Currently, only 22 countries out of the 54 on the continent do not criminalise same-sex relations and this figure could drop in the coming months.
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In Ghana, the Supreme Court postponed its decision on Wednesday, July 17, regarding a law adopted by MPs that aims to restrict LGBT+ rights. A technical postponement that only gives homosexual people a little respite because the subject has been occupying debates in the country for many months now, and it risks being invited again in the run-up to the presidential election that will take place in December.
If the bill passes, it would impose prison sentences of two months to three years for those convicted of homosexuality. Sentences could range from five to 10 years in prison for those found to promote homosexuality. But Ghana is not the only African country that is hunting down homosexuals.
Uganda signed one of the harshest anti-LGBT+ laws in the world at the end of May, with the death penalty possible for repeat offenders. In Burkina Faso, while the country is facing a war against terrorism that some are even calling a civil war, the ruling junta has found nothing better to do than to adopt a bill amending the family code and criminalizing homosexuality. Homosexuality is now prohibited and punished in the country, the Burkinabe Minister of Justice proudly declared on July 10.
These bans are not the result of chance. They can be explained with different and surprising reasoning. The first thing to say is that for many Africans, homosexuality is considered “against nature”. This is the number one argument that is brandished when the subject is raised in countries like Senegal, Burkina Faso or even Ghana.
What is interesting is that the theme of homosexuality is used in Africa to reject the West. It is common to hear phrases like: “We don’t want marriage for all here.” But to justify this ban, these same African countries rely on colonial laws dating from before 1960 that prohibited homosexuality and that were brought by Westerners to Africa. Finally, in the Sahel in particular, the replacement of France by Russia accelerates intolerance on the subject. Criminalizing homosexuality is also to please the new Russian friend that is Vladimir Putin.
