Zambia's Vice-President Using Homosexuality as Wedge Issue in 2011 Elections

Vice-President George Kunda

Zambia's Vice-President George Kunda continues to use homosexuality as a wedge issue in the upcoming 2011 elections. He has challenged Patriotic Front (PF) president Michael Sata and United Party for National Development (UPND) president Hakainde Hichilema to give Zambians their position on homosexuality and gay rights, the Lusaka Times reports.

Mr Kunda said Mr Sata has allegedly been linked to supporting homosexuality and gay rights in Zambia and it is strange that he has not denied that he wants to promote and advance the rights of homosexuals and gay people.

Mr Kunda said in Serenje on Thursday at a public rally that Zambia is a Christian nation and alien practices such as same sex relationships will never be promoted and condoned.

“With this type of leadership, Zambia will be a rogue State. I am challenging him (Mr Sata) to deny he is supporting homosexuality and gay rights in Zambia.

“Mr Hichilema has gone into an alliance with Mr Sata. Does he believe in what Mr Sata is doing? Does he also believe in homosexuality and gay rights?” Mr Kunda asked.

Mr Kunda said President Banda has condemned homosexuality and gay rights. The Vice-President alleged that Mr Sata is unpredictable and inconsistent and cannot be entrusted with the instruments of power because he cannot handle the security of the nation. 

In May of 2010, the anti-gay views of Anglican Council presiding Bishop Robert Mumbi were published on President Rupiah Bwezani Banda's State House website. Botswana’s former president Festus Mogae has been working with President Banda to moderate his views about homosexuality.

With Zambia's draft constitution discriminating against lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex (LGBTI) persons, the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission (IGLHRC) have been working with local activists to prepare for the potential impact on the community.

Nigeria's Ebem Ohafia Community Places Total Ban on Homosexuality

Abia State in Nigeria

Nigeria's Ebem Ohafia community in the Ohafia Council Area of Abia has placed a total ban on homosexuality warning that those involved will be ostracised, no matter their status. The traditional ruler of the community, Eze Ukoha Kalu, announced that the community would stone to death any confirmed homosexual in Ebem. The Nigerian Observer reports:

This was one of the resolutions made in Ohafia in Abia by the generality of the people, who had gathered at their ‘Abum’ village square to celebrate their 2010 Cultural Carnival.

Reports says that the theme of the event was “Knowing your root” and that the event was part of activities meant to revive the fading cultural heritage of the people.

Speaking at the carnival, Mr. Uche Ukoha, the Chairman of the event, expressed regret that the cultural heritage of most communities was facing serious challenges because of the impact of western culture.

“Our rich cultural heritage is fast fading away, giving rise to an uncultured western lifestyle that has no respect for humanity, norms and ethical values.

“This is more pathetic as this ill has found its way into Churches that are supposed to be custodians and strongholds of morality.

“We cannot allow this in this community and I suggest that any of our children that brings this condemnable attitude into this community will have to be shown the way out,” he said.

Ukoha noted that the rise in youth delinquency, corruption and community instability were all signs of decline of the people’s culture.

The traditional ruler of the community, Eze Ukoha Kalu, after getting the reaction of the crowd, announced that the community would stone to death any confirmed homosexual in Ebem.

Reports also stated that that Ebem is the only community in Ohafia that has a matrilineal method of succession in terms of traditional leadership.

It is the only community in Ohafia that had a bloody encounter with the white colonial masters at the early stage of its development.

According to John C. McCall at Southern Illinois University-Carbondale's Department of Anthropology, Ohafia has a warrior culture central to the people's sense of identity.

Prior to the colonial period the ancestors of the Ohafia people were renowned as mighty warriors. This aspect of Ohafia's history remains fundamental to the Ohafia people's sense of identity. The warrior's cap (okpu agu or "leopard cap") is ubiquitous in Ohafia and is recognized all over Nigeria as a marker of Ohafia citizenship. The Ohafia warrior tradition and its role in the constitution of Ohafia identity is explicitly embodied in the performance of iri agha -- the Ohafia War Dance . The warrior identity is deeply ingrained in Ohafia cultural practice and the process of acquiring deep knowledge of the warrior tradition begins in early childhood. 

Luleki Sizwe Petition Breaks Record; South African Ministry of Justice Yet to Act

Ndumie Funda

The courageous women of Luleki Sizwe are using the free petition system at Change.org to wake up the world to the epidemic of corrective rape in South Africa. A few weeks ago, from a safe house in Cape Town, Luleki Sizwe started a petition to persuade the Ministry of Justice to declare corrective rape a hate crime. With 66,000 signatures, the petition is the largest in Change.org history.

Talk about a type of courage that can not only create change, it can inspire the world. Meet the women of Luleki Sizwe, an organization made up of a small band of activists hiding in the outskirts of Cape Town, South Africa. Their goal? To wake the world up to an epidemic problem in South Africa, the country once thought to be a shining example of the promise and potential of human rights. That problem: the disturbing phenomenon of corrective rape, whereby lesbian women are targeted by men, and raped in an effort to turn them straight.

A few weeks ago, a volunteer for Luleki Sizwe started a petition on Change.org from a safe house for corrective rape survivors, hoping to persuade the South African Ministry of Justice to declare corrective rape a hate crime. It has since become the most popular petition in the history of Change.org, with more than 66,000 signatures. And though Luleki Sizwe hasn't scored a victory yet, there is ongoing communication with the Ministry of Justice to move discussion on this pressing subject forward.

In South Africa each year, 500 women report  being the victim of corrective rape, and perpetrators face little punishment. Indeed, Andile Ngcoza targeted a lesbian woman named Millicent Gaika, raping her, strangling her, and beating her up for five hours. And he was just set free for the equivalent of $10, less than the cost of a large pizza.

Stories like these are all too common in South Africa, where for every 25 men arrested for rape, 24 are set free. It also means that activism to address the problem of rape and corrective rape is particularly dangerous, which is why volunteers with Luleki Sizwe work out of safe houses. Today, two members of Luleki Sizwe -- founder Ndumie Funda and volunteer Billi du Preez -- spoke with Change.org about their work, their pride in seeing the Change.org community lift up their voices, and their goal of not only snagging a meeting with South Africa's Ministry of Justice, but getting the Ministry to finally declare corrective rape what it really is: a hate crime.

The article at Change.org includes Part 1 of an interview with Ndumie Funda with links to the rest of the interview. Ndumie states, "I want us to embarrass the South African government for the way they are acting."

Tiwonge Chimbalanga in Danger as Canada Sits on Asylum Request

Tiwonge Chimbalanga

Things are getting dangerous for Tiwonge Chimbalanga, a transgender woman in Malawi, as she waits for Canada to grant her asylum request. It is the one year anniversary of the arrest of Steven Monjeza and Tiwonge Chimbalanga in Malawi for celebrating their love in what authorities viewed as a traditional same-sex ceremony. Steven and Tiwonge were sentenced to 14-years in prison with hard labour but were subsequently pardoned by President Bingu wa Mutharika. David Jones writes in the Global Equality Today blog:

We haven’t heard much lately, the result of a request to let quiet diplomacy work on asylum.

Meanwhile Tiwonge is suffering and safety is becoming a more relevant consideration than patience.

In recent weeks: Tiwonge went to Blantyre to get her passport, stayed with a relative, a crowd gathered and circled the house, and the relative asked her to leave. In Lilongwe Tiwonge had malaria and needed to see a doctor.  A threatening crowd gathered at the public health centre and she had to leave. It happened again when Tiwonge needed to have a tooth pulled, and she had to sneak into a private clinic at night.

Tiwonge is hiding in a house in a neighborhood of Lilongwe. The house is also used as an office.  The houses there are small. The bedrooms are the size of many walk-in closets in the US. There is no privacy and the strain on everyone is becoming enormous. Recently when staff were away one night Tiwonge walked the short distance to a rough commercial area where there are shops, a traditional market, men hanging around fires looking for piecework, petrol stations, a truck stop and several bars. She was recognized and seriously beaten, and had her only valuable possession stolen, her cell phone.

Since we cannot tell when there may be a response on asylum there is a discussion now of moving Tiwonge to South Africa for her safety. There are organizations that may be able to host Tiwonge there and provide support while we wait (Malawians have easy entry into South Africa although the time she can spend there is limited, and there is a backlash against African immigration, so this is not a permanent solution.). Moving may even strengthen her case by highlighting the clear risk to her safety in Malawi. Discussions will begin on this option now.  If this is possible I may be asking you for help in moving Tiwonge.  MCC-New York has just made a donation to Tiwonge which will arrive just in time for Christmas!

December 28th will be the first anniversary of the Malawi gay arrests. Please take some note of this. Tiwonge was pardoned but is not free. Tiwonge is still confined, and living with emotional trauma and physical danger.