By Oweyegha-Afunaduula
When I wrote my article “The Politics of Homosexuality in Uganda” in April, I began by stating that “There is no doubt that homosexuality is an issue that assumes numerous dimensions: cultural, ecological, ethical, moral, spiritual, cultural, academic, intellectual, social, economic, political, diplomatic and even environmental. In much of Africa, homosexuality is an environmental pollution issue in ecological, ethical, moral, spiritual, cultural, academic, intellectual, social, economic and political dimensions.
Emmanuel Phiri (2022), a researcher and expert on sexual orientation, observed that homosexuality is one of those things that has been politicised the world over. In his article “Is homosexuality a political weapon of choice” he published in the blog, Diggers, he poses the questions:
– Why is homosexuality consistently used as a political weapon of choice against political opponents?
– What is it that these campaigns intend to achieve?
– Are these campaigns successful or not?
While Graeme Reid (2015), former Director, Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Rights Programme, writing in CNN, “Homophobia as a political strategy”, governments in the West are using homosexuality as a political tool to coerce the poor countries in Africa, especially Uganda, to liberate the sexual, social and moral deviation of homosexuality and regard it as a human right rather than a human wrong.
Therefore, while homosexuality is being used as a political tool in the West to influence the African attitudes towards it, homophobia against the practice is simultaneously being used in the West to mobilise public opinion there against countries which have legislated against the sexual deviation; in particular Uganda whose Anti-homosexuality Law 2023 criminalises the practice. According to the West, the rulers who legislate against homosexuality are tyrants all out to crush homosexuals out of their countries.
Sylvia Tamale (2013) holds the view that while the connections between democracy and sexuality – that is, between civil liberties and the protection of nonconforming sexualities – are rarely discussed in Africa, nonconforming sexualities have been instrumentalised to entrench dictatorships and to weaken democracy. She adds that the problem is also compounded by the distortion of African history promulgated by the dictatorial leadership on the continent.
Nikita Sleptcov (2018) examined the current state strategy of political homophobia used by the Russian government to create a sense of national identity by scapegoating Russian homosexuals as “foreign agents,” reinforcing the power of the governing elite, and distracting people’s attention from government misconduct.
Sekena Budget (2024) has examined how homosexuality is used as a political weapon in Uganda. He concludes that homosexuality in Uganda is a complex and multifaceted issue shaped by historical, legal, social, and political factors. The ongoing debate over LGBTQ rights reflects broader struggles for human rights, equality, and social justice in Ugandan society. While significant challenges remain, there are also opportunities for positive change and greater acceptance of LGBTQ individuals and their rights in Uganda.
Sogunro (2022) writes that the process of political homophobia includes the social exclusion of a large majority of the population for the benefit of an elite class. It is argued that an understanding of the rationale behind the colonial evolution of anti-gay laws can provide an insight into the entrenchment of political homophobia in Nigeria and similar legal systems in Africa and challenge the rhetoric that these laws reflect African values.
Recently, Didem Unal (2024), referring to Turkey elections, wrote that propaganda utilized political homophobia as a populist tool to construct and reinforce political antagonisms and carry out a crisis-driven politics in search of continued hegemony. His article demonstrates that the gendered performance of crisis-driven politics is a core mechanism of the current democratic erosion in Turkey. It argues that homophobic propaganda is a key tool for Turkey’s Justice and Development Party (JDP) not only to enact the processes of othering through fearmongering and scapegoating but also to restructure politics through crisis-driven imaginaries, post-truth epistemologies, and emergency legislation that lacks political responsiveness.
It is against this background that I have decided to write my short article “Using homosexuality as a political tool against youth protests against corruption in Uganda” on my birthday when I began to tick 75 years of life on Earth. I was inspired to write the article by politicians evoking homosexuality after many youths demonstrating against corruption at Parliament and throughout the Musevenite Uganda were rounded and thrown in Luzira Prison. Many are still in prison. One explanation the President of Uganda, Tibuhaburwa Museveni, and the Speaker of Parliament, Anita Anite Among, advanced for the youth demonstrations was that foreigners, especially in those countries where homosexuality has been legalised as a normal sexual orientation, were spurring some, if not all, youth demonstrators against corruption. This suggested that the youths were not intelligent enough to know what they wanted. The youth demanded that the Speaker of Parliament resign on account of being corrupt and turning the house into a den of thieves.
The President met with the Speaker and her youthful deputy, Thomas Tayebwa, amidst the demonstrations. He assured the nation that some of the arrested youth would testify in court that they were sponsored by foreigners to demonstrate. On the other hand, the Speaker after a lull of silence, even when some MPs accused her of protecting corruption in the house, came out strongly to declare that she knew homosexuals in the West and their countries were behind the demonstrations against her. However, in her backyard, MPs were announcing that they had got the necessary number of legislators to lay a motion on corruption in Parliament. If the motion is laid, the Speaker or her deputy would have to chair the sessions despite the belief that the centres of homosexuality in the West were bent on seeing her downfall because she was the force behind the Uganda Anti-homosexuality Law 2023.
She was not lying. The Speaker of Uganda’s Parliament was resolute in implementing the law, aiming to restrict what is viewed as a taboo in many Ugandan cultures. Despite generating significant national and global debate, with some labelling it draconian, the law was passed and assented to by the President in May 2023. As Sekena Budget (2024) stated, despite international pressure, including threats of aid withdrawal, Uganda’s population largely opposes homosexuality, as reflected in surveys. This sentiment has made it easier for the government to maintain its stance on homosexuality.
It is, however, important to investigate whether it is right to intertwine homosexuality with the youth struggles against corruption in Uganda as the top politicians are trying to do.
One thing is true. Unlike in Russia, where political homophobia has been institutionalised as a state strategy in that country’s politics, there is no evidence that this is the case in Uganda despite the political order being in congruence with the population against homosexuality. It would therefore be wrong to gang the youth who demonstrated against corruption and the corrupt as being pawns for the homosexuality movement in the West and its small link in Uganda.
It is not true that most youth demonstrators against corruption in Uganda are pro-homosexuality unless the political strategy is to use homosexuality to cover up the scourge of corruption and the corrupt. I suggest that since the youths are the absolute dominant group in the Uganda population, we do not postpone listening to their collective voice regarding corruption and the corrupt.
There is no need for further demonstrations involving the President or organised by the agents of the President. What is needed is to listen to the youths in concrete terms and begin to confiscate the riches of the corrupt in favor of Uganda and Ugandans. We know there is a mismatch between their legitimate incomes and the riches they have accumulated in Uganda and abroad. Just arresting them is good but not enough. Stolen money must be recovered from them and returned to the public purse. Sacking them from their jobs is a good gesture of power but not enough. There must be an end to syndicated corruption.
Meanwhile, delink homosexuality from corruption. Use of homosexuality as a political tool to disempower and misdirect the youth of Uganda’s genuine struggle is dishonest and a furtherance of corruption. There must be the political will from the top to bottom to erase corruption from the body politic of Uganda. I am using the term body politic to mean all the people of Uganda – the led and non-led in every station of society considered together as one organised system, just like the human body system is. Faced with the scourge of corruption, politicians should tell the truth because lies corrupt the body politic and serve as the engine of corruption.
Lying politicians cannot be agents in the struggle against corruption. That is why the youths of Uganda – the ones we are handing the country to – have arisen to take full responsibility for a corruption-free country. They need honest political and other leaders to join them rather than block them. They require more security, peace, and stability without corruption polluting them that we who belong more to the past than to the future.
For God and My Country.
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