, 2006).
14. Matthew Roberts, 'Emergence of gay identity and gay social movements in developing countries. The AIDS crisis as a catalyst', Alternatives 20 (1995), pp. 243-64.
15. Vinh-Kim Nguyen, 'Uses and pleasures: sexual modernity, HIV/AIDS and confessional technologies in a West African metropolis' in Vincanne Adams and Stacy Leigh Pigg (eds), Sex in Development: Science, sexuality and morality in global perspective (Duke University Press, Durham, NC, 2005), pp. 245-67.
16. Vinh-Kim Nguyen, The Republic of Therapy: Triage and sovereignty in West Africa's time of AIDS (Duke University Press, Durham, NC, 2010)
17. Another important iteration of this idea, using Roberts's exact word ('catalyst') in relation to the Treatment Action Campaign and the emergence of a 'universal' dyke lesbian identity in small-town South Africa, is Jonny Steinberg, Sizwe's Test: A young man's journey through Africa's AIDS epidemic (Simon and Schuster, New York, NY, 2008), p. 200.
18. For the global context, see, notably, Dennis Altman, Global Sex (University of Chicago Press, Chicago, IL, 2001), and the website of the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission for updates on the progress of sexual rights and sexual health struggles globally: (3 January 2012).
19. 'African LGBTI declaration' from Nairobi in April 2010, reproduced in Sylvia Tamale (ed.), African Sexualities: A reader (Pambazuka Press, Nairobi, 2011), pp. 47-8.
20. Sylvia Tamale, 'Researching and theorising sexualities in Africa' in Tamale, African Sexualities, pp. 11-36.
21. See also Emidio Gune and Sandra Manuel, 'Doing research on sexuality in Africa: ethical dilemmas and the positioning of the researcher', same volume, pp. 37-46.
22. A significant body of scholarship makes these points, including Epprecht, Hungochani
23. Rudolf C. Gaudio, Allah Made Us: Sexual outlaws in an Islamic African city (Wiley-Blackwell, Hoboken, NJ, 2009).
24. Ruth Morgan and Saskia Wieringa (eds), Tommy Boys, Lesbian Men and Ancestral Wives: Female same-sex practices in Africa (Jacana, Johannesburg, 2005).
25. Nkunzi Zandile Nkabinde, Black Bull, Ancestors and Me: My life as a lesbian sangoma (Fanele, Johannesburg, 2008)
26. Mpumi Njinje and Paolo Alberton (directors), Everything Must Come to Light (Out of Africa Films, Johannesburg, 2002)
27. Stephen O. Murray and Will Roscoe (eds), Boy Wives and Female Husbands: Studies in African homosexualities (St Martin's Press, New York, NY, 1998).
28. Kapya Kaoma, Globalizing the Culture Wars: US conservatives, African churches, and homophobia (Political Research Associates, Somerville, MA, 2009).
29. Jeff Sharlet, 'Straight man's burden: the American roots of Uganda's anti-gay persecution', Harper's Magazine (September 2010), pp. 36-48.
30. 'Submission by NGOs to the African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights', Yogyakarta Principles in Action (November 2009), (20 May 2011).
31. 'Sexual orientation under the African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights', Pambazuka News 506 (2011) (20 May 2011).
32. Writers and Academics Against Homophobia, 'On the murder of David Kato, the Ugandan gay rights campaigner', Nigerians Talk (6 February 2011), (22 May 2011).
33. Plus numerous authors in Elaine Salo and Pumla Dineo Gqola (eds), Feminist Africa 6: Subaltern sexualities (September 2006)
34. Tamale (ed.), African Sexualities.
35. Paul Canning, 'SA leads fightback against LGBT rights at UN', LGBT Asylum News, (28 May 2011).
36. 'Corrective rapes on increase - South Africa', (28 May 2011).
37. Josh Kron, 'Pulling out all the stops to push an antigay bill' (2011), (17 May 2011).
38. This same man has asked rhetorically if US President Obama wanted the people of Uganda to 'eat da poo poo' as he put it in a much-ridiculed YouTube clip - (20 May 2011).
39. J. Massad, Desiring Arabs (University of Chicago Press, Chicago, IL, 2007).
40. Jasbir K. Paur, 'Homonationalism and biopower' in Adi Kuntsman and Esperanza Miyake (eds), Out of Place: Interrogating silences in queerness/raciality (Raw Nerve Books, London, 2008), pp. 13-70.
41. Strong critiques of 'pink colonialism' and racism within the European lgbti community around these issues can be found through the blog Black Looks, including a press release from Ugandan activists denouncing sensationalist coverage in the US media, (31 May 2011).
42. See, for example, Karin Willemse and Ruth Morgan with John Meletse, 'Deaf, gay, HIV positive and proud: narrating an alternative identity in post-apartheid South Africa', Canadian Journal of African Studies 43, 1 (2009), pp. 84-105.
43. See also the efflorescence of lgbti fiction, art, and film analysed in, among others, Maureen Ngozi Eke, 'Woubi Chéri: negotiating subjectivity, gender, and power' in Ada Uzoamaka Azodo and Maureen Ngozi Eke (eds), Gender and Sexuality in African Literature and Film (Africa World Press, Trenton, NJ and Asmara, 2007)
44. Marc Epprecht, 'Recent trends in the treatment of homosexualities in literature and film by African artists' in L. Ouzgane (ed.), African Men in Film and Fiction (MacMillan/Palgrave, London, 2011), pp. 153-63.
45. Tamale, African Sexualities, p. 182.
46. The origins of this manifesto are obscure. Nevertheless, the sentiments expressed there were widely shared by delegates at the Cape Town 'Struggle for Equality" conference.
47. Rowland Jide Macaulay, 'We are not asking for sanctions', D + C: International Journal 38, 2 (2011), pp. 84-5.
48. Numerous lgbti activists have urged Western donors not to provoke a further backlash against them.
49. See 'African activists oppose cuts to Ugandan aid', Washington Blade (18 May 18, 2011), (23 May, 2011).
50. On the tensions between African lgbti and Western expectations of gay identity, see P. Awondo, 'Identifications homosexuelles, construction identitaire, et tensions postcoloniales entre le Cameroun et la France', espace et société, 13, 1 (2011), , (14 October, 2011).
51. Graeme Reid, 'How to become a "real gay": identity and terminology in Ermelo, Mpumulanga', Agenda 67, 20 (2006), pp.137-145.
52. See 'MPs tackle Tsvangirai over gays', (26 October 2011).
53. The US Ambassador's interview with Gambian President Yahya Jammeh in February 2010 is especially revealing on this point. Jammeh publicly blamed foreigners for corrupting Gambian morals and threatened to cut off the heads of homosexuals, yet is quoted as privately saying, 'There are gays here in The Gambia, I know that. But they live in secret and that is fine with me, as long as long as they go about their business in private we don't mind.'.
54. (3 January, 2012).
55. Kenya National AIDS and STI Control Programme (NASCOP), 'Most at Risk Populations - MARPs,' (Kenyatta Hospital Grounds, Kenya, 2011), , (27 May 2011).
56. Other statistics are taken from Cheikh Ibrahim Niang, Moustapha Diagne, Youssoupha Niang, Amadou Mody Moreau et al., Meeting the Sexual Health Needs of Men Who Have Sex with Men in Senegal, (USAID, Washington, 2002).
57. Dan Allman, Sylvia Adebajo, Ted Myers, Oludare Odumuye, and Sade Ogunsola, 'Challenges for the sexual health and social acceptance of men who have sex with men in Nigeria', Culture, Health and Sexuality 9, 2 (2007), pp. 153-68.
58. A. S. Wade et al. 'HIV infection and sexually transmitted infections among men who have sex with men in Senegal', AIDS 19, 18 (2005), pp. 2133-40.
59. P. Kajubi et al., 'Gay and bisexual men in Kampala, Uganda', AIDS and Behavior 12, 3 (2008), pp. 492-504.
60. National AIDS Control Council (NACC) of Kenya and Population Council, 'The overlooked epidemic: addressing HIV prevention and treatment among men who have sex with men in sub-Saharan Africa, report of a consultation, Nairobi, Kenya, 14-15 May 2008', (Population Council, Nairobi, 2009), (2 January 2012).
61. Mona Kareithi, 'There are no gay rights', , (3 January 2012).
62. Roberts, 'Emergence of gay identity'
63. Nguyen, 'Uses and pleasures', focuses on changes in the homosexual milieu, while the same author's Republic of Therapy takes a broader view of the impact of Western biomedical discourses on the refashioning of heterosexual identities and roles in francophone West Africa.
64. Gays and Lesbians of Zimbabwe, Sahwira, (GALZ, Harare, 2002)
65. Keith Goddard, 'A fair representation: the history of GALZ and the gay movement in Zimbabwe', Journal of Gay & and Lesbian Social Services 16, 1 (2004), pp. 75-98.
66. Charles Gueboguo, 'Mobilisations transnationales des communautés homosexuelles en Afrique: une affaire à suivre', Anthropologie et Sociétés 32 (2008), pp. 85-93 on Cameroon, where the gay rights association predated the creation of a rival NGO for msm health.
67. Cary Alan Johnson, Off the Map: How HIV/AIDS programming is failing same-sex practicing people in Africa (IGLHRC, New York, NY, 2005)
68. NACC, 'The overlooked epidemic'
69. CEDEP: The Centre for the Development of People, (20 May, 2011).
70. To be fair, CEDEP also collaborated in an important "outing" with the publication of Patricia Watson, Queer Malawi: Untold stories, (Gay and Lesbian Archives, Johannesburg, 2010)
71. The extent to which the book will be available in Malawi is unclear, but CEDEP is acquiring a profile in the mainstream Malawian media as an advocate of gay rights
72. International Center for Reproductive Health and Sexual Rights, 'Welcome to INCRESE', (31 May, 2011).
73. 'Ugandan LGBTI Community petition Parliament over the Right to Health and HIV/AIDS Control Bill 2010' (Uganda Health and Science Press Association, 2011), (22 May, 2011).
74. Gay and Lesbian Coalition of Kenya, 'Persons Marginalized and Aggrieved (PEMA Kenya)', (25 May, 2011).
75. Samantha Power, 'Letter from South Africa, The AIDS Rebel', The New Yorker, 19 May 19 2003, pp. 54-67.
76. See also Steven Friedman and Shauna Mottiar, 'Seeking the high ground: The Treatment Action Campaign and the politics of morality' in Richard Ballard, Adam Habib, and Imraan Valodia (eds), Voices of Protest: Social movements in post-apartheid South Africa (University of KwaZulu-Natal Press, Scottsville, 2006), pp. 23-44.
77. Jerina Chendze Messie, 'Homophobia drives Malian MSM underground' (2011) (22 May, 2011).
78. African Men for Sexual Health and Rights, 'Contact AMSHeR', (28 May, 2011).
79. AMSHer is primarily funded by the Dutch through AIDS Fonds and HIVOS, the UNDP, and other international nongovernment organizations.
80. I do not mean to invest too much into reading a simple list. But can it be coincidence that the NACC report ('The overlooked epidemic') similarly states five future priorities for prevention, care and treatment of msm, and that the only one of these with an immediately recognizable 'gay pride' or anti-homophobia focus is again placed last?.
81. 'The homophobic disruption of AMSHeR's Pre-ICASA meeting: what really happened', , (5 January 2012).
82. NACC, 'The overlooked epidemic', p. 7.
83. United States Department of State, 'Human Rights Reports for 2009: Global equality', p. 2.
84. NACC, 'The overlooked epidemic', p. 7.
85. 'AIDS initiative shattered by state persecution', AIDS Portal, (25 May, 2011).
86. Kenya Human Rights Commission, The Outlawed Amongst Us (Kenya Human Rights Commission, Nairobi, 2011) (2011).
87. and (12 January 2012).
88. 'Zimbabwe National HIV and AIDS Strategic Plan (ZNASP)' (Harare, National AIDS Council, 2010), (27 May, 2011).
89. 'Ministry of Health lobbies against anti-homosexuality legislation', (12 January 2012).
90. A government spokesperson recently almost acknowledged as much by claiming that its Health Development Initiative since 2009 is behind a more 'positive attitude' towards sexual minorities - Dr Aflodis Kagaba, cited in (12 January 2012).
91. The threats against ADEFHO and Alice Nkom continue, described in a joint press release with the Spanish group Fondacion Triangulo, (12 January 2012).
92. See also Paul Canning, 'Cameroon protests EU's support for Cameroonian LGBT; France urged to defend,' (12 January 2012).