Poverty, corruption, poor governance, homelessness, there's no shortage of conscious artists protesting these issues and violations, but on the subject of homophobia African artists, even those living outside the continent, remain silent. It's the sole human rights issue artists refuse to mention.
That the artistic "rebels" who normally fight on behalf of the underdog and the oppressed prefer to leave this issue well alone is a sign of just how hot this particular potato is in Africa. Come out fighting against homophobia and the immediate suspicion is that you must yourself be gay. To which the response in, say, the Netherlands, might be, so what? But when there's a very real danger that such a suspicion wont simply mean a loss of fans but might well lead to your death, it's hard then to flippantly say, so what?
Homosexuality is "illegal" in thirty-eight of Africa's fifty-three countries, and anti-gay sentiment runs high even in countries where homosexuality isn't criminalised, but Uganda in particular has been in the international spotlight since the Ugandan MP David Bahati introduced the anti-homosexuality bill (see the Wikipedia page on the matter) calling for anyone gay to be imprisoned for life, with repeat offenders and those who are HIV positive facing the death penalty.
This official condemnation reflects the widespread anti-gay sentiment in Uganda (and elsewhere in Africa) and explains why homophobic American evangelists are welcomed with open arms (see "Missionaries of Hate") and tabloids like the Rolling Stone can publish names and residence locations of gay Ugandans with a headline stating, "Hang Them."
Now one of the most vocal gay rights activists protesting the bill has been murdered. David Kato, whose photograph appeared on the cover of the above-mentioned edition of Rolling Stone, was beaten to death yesterday afternoon in his home in Mukono, Kampala - you can read more about this in All Africa, the UK Guardian, or the BBC - and although Human Rights Watch is calling for the prompt investigation of the murder, you'd have to be quite an optimist to believe much is going to come of this.
Our feeling is that anti-gay sentiment (and bill) is based on the belief that people who are gay don't have to be, but choose to be, and so must be "corrected" and punished for their wilfully-chosen "crime". if that is indeed the case, then the question, in light of what has just occurred, is:
When the cost of being gay in Uganda is so high - physical abuse, property vandalised, death threats, actual murder - why on earth would any of the 500,000 gay Ugandans in the country choose to "remain" gay?
Would we be overstating the bravery of members of the Ugandan LGBT community in Uganda who continue to protest the bill and generally fight against homophobia at risk of death? No, we don't think so. Not when it is very likely that there will be many more deaths before homosexuality is ever decriminalised in Uganda and elsewhere in most of the continent.
Still, back to the silence of artists. It's not mandatory for artists to oppose everything unfair in a society, but we also know that as with all other human rights violations it helps when artists get behind an issue. So, if it's too dangerous for individual artists to oppose homophobia, why don't a coalition of artists get together to do so as one body? That would be a watershed moment, and a huge step in getting people to at least question their hatred for homosexuals.
What do you think? What are your ideas for fighting homophobia in Africa?
David Kato
EXTERNAL LINKS
Friends pay tribute to Ugandan gay activist David Kato (The BBC)
Uganda's Rolling Stone paper told to stop outing gays (The BBC, November 2010)
Uganda Anti-Homosexuality Bill (Wikipedia)
