Holy War Against Gays in Africa
In Uganda, there is a burning desire to send them to the gallows. Woe betide those who dare “marry” in Malawi. In Zimbabwe, President Mugabe and Premier Tsvangirai have surprisingly agreed to refuse to consider their rights in the new constitution, with the former describing them as “pigs” and “dogs”. In 38 of the 53 countries on the continent, homosexuals are treated like criminals.
Same-sex marriage has been legal in South African since 2006. But it is an exception. South Africa has become a whole new universe of tolerance, severed from a continent where homosexuality, often violently punished, is considered as an unnatural act, an abomination. According to AIDES, an NGO that fights against the spread of HIV/AIDS, of out of 53 African countries, 38 of them criminalize sexual relations between persons of the same sex. Penalties range from six months to 14 years imprisonment, depending on the country.
In Sudan, where the Islamic law (Sharia) in force calls for the execution of people who engage in same sex relations, no one has yet been killed by the law for homosexual act. But Frederic Moreau, General Secretary of another NGO, Ensemble Contre La Peine de Mort (Together Against Death Penalty), begs to differ: “In Sudan, even if there is no execution, it is extremely dangerous for the sharia to be involved (in this issue), because countries that apply those laws, whereby homosexuals are executed, can one day be cited as a pretext to condemn and execute.”
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