In late
March, Sam Nujoma, President of Namibia, ordered apurge of homosexuals, stating
that “The Republic of Namibia does not allow homosexuality or lesbianism here.
Police are ordered to arrest you, deport you and imprison you.” The Namibian
Society for Human Rights countered that the “attempt to turn a personal dislike
into ad hoc national policy is entirely unconstitutional and misguided.”
The Black
Radical Congress joins those who have strongly condemned the Namibian
president’s assault on same gender loving people in his Southern African
nation. Namibia, a former German colony that was administered as a mandate and
later annexed by South Africa, gained its independence in 1990 after a more
than 20-year long anti-apartheid war. Given that he is a former freedom fighter
and a head of state, Nujoma’s homophobic, discriminatory actions are
particularly repugnant. His actions and rhetoric come on the heels of similar
rhetoric and repression in Zimbabwe, where President Robert Mugabe has
campaigned to imprison and expel same gender loving people.
Both Mugabe
and Nujoma have equated homosexuality with bestiality and even murder, and both
have called for the eradication of homosexuality from the face of the earth.
These threatening pronouncements signal that a new wave of genocidal crimes
against gays and lesbians in Africa could be in the making.
Attacks on
same gender loving people are by no means an unfamiliar occurrence. In recent
years, violence and hostility against this sector have escalated to horrifying
proportions in practically every part of the world. In Africa however, European
colonialism—from which the severe economic problems of the African continent
derive—provides the context and fuel for this emergent witch-hunt. Virulent
homophobia, incubated in the right-wing movements of the imperialist metropoles
and also an outgrowth of Africa’s own indigenous patriarchal systems, is
finding a home in the political agendas of desperate African leaders. Sadly,
these leaders, having little power in a world dominated by Western global
capital, seek to buttress their authority through corruption and strong-arming.
In the absence of real leverage, and confronted with more and more popular
challenges to their leadership, they have resorted to scapegoating same gender
loving people and fomenting a climate of heightened tolerance for misogyny.
Nujoma’s
homophobic attack comes in the wake of other anti-democratic domestic and
foreign policy initiatives, including the use of violence to repress trade
union leaders at home and promoting militarism abroad. It is not by chance that
this recent outburst against homosexuals in Namibia comes just when the
government has to leave the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Both societies
committed troops to assist Laurent Kabila at a time when negotiations would
have strengthened the democratic forces in the whole of Southern Africa. More
importantly, these leaders committed their soldiers to train and fight beside
those who committed genocide in Rwanda. With this track record and the fact
that these two leaders did not condemn the late Kabila when he called on people
in his country to kill Tutsis, the attacks on same gender loving people are by
no means an unfamiliar occurrence. In recent years, violence and hostility
against gays and lesbians has arisen in tandem with a search for new sources of
legitimacy for their increasingly unpopular regimes.
But there is
another aspect to consider as well as a lesson to be learned. Most
anti-colonial and national liberation movements (and even our own civil
rights/black power movements) of the 60s, 70s and 80s were ideologically weak
on questions of misogyny and homophobia. While the most advanced groups made
sure that gender equality was a part of stated political goals, clear positions
against homophobia were noticeably absent. Moreover, even the struggle against
misogyny was not a structural part of the movements’ ongoing internal
development. Our conclusion is that freedom movements which neglect the
ideological development of their members risk the continued operation of
reactionary policies when these leaders ascend to state power.
Point IX of
the BRC Freedom Agenda states “We affirm the right of all people to love whom
they choose, to openly express their sexuality, and to live in the family units
that meet their needs. We support anti-homophobic instruction in the public
schools, and we believe that violence against lesbians, gay men, bisexuals and
the transgendered should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of laws that
specifically prohibit abuses in this category of human rights.”
The Black
Radical Congress calls upon all democratic-minded and freedom loving people to
rally against the spread of homophobia throughout the world. And to those who
have a particular affinity to the struggles for democracy and freedom in
Africa, we ask that you make known your opposition to Nujoma’s vicious assault
on the human rights of homosexuals in Namibia, and to meet the callous
disregard for human rights on display in Southern Africa with organized
resistance. The Black Radical Congress likewise reconfirms our commitment to
fighting such reactionary tendencies within our own movements. The struggle
against homophobia, sexism, racism, and all the forces that are destructive to
the basic rights of humanity is indivisible from the struggle against
neo-colonialism and imperialism.
Black Radical Congress, 21 April 2001
