Jim Burroway
September 8th, 2010
According to Afrik News, outgoing Ethics and Integrity Minister James Nsaba Buturo has announced that the Ugandan Cabinet is reviewing an Anti-Pornography Bill, with an eye toward curbing “the vice of homosexuality”:
While addressing the press in Kampala on Wednesday, the Minister of Uganda for Ethics and Integrity, Dr. James Nsaba Buturo said that Pornography is the mother of vice and so there is need to stop it immediately.
“Pornography breeds homosexuality. I am happy that finally a bill to curb pornography in Uganda is out to punish the promoters of the vice. The draft bill is already in cabinet for discussion” Nsaba Buturo said.
According to the bill, any person found guilty of dealing in pornographic materials risks paying heavy fines or a 10-year jail sentence or both.
“The days of the homosexuals are over. The bill is good news to all morally upright Ugandans saying that pornography has contributed to moral decay and increased crimes among Ugandans,” he added.
[Update: Daily Monitor has some more details on the proposed legislation:
A proposed anti-pornography law could see journalists and Internet service providers jailed for terms ranging from five to 10 years and their businesses closed, Ethics Minister James Nsaba Buturo said yesterday.
...Under the proposed Bill, pornography is defined as any form of communication from literature to fashion or photography that depicts unclothed or under-clothed parts of the human body (such as breasts, thighs, buttocks or genitalia), that narrates or depicts sexual intercourse or that describes or exhibits anything that can lead to erotic stimulation.
According to the proposed Bill, pornography includes ‘fashion’, implying that women could be arrested for wearing short skirts and skimpy dresses. Mr Buturo said children should also be protected from pornographic materials.
...Only teaching aides, spouses and sportsmen will get exemptions of punishment from the new law. However, analysts say the flaws of the proposed law, lies in the broad definition of pornography.
Daily Monitor quotes Buturo as saying that the new law would extensively expand the definition of pornographic material and the accompanying sanctions. Depending on what those expanded definitions contain, this could be worrisome for LGBT advocates. it is not unusual for African police and prosecutors to take an extremely expansive view of what constitutes "pornography" where homosexuality is concerned. Even mentioning LGBT people can be viewed as "pornography" in Africa's deeply conservative climate.]
Of particular concern is the possible resurgence of Clause 13 of the Anti-Homosexuality Bill that was placed before Parliament last year. That clause, which would prohibit “promotion of homosexuality,” was cited in a Cabinet Reportas having “some merit.” That Cabinet report, compiled in response to Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni’s call for a study following international condemnation over the bill, suggested that portions of the bill could be enacted under other bills, preferably with titles that are not “stigmatizing and appears to be targeting a particular group of people.” The Anti-Pornography bill could be seen as a convenient vehicle for passing a measure similar to Clause 13 without rousing suspicions in the international community.
Clause 13 of the Anti-Homosexuality Bill, reads:
13. Promotion of homosexuality.
(1) A person who –
(a) participates in production. procuring, marketing, broadcasting, disseminating, publishing pornographic materials for purposes of promoting homosexuality;
(b) funds or sponsors homosexuality or other related activities;
(c) offers premises and other related fixed or movable assets for purposes of homosexuality or promoting homosexuality;
(d) uses electronic devices which include internet, films, mobile phones for purposes of homosexuality or promoting homosexuality and;
(e) who acts as an accomplice or attempts to promote or in any way abets homosexuality and related practices;
commits an offence and is liable on conviction to a fine of five thousand currency points or imprisonment of a minimum of five years and a maximum of seven years or both fine and imprisonment.
(2) Where the offender is a corporate body or a business or an association or a non-governmental organization, on conviction its certificate of registration shall be cancelled and the director or proprietor or promoter shall be liable on conviction to imprisonment for seven years.
If this clause is being recycled for the Anti-Pornography Bill, it could be very worrisome for free speech and advocacy in Uganda. Not only would it criminalize pro-LGBT speech and advocacy, it would also hinder medical workers, since providing advice on safe-sex practices to reduce the chance of becoming infected with HIV, for example, could be seen as “promoting homosexuality.” Since it is unclear what the provisions of the new Anti-Pornography Bill would include, Buturo’s characterizing it as a weapon against the country’s LGBT people warrants serious scrutiny.
Saturday, September 11, 2010
Wednesday, September 1, 2010
Uganda’s homosexual debate has gone viral but only one voice is being heard. Does it speak for you?
Ugandans are well familiar with Western popular culture. Television shows like Gossip Girl and Desperate Housewives find their way onto television screens in Ugandan homes; Christopher Nolan’s Inception is in Ugandan theatres, and CNN and the BBC World Service are never more than a channel click away.
But what does the West know of Ugandan popular culture? Stories of riots, elections and international conferences are ubiquitous, but they rarely provide any insight into Ugandan culture itself – that is, into the sort of things that the people of Uganda find funny, surprising, outrageous, or important.
Recently, however, Westerners have been learning more than usual about Ugandan culture. The reason for this is a YouTube video named “EAT DA POO POO,” which has been spreading virally over the internet. The video documents a series of anti-gay tirades by Ugandan Pastor, Dr. Martin Ssempa. Armed with explicit visual aids, Ssempa argues that what homosexuals do in the privacy of their bedrooms is simply far too disgusting to be protected by the law. Homosexual men, he claims, lick each other’s anuses like, “ice cream and even poo poo comes out...This one smears the poo poo all over the other one’s face.”
To date, the video has almost three million hits on YouTube, has spawned an auto-tune remix with some four-hundred-thousand hits, and is listed on Ebaum’s World, a popular archive of internet curiosities.
Westerners watch this video because they find Ssempa’s antics comical, but what few of them realize is how un-comical his views are to many native Ugandans. Homosexuality is outlawed in as many as thirty-eight African countries, including Uganda. In Mauritania, Nigeria, and neighbouring Sudan, it is currently punishable by death. And Ugandan MP David Bahati’s recent effort to push through a comprehensive “Anti Homosexuality Bill” – which would include capital punishment for “aggravated” offences – has received considerable popular support.
With Bahati’s bill still under consideration in parliament, Uganda is one of the few African countries to currently be on the verge of tightening its regulation against homosexuals. Already under Uganda’s Penal Code Act of 1950, those who engage in the “unnatural offence” of gay sex may be imprisoned for life, and those who merely attempt to do so can be imprisoned for up to seven years. But this new piece of legislation expands on the current law to include lengthy prison sentences for anyone who as much as “promotes,” funds, disseminates, or provides a venue for homosexual activities, as well as anyone who fails to publicly disclose their knowledge of a homosexual offense.
With six African countries having decriminalized homosexuality as recently as 2008, nd with South Africa having become the fifth country in the world to recognize same-sex marriage in 2006, why is Uganda moving in the opposite direction?
The short answer is that in contrast to other African nations, powerful people in Uganda have taken collective initiative on anti-gay legislation. In an interview with The Independent, MP David Bahati cited his membership in a Ugandan chapter of “The Fellowship” or “The Family”, a U.S.-based Christian political organization, as the key impetus behind the new bill. Every Thursday the members of the local division of The Fellowship, which include a close circle of Ugandan MPs and religious leaders (led by Ssempa), meet to discuss “how to use godly principles to influence public policy.” About a year and a half ago, Bahati reveals, it was decided in one such meeting that the legal framework as it stands was incapable of addressing the urgency of the problem of homosexuality in Uganda. Bahati was chosen and happily volunteered to be at the forefront of developing new legislation.
http://webmail.icebreakersuganda.org/imp/themes/graphics/spacer_red.pngFor Bahati, the 2009 “Anti Homosexuality Bill” is both a personal and political imperative. It is personal because he is convinced that homosexuality is a sin and that “sin must be fought:” “Though I love homosexuals, I hate the sin in them. I believe that they can be rehabilitated, that they can be counselled and come back to normality.” On the political front, he says, the bill is critical to stop homosexuality from taking over the world. “As a country, Uganda should be able to really provide leadership at this time when the world needs leadership.”
However, the genesis of this new bill cannot be explained solely by the raw initiative of Bahati and The Fellowship. In order to have any chance of passing into law, the bill needs considerable support from parliamentarians, other members of government, and ideally from the public. According to Bahati, it has all of these. Despite strong international pressure to shelve the bill, including threats by some Western governments to cut off aid to Uganda should it finally pass, Bahati believes that the “government supports what I’m doing.” The cause of legislative hesitation over the bill so far, he believes, is strictly political; key government officials remain caught between whether to “stand for what is right, or to compromise and get donor money.” Moreover, for its part, 95% of the population of Uganda, according to Bahati, believes that “homosexuality is a sin and shouldn’t be supported.” A public petition in support of the bill has already gathered four million signatures. Even foreign governments like Canada, which have been very active in expressing criticism of the bill, secretly support it, claims Bahati: “Deep in their hearts, [Canadians] don’t support homosexuality.”
In Kampala, opinions about homosexuality vary: Aida, who owns an inconspicuous hair salon in central Kampala, supports the new bill and claims that homosexuality, “is not part of African culture...It’s a disease and you kill a disease.” At Masala Chat House restaurant, Manager Joseph Onen Bakiti says that he would not fire an employee if he or she was discovered to be a homosexual, but he still believes that all homosexuals should be jailed. If a police officer were found out to be a homosexual, by contrast, not only would they be immediately fired and prosecuted for the crime, they would be subject to additional punitive action under the Police Force’s disciplinary code, explains Uganda Police Force’s Deputy Public Relations Officer Ssekate Vicent.
Others in Uganda believe that the new proposed legislation is excessively cruel despite homosexuality’s unseemliness. Solomon Webalealaari, a civil rights lawyer based in Kampala, does not believe that homosexuality should be criminalized, but notes that many Ugandans who agree with him are afraid to publicly voice their opinion, lest they be stigmatized or branded as un-African, un-Christian, and pro-Gay.
The fact that tolerant views of this sort have been marginalized in Ugandan public culture is a testament to the vehemence and popularity of Ssempa’s campaign. Ssempa and his associates present homophobia in general, and support for anti-gay legislation in particular, as standards of membership in Uganda’s Afro-Christian majority. 84 percent of Ugandans are Christian and according to gay rights activist, Major Rubaramira Ruranga, it is precisely by branding support for the recent bill as an essential aspect of what it means to be a committed Christian in Uganda that the anti-gay lobby has achieved such success.
Major Ruranga argues that, in contrast to Western society, Ugandan society places intense value on communal attachment, even when this comes at the expense of individual expression. As a result, he says, “religion has become more of a culture than a faith.” Instead of promoting sincere belief, the religious establishment promotes outward conformity to standards adhered to by the larger group. In the case of Uganda’s Christian community, Ruranga suggests, the hatred of gays has become one of these unquestioned group standards.
But it was not always so. According to Ruranga, the anti-gay movement in Uganda only gained traction in the 1990s in large part as a reaction to a perceivable rise in gay pride, activism, and the unprecedented occurrence of public disclosures of homosexuality in the Ugandan media. The religious establishment decided this was dangerous and instigated a backlash. It is not clear how much of a role the U.S. based Fellowship had in fomenting that backlash, but what is certain is that it is now fully supportive of it. According to Bahati, one American Pentecostal friend recently lamented to him that “I wish we [in the U.S.] had done what you are doing thirty years ago; we would be much better off.”
What quickly becomes clear from speaking to ordinary Ugandans is that, in fact, they are not all convinced that they would be better off if Bahati’s proposed bill were signed into law. Their reasons are wide ranging, but in some instances, like that of Rafaella, a law student at Makerere University, one of them is the recognition that, “all crimes are sins, but not all sins are crimes.” Yet the constant sense of shame with which Uganda’s gay community is currently made to live is already punishment in its own right.
Others have mentioned that the current law is too far-reaching. For instance, because the bill allocates prison sentences to anyone who fails to report a known homosexual offence, even a parent who discovers that their own son or daughter is gay, but for obvious reasons fails to publicly report this, could be thrown in jail for up to three years.
One rarely hears such reservations and concerns voiced in the mass media. If the country and the world is ever going to see that Ssempa does not represent all Ugandans, and that “EAT DA POO POO” provides only the slimmest window into Ugandan culture, this will have to change and Uganda’s more tolerant and level-headed voices will have to bravely speak up.
But what does the West know of Ugandan popular culture? Stories of riots, elections and international conferences are ubiquitous, but they rarely provide any insight into Ugandan culture itself – that is, into the sort of things that the people of Uganda find funny, surprising, outrageous, or important.
Recently, however, Westerners have been learning more than usual about Ugandan culture. The reason for this is a YouTube video named “EAT DA POO POO,” which has been spreading virally over the internet. The video documents a series of anti-gay tirades by Ugandan Pastor, Dr. Martin Ssempa. Armed with explicit visual aids, Ssempa argues that what homosexuals do in the privacy of their bedrooms is simply far too disgusting to be protected by the law. Homosexual men, he claims, lick each other’s anuses like, “ice cream and even poo poo comes out...This one smears the poo poo all over the other one’s face.”
To date, the video has almost three million hits on YouTube, has spawned an auto-tune remix with some four-hundred-thousand hits, and is listed on Ebaum’s World, a popular archive of internet curiosities.
Westerners watch this video because they find Ssempa’s antics comical, but what few of them realize is how un-comical his views are to many native Ugandans. Homosexuality is outlawed in as many as thirty-eight African countries, including Uganda. In Mauritania, Nigeria, and neighbouring Sudan, it is currently punishable by death. And Ugandan MP David Bahati’s recent effort to push through a comprehensive “Anti Homosexuality Bill” – which would include capital punishment for “aggravated” offences – has received considerable popular support.
With Bahati’s bill still under consideration in parliament, Uganda is one of the few African countries to currently be on the verge of tightening its regulation against homosexuals. Already under Uganda’s Penal Code Act of 1950, those who engage in the “unnatural offence” of gay sex may be imprisoned for life, and those who merely attempt to do so can be imprisoned for up to seven years. But this new piece of legislation expands on the current law to include lengthy prison sentences for anyone who as much as “promotes,” funds, disseminates, or provides a venue for homosexual activities, as well as anyone who fails to publicly disclose their knowledge of a homosexual offense.
With six African countries having decriminalized homosexuality as recently as 2008, nd with South Africa having become the fifth country in the world to recognize same-sex marriage in 2006, why is Uganda moving in the opposite direction?
The short answer is that in contrast to other African nations, powerful people in Uganda have taken collective initiative on anti-gay legislation. In an interview with The Independent, MP David Bahati cited his membership in a Ugandan chapter of “The Fellowship” or “The Family”, a U.S.-based Christian political organization, as the key impetus behind the new bill. Every Thursday the members of the local division of The Fellowship, which include a close circle of Ugandan MPs and religious leaders (led by Ssempa), meet to discuss “how to use godly principles to influence public policy.” About a year and a half ago, Bahati reveals, it was decided in one such meeting that the legal framework as it stands was incapable of addressing the urgency of the problem of homosexuality in Uganda. Bahati was chosen and happily volunteered to be at the forefront of developing new legislation.
http://webmail.icebreakersuganda.org/imp/themes/graphics/spacer_red.pngFor Bahati, the 2009 “Anti Homosexuality Bill” is both a personal and political imperative. It is personal because he is convinced that homosexuality is a sin and that “sin must be fought:” “Though I love homosexuals, I hate the sin in them. I believe that they can be rehabilitated, that they can be counselled and come back to normality.” On the political front, he says, the bill is critical to stop homosexuality from taking over the world. “As a country, Uganda should be able to really provide leadership at this time when the world needs leadership.”
However, the genesis of this new bill cannot be explained solely by the raw initiative of Bahati and The Fellowship. In order to have any chance of passing into law, the bill needs considerable support from parliamentarians, other members of government, and ideally from the public. According to Bahati, it has all of these. Despite strong international pressure to shelve the bill, including threats by some Western governments to cut off aid to Uganda should it finally pass, Bahati believes that the “government supports what I’m doing.” The cause of legislative hesitation over the bill so far, he believes, is strictly political; key government officials remain caught between whether to “stand for what is right, or to compromise and get donor money.” Moreover, for its part, 95% of the population of Uganda, according to Bahati, believes that “homosexuality is a sin and shouldn’t be supported.” A public petition in support of the bill has already gathered four million signatures. Even foreign governments like Canada, which have been very active in expressing criticism of the bill, secretly support it, claims Bahati: “Deep in their hearts, [Canadians] don’t support homosexuality.”
In Kampala, opinions about homosexuality vary: Aida, who owns an inconspicuous hair salon in central Kampala, supports the new bill and claims that homosexuality, “is not part of African culture...It’s a disease and you kill a disease.” At Masala Chat House restaurant, Manager Joseph Onen Bakiti says that he would not fire an employee if he or she was discovered to be a homosexual, but he still believes that all homosexuals should be jailed. If a police officer were found out to be a homosexual, by contrast, not only would they be immediately fired and prosecuted for the crime, they would be subject to additional punitive action under the Police Force’s disciplinary code, explains Uganda Police Force’s Deputy Public Relations Officer Ssekate Vicent.
Others in Uganda believe that the new proposed legislation is excessively cruel despite homosexuality’s unseemliness. Solomon Webalealaari, a civil rights lawyer based in Kampala, does not believe that homosexuality should be criminalized, but notes that many Ugandans who agree with him are afraid to publicly voice their opinion, lest they be stigmatized or branded as un-African, un-Christian, and pro-Gay.
The fact that tolerant views of this sort have been marginalized in Ugandan public culture is a testament to the vehemence and popularity of Ssempa’s campaign. Ssempa and his associates present homophobia in general, and support for anti-gay legislation in particular, as standards of membership in Uganda’s Afro-Christian majority. 84 percent of Ugandans are Christian and according to gay rights activist, Major Rubaramira Ruranga, it is precisely by branding support for the recent bill as an essential aspect of what it means to be a committed Christian in Uganda that the anti-gay lobby has achieved such success.
Major Ruranga argues that, in contrast to Western society, Ugandan society places intense value on communal attachment, even when this comes at the expense of individual expression. As a result, he says, “religion has become more of a culture than a faith.” Instead of promoting sincere belief, the religious establishment promotes outward conformity to standards adhered to by the larger group. In the case of Uganda’s Christian community, Ruranga suggests, the hatred of gays has become one of these unquestioned group standards.
But it was not always so. According to Ruranga, the anti-gay movement in Uganda only gained traction in the 1990s in large part as a reaction to a perceivable rise in gay pride, activism, and the unprecedented occurrence of public disclosures of homosexuality in the Ugandan media. The religious establishment decided this was dangerous and instigated a backlash. It is not clear how much of a role the U.S. based Fellowship had in fomenting that backlash, but what is certain is that it is now fully supportive of it. According to Bahati, one American Pentecostal friend recently lamented to him that “I wish we [in the U.S.] had done what you are doing thirty years ago; we would be much better off.”
What quickly becomes clear from speaking to ordinary Ugandans is that, in fact, they are not all convinced that they would be better off if Bahati’s proposed bill were signed into law. Their reasons are wide ranging, but in some instances, like that of Rafaella, a law student at Makerere University, one of them is the recognition that, “all crimes are sins, but not all sins are crimes.” Yet the constant sense of shame with which Uganda’s gay community is currently made to live is already punishment in its own right.
Others have mentioned that the current law is too far-reaching. For instance, because the bill allocates prison sentences to anyone who fails to report a known homosexual offence, even a parent who discovers that their own son or daughter is gay, but for obvious reasons fails to publicly report this, could be thrown in jail for up to three years.
One rarely hears such reservations and concerns voiced in the mass media. If the country and the world is ever going to see that Ssempa does not represent all Ugandans, and that “EAT DA POO POO” provides only the slimmest window into Ugandan culture, this will have to change and Uganda’s more tolerant and level-headed voices will have to bravely speak up.
Uganda’s homosexual debate has gone viral but only one voice is being heard. Does it speak for you?
Ugandans are well familiar with Western popular culture. Television shows like Gossip Girl and Desperate Housewives find their way onto television screens in Ugandan homes; Christopher Nolan’s Inception is in Ugandan theatres, and CNN and the BBC World Service are never more than a channel click away.
But what does the West know of Ugandan popular culture? Stories of riots, elections and international conferences are ubiquitous, but they rarely provide any insight into Ugandan culture itself – that is, into the sort of things that the people of Uganda find funny, surprising, outrageous, or important.
Recently, however, Westerners have been learning more than usual about Ugandan culture. The reason for this is a YouTube video named “EAT DA POO POO,” which has been spreading virally over the internet. The video documents a series of anti-gay tirades by Ugandan Pastor, Dr. Martin Ssempa. Armed with explicit visual aids, Ssempa argues that what homosexuals do in the privacy of their bedrooms is simply far too disgusting to be protected by the law. Homosexual men, he claims, lick each other’s anuses like, “ice cream and even poo poo comes out...This one smears the poo poo all over the other one’s face.”
To date, the video has almost three million hits on YouTube, has spawned an auto-tune remix with some four-hundred-thousand hits, and is listed on Ebaum’s World, a popular archive of internet curiosities.
Westerners watch this video because they find Ssempa’s antics comical, but what few of them realize is how un-comical his views are to many native Ugandans. Homosexuality is outlawed in as many as thirty-eight African countries, including Uganda. In Mauritania, Nigeria, and neighbouring Sudan, it is currently punishable by death. And Ugandan MP David Bahati’s recent effort to push through a comprehensive “Anti Homosexuality Bill” – which would include capital punishment for “aggravated” offences – has received considerable popular support.
With Bahati’s bill still under consideration in parliament, Uganda is one of the few African countries to currently be on the verge of tightening its regulation against homosexuals. Already under Uganda’s Penal Code Act of 1950, those who engage in the “unnatural offence” of gay sex may be imprisoned for life, and those who merely attempt to do so can be imprisoned for up to seven years. But this new piece of legislation expands on the current law to include lengthy prison sentences for anyone who as much as “promotes,” funds, disseminates, or provides a venue for homosexual activities, as well as anyone who fails to publicly disclose their knowledge of a homosexual offense.
With six African countries having decriminalized homosexuality as recently as 2008, nd with South Africa having become the fifth country in the world to recognize same-sex marriage in 2006, why is Uganda moving in the opposite direction?
The short answer is that in contrast to other African nations, powerful people in Uganda have taken collective initiative on anti-gay legislation. In an interview with The Independent, MP David Bahati cited his membership in a Ugandan chapter of “The Fellowship” or “The Family”, a U.S.-based Christian political organization, as the key impetus behind the new bill. Every Thursday the members of the local division of The Fellowship, which include a close circle of Ugandan MPs and religious leaders (led by Ssempa), meet to discuss “how to use godly principles to influence public policy.” About a year and a half ago, Bahati reveals, it was decided in one such meeting that the legal framework as it stands was incapable of addressing the urgency of the problem of homosexuality in Uganda. Bahati was chosen and happily volunteered to be at the forefront of developing new legislation.
http://webmail.icebreakersuganda.org/imp/themes/graphics/spacer_red.pngFor Bahati, the 2009 “Anti Homosexuality Bill” is both a personal and political imperative. It is personal because he is convinced that homosexuality is a sin and that “sin must be fought:” “Though I love homosexuals, I hate the sin in them. I believe that they can be rehabilitated, that they can be counselled and come back to normality.” On the political front, he says, the bill is critical to stop homosexuality from taking over the world. “As a country, Uganda should be able to really provide leadership at this time when the world needs leadership.”
However, the genesis of this new bill cannot be explained solely by the raw initiative of Bahati and The Fellowship. In order to have any chance of passing into law, the bill needs considerable support from parliamentarians, other members of government, and ideally from the public. According to Bahati, it has all of these. Despite strong international pressure to shelve the bill, including threats by some Western governments to cut off aid to Uganda should it finally pass, Bahati believes that the “government supports what I’m doing.” The cause of legislative hesitation over the bill so far, he believes, is strictly political; key government officials remain caught between whether to “stand for what is right, or to compromise and get donor money.” Moreover, for its part, 95% of the population of Uganda, according to Bahati, believes that “homosexuality is a sin and shouldn’t be supported.” A public petition in support of the bill has already gathered four million signatures. Even foreign governments like Canada, which have been very active in expressing criticism of the bill, secretly support it, claims Bahati: “Deep in their hearts, [Canadians] don’t support homosexuality.”
In Kampala, opinions about homosexuality vary: Aida, who owns an inconspicuous hair salon in central Kampala, supports the new bill and claims that homosexuality, “is not part of African culture...It’s a disease and you kill a disease.” At Masala Chat House restaurant, Manager Joseph Onen Bakiti says that he would not fire an employee if he or she was discovered to be a homosexual, but he still believes that all homosexuals should be jailed. If a police officer were found out to be a homosexual, by contrast, not only would they be immediately fired and prosecuted for the crime, they would be subject to additional punitive action under the Police Force’s disciplinary code, explains Uganda Police Force’s Deputy Public Relations Officer Ssekate Vicent.
Others in Uganda believe that the new proposed legislation is excessively cruel despite homosexuality’s unseemliness. Solomon Webalealaari, a civil rights lawyer based in Kampala, does not believe that homosexuality should be criminalized, but notes that many Ugandans who agree with him are afraid to publicly voice their opinion, lest they be stigmatized or branded as un-African, un-Christian, and pro-Gay.
The fact that tolerant views of this sort have been marginalized in Ugandan public culture is a testament to the vehemence and popularity of Ssempa’s campaign. Ssempa and his associates present homophobia in general, and support for anti-gay legislation in particular, as standards of membership in Uganda’s Afro-Christian majority. 84 percent of Ugandans are Christian and according to gay rights activist, Major Rubaramira Ruranga, it is precisely by branding support for the recent bill as an essential aspect of what it means to be a committed Christian in Uganda that the anti-gay lobby has achieved such success.
Major Ruranga argues that, in contrast to Western society, Ugandan society places intense value on communal attachment, even when this comes at the expense of individual expression. As a result, he says, “religion has become more of a culture than a faith.” Instead of promoting sincere belief, the religious establishment promotes outward conformity to standards adhered to by the larger group. In the case of Uganda’s Christian community, Ruranga suggests, the hatred of gays has become one of these unquestioned group standards.
But it was not always so. According to Ruranga, the anti-gay movement in Uganda only gained traction in the 1990s in large part as a reaction to a perceivable rise in gay pride, activism, and the unprecedented occurrence of public disclosures of homosexuality in the Ugandan media. The religious establishment decided this was dangerous and instigated a backlash. It is not clear how much of a role the U.S. based Fellowship had in fomenting that backlash, but what is certain is that it is now fully supportive of it. According to Bahati, one American Pentecostal friend recently lamented to him that “I wish we [in the U.S.] had done what you are doing thirty years ago; we would be much better off.”
What quickly becomes clear from speaking to ordinary Ugandans is that, in fact, they are not all convinced that they would be better off if Bahati’s proposed bill were signed into law. Their reasons are wide ranging, but in some instances, like that of Rafaella, a law student at Makerere University, one of them is the recognition that, “all crimes are sins, but not all sins are crimes.” Yet the constant sense of shame with which Uganda’s gay community is currently made to live is already punishment in its own right.
Others have mentioned that the current law is too far-reaching. For instance, because the bill allocates prison sentences to anyone who fails to report a known homosexual offence, even a parent who discovers that their own son or daughter is gay, but for obvious reasons fails to publicly report this, could be thrown in jail for up to three years.
One rarely hears such reservations and concerns voiced in the mass media. If the country and the world is ever going to see that Ssempa does not represent all Ugandans, and that “EAT DA POO POO” provides only the slimmest window into Ugandan culture, this will have to change and Uganda’s more tolerant and level-headed voices will have to bravely speak up.
But what does the West know of Ugandan popular culture? Stories of riots, elections and international conferences are ubiquitous, but they rarely provide any insight into Ugandan culture itself – that is, into the sort of things that the people of Uganda find funny, surprising, outrageous, or important.
Recently, however, Westerners have been learning more than usual about Ugandan culture. The reason for this is a YouTube video named “EAT DA POO POO,” which has been spreading virally over the internet. The video documents a series of anti-gay tirades by Ugandan Pastor, Dr. Martin Ssempa. Armed with explicit visual aids, Ssempa argues that what homosexuals do in the privacy of their bedrooms is simply far too disgusting to be protected by the law. Homosexual men, he claims, lick each other’s anuses like, “ice cream and even poo poo comes out...This one smears the poo poo all over the other one’s face.”
To date, the video has almost three million hits on YouTube, has spawned an auto-tune remix with some four-hundred-thousand hits, and is listed on Ebaum’s World, a popular archive of internet curiosities.
Westerners watch this video because they find Ssempa’s antics comical, but what few of them realize is how un-comical his views are to many native Ugandans. Homosexuality is outlawed in as many as thirty-eight African countries, including Uganda. In Mauritania, Nigeria, and neighbouring Sudan, it is currently punishable by death. And Ugandan MP David Bahati’s recent effort to push through a comprehensive “Anti Homosexuality Bill” – which would include capital punishment for “aggravated” offences – has received considerable popular support.
With Bahati’s bill still under consideration in parliament, Uganda is one of the few African countries to currently be on the verge of tightening its regulation against homosexuals. Already under Uganda’s Penal Code Act of 1950, those who engage in the “unnatural offence” of gay sex may be imprisoned for life, and those who merely attempt to do so can be imprisoned for up to seven years. But this new piece of legislation expands on the current law to include lengthy prison sentences for anyone who as much as “promotes,” funds, disseminates, or provides a venue for homosexual activities, as well as anyone who fails to publicly disclose their knowledge of a homosexual offense.
With six African countries having decriminalized homosexuality as recently as 2008, nd with South Africa having become the fifth country in the world to recognize same-sex marriage in 2006, why is Uganda moving in the opposite direction?
The short answer is that in contrast to other African nations, powerful people in Uganda have taken collective initiative on anti-gay legislation. In an interview with The Independent, MP David Bahati cited his membership in a Ugandan chapter of “The Fellowship” or “The Family”, a U.S.-based Christian political organization, as the key impetus behind the new bill. Every Thursday the members of the local division of The Fellowship, which include a close circle of Ugandan MPs and religious leaders (led by Ssempa), meet to discuss “how to use godly principles to influence public policy.” About a year and a half ago, Bahati reveals, it was decided in one such meeting that the legal framework as it stands was incapable of addressing the urgency of the problem of homosexuality in Uganda. Bahati was chosen and happily volunteered to be at the forefront of developing new legislation.
http://webmail.icebreakersuganda.org/imp/themes/graphics/spacer_red.pngFor Bahati, the 2009 “Anti Homosexuality Bill” is both a personal and political imperative. It is personal because he is convinced that homosexuality is a sin and that “sin must be fought:” “Though I love homosexuals, I hate the sin in them. I believe that they can be rehabilitated, that they can be counselled and come back to normality.” On the political front, he says, the bill is critical to stop homosexuality from taking over the world. “As a country, Uganda should be able to really provide leadership at this time when the world needs leadership.”
However, the genesis of this new bill cannot be explained solely by the raw initiative of Bahati and The Fellowship. In order to have any chance of passing into law, the bill needs considerable support from parliamentarians, other members of government, and ideally from the public. According to Bahati, it has all of these. Despite strong international pressure to shelve the bill, including threats by some Western governments to cut off aid to Uganda should it finally pass, Bahati believes that the “government supports what I’m doing.” The cause of legislative hesitation over the bill so far, he believes, is strictly political; key government officials remain caught between whether to “stand for what is right, or to compromise and get donor money.” Moreover, for its part, 95% of the population of Uganda, according to Bahati, believes that “homosexuality is a sin and shouldn’t be supported.” A public petition in support of the bill has already gathered four million signatures. Even foreign governments like Canada, which have been very active in expressing criticism of the bill, secretly support it, claims Bahati: “Deep in their hearts, [Canadians] don’t support homosexuality.”
In Kampala, opinions about homosexuality vary: Aida, who owns an inconspicuous hair salon in central Kampala, supports the new bill and claims that homosexuality, “is not part of African culture...It’s a disease and you kill a disease.” At Masala Chat House restaurant, Manager Joseph Onen Bakiti says that he would not fire an employee if he or she was discovered to be a homosexual, but he still believes that all homosexuals should be jailed. If a police officer were found out to be a homosexual, by contrast, not only would they be immediately fired and prosecuted for the crime, they would be subject to additional punitive action under the Police Force’s disciplinary code, explains Uganda Police Force’s Deputy Public Relations Officer Ssekate Vicent.
Others in Uganda believe that the new proposed legislation is excessively cruel despite homosexuality’s unseemliness. Solomon Webalealaari, a civil rights lawyer based in Kampala, does not believe that homosexuality should be criminalized, but notes that many Ugandans who agree with him are afraid to publicly voice their opinion, lest they be stigmatized or branded as un-African, un-Christian, and pro-Gay.
The fact that tolerant views of this sort have been marginalized in Ugandan public culture is a testament to the vehemence and popularity of Ssempa’s campaign. Ssempa and his associates present homophobia in general, and support for anti-gay legislation in particular, as standards of membership in Uganda’s Afro-Christian majority. 84 percent of Ugandans are Christian and according to gay rights activist, Major Rubaramira Ruranga, it is precisely by branding support for the recent bill as an essential aspect of what it means to be a committed Christian in Uganda that the anti-gay lobby has achieved such success.
Major Ruranga argues that, in contrast to Western society, Ugandan society places intense value on communal attachment, even when this comes at the expense of individual expression. As a result, he says, “religion has become more of a culture than a faith.” Instead of promoting sincere belief, the religious establishment promotes outward conformity to standards adhered to by the larger group. In the case of Uganda’s Christian community, Ruranga suggests, the hatred of gays has become one of these unquestioned group standards.
But it was not always so. According to Ruranga, the anti-gay movement in Uganda only gained traction in the 1990s in large part as a reaction to a perceivable rise in gay pride, activism, and the unprecedented occurrence of public disclosures of homosexuality in the Ugandan media. The religious establishment decided this was dangerous and instigated a backlash. It is not clear how much of a role the U.S. based Fellowship had in fomenting that backlash, but what is certain is that it is now fully supportive of it. According to Bahati, one American Pentecostal friend recently lamented to him that “I wish we [in the U.S.] had done what you are doing thirty years ago; we would be much better off.”
What quickly becomes clear from speaking to ordinary Ugandans is that, in fact, they are not all convinced that they would be better off if Bahati’s proposed bill were signed into law. Their reasons are wide ranging, but in some instances, like that of Rafaella, a law student at Makerere University, one of them is the recognition that, “all crimes are sins, but not all sins are crimes.” Yet the constant sense of shame with which Uganda’s gay community is currently made to live is already punishment in its own right.
Others have mentioned that the current law is too far-reaching. For instance, because the bill allocates prison sentences to anyone who fails to report a known homosexual offence, even a parent who discovers that their own son or daughter is gay, but for obvious reasons fails to publicly report this, could be thrown in jail for up to three years.
One rarely hears such reservations and concerns voiced in the mass media. If the country and the world is ever going to see that Ssempa does not represent all Ugandans, and that “EAT DA POO POO” provides only the slimmest window into Ugandan culture, this will have to change and Uganda’s more tolerant and level-headed voices will have to bravely speak up.
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