In Uganda, an English-speaking country in East Africa, Parliament has just passed one of the toughest laws in the world against homosexuals.
A country where, as in many others on this continent, homosexuality was already repressed by law… and in society in general. But this new text, adopted Wednesday by the Legislative Assembly of Kampala – 387 votes for, two against – goes further than ever.
Not only does this law prohibit “acts”, punishable by ten years in prison, but declaring oneself to be homosexual or being an activist also becomes a crime that can lead to imprisonment. Journalists and editors will be prosecuted if they defend gay rights or “encourage homosexuality”.
The text must still receive presidential approval. Yoweri Museveni is a famous autocrat at the head, for almost 40 years, of this State of almost 40 million inhabitants.
London and Washington condemn the law and urge the president to veto it. In London, it is said: “Although several countries, including on the African continent, are moving towards decriminalization, this is a deeply disturbing move in the opposite direction. »
Amnesty International describes the law as “appalling”, in addition to pointing out that it is “vaguely worded”, which opens the door to all abuses: “A deeply repressive law that institutionalizes discrimination, hatred and prejudice. »
A presidential veto seems unlikely. Museveni, last week, again criticized the West on this theme: “Western countries should stop wasting humanity’s time by trying to impose their practices on the rest of the world. »
If we look at the world map of anti-homosexual legislation, we find there essentially Africa — including the Maghreb — and the Arab-Muslim countries.
Some 70 countries have laws that repress, to varying degrees, homosexuality. The texts vary a lot, the hardness in the application also. Some countries do not have detailed laws, but punish harshly (Egypt); others still have them, but do not apply them (Lebanon).
About half of the 54 countries in Africa have repressive laws. And almost half of the countries that sanction homosexuality are in Africa: Egypt, Tunisia, Kenya, Nigeria, Chad, Eritrea… With exceptions like South Africa, where even same-sex marriage is legal.
In the Middle East as in Africa, repression is social and popular as well as legal: Iran, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Yemen… Islam against homosexuality, Allah against homosexuality, the law against homosexuality.
In Asia, few states openly repress. A country like Singapore just abolished its “anti-sodomy” laws in December. Laws often inherited from the British Empire… like those found in Africa. In fact, Uganda takes up and toughens Victorian laws: how ironic!
However, in Africa and elsewhere, permissiveness and the defense of the rights of homosexuals are often associated with Western imperialism. Because there is also a twisted ideological aspect in this whole debate.
Without any foundation, many consider, in Africa, homosexuality as coming from the evil West, as a depravity specific to the imperialist countries of the North: the liberalization of morals would go hand in hand with economic and ideological domination!
And who, at the moment, is precisely agitating this discourse to score points on the black continent? By spreading, in countries like Mali or the Central African Republic, harmful propaganda against the “depraved West”? Vladimir Putin’s Russia!
In his diatribes, he never fails to slay same-sex marriage and the depravity of Western mores…as does his sidekick and ideologue, the patriarch Kirill. In one of his most delirious passages, the Russian president even affirmed that in the West, “pedophilia has become the norm”.
This ultra-conservative and homophobic discourse – which goes from Russia to Africa via the Middle East – becomes like a societal, civilizational marker, to discredit the decadent West, always guilty, necessarily guilty, of all the evils of the world.
François Brousseau is an international affairs columnist at Ici Radio-Canada. [email protected]