Ugandan people are reputed for their friendly and hospitable character. When you visit Uganda, you will notice that when we greet someone, even a stranger, we don’t say hi! We say “How are you?” if you loose your way, you won’t only easily get directions from happy locals, often times, you are taken or ‘escorted’ to the place – free of charge! There is a genuine desire to help each other which is born out of the African Community life which is replicated through out many African societies.
These small acts of love are simple and to a certain extent obvious, well, because they are kind of expected! 🙂 In a society where communities are organized in such a way that everybody knows everybody and even a simple thing as someone you ‘know’ consciously refusing to greet you may call for a third party intervention, private life revolves around social life and social security becomes, not the only thing but everything!
Given such a back ground, custodians of social life, leaders in their various colors and shades wield tremendous power and influence, with political and religious leaders the run away pack. Whereas political leaders jump at anything ‘popular’ for their political life, religious leaders have over time built powerful institutions and vast followings. In fact, in Uganda, it is thought that only one percent of the total population are non believers with Christians the overwhelming majority enjoying around 93 per cent and the Muslims in the area of 6 per cent.
So, in a nation where 99 percent of the total population are governed by religious prejudices towards the lgbt community and live in a society which has languages that don’t even have a direct equivalent for the word ‘sex’ in their vocabulary, and where it exists, it’s mentioning is taboo, homosexuality is in a very harsh environment – and that is before you factor in the ever growing influence of the Evangelicals, mostly American, the immense ignorance and fear here about homosexuality and homosexuals among the locals, and the local religious/political leaders playing into the factors mentioned above. It is not uncommon to hear pastors say they are ‘fighting to protect our children’ – from gay people, as a reason for fighting homosexuality. This plays easily into the conservative and not so well informed minds here.
Does this mean that the situation is hopeless? Absolutely not! First and foremost, Uganda is a signatory to most if not all international human rights charters so upholding the rights of the lgbt community in Uganda or appearing to do so is in the best interest of the country and its political leadership. Secondly, about a half of Uganda’s total budget is funded by donor countries – which are also pushing for gay rights. So sooner or later, the political leadership in Uganda will see that it has more to loose than gain from persecuting this harmless minority group. We should not forget that draconian laws against homosexuality already exist in the Ugandan penal code. These are bad enough and should probably be the next target after this bill is defeated.
NOTE: The ninth parliament, which is yet to start work, agreed that pending bills from the 8th parliament (including the anti homosexuality bill) be disposed of before embarking on other business in the August house. So we will probably be knowing the fate of the anti sexuality bill in the coming few weeks.
Back to the issue at hand, I believe that the religious leaders and their deliberately confusing and hateful messages are the most harmful. The church has sowed seeds so hurtful, so harmful that although penning the right legislation in crucial, it can not wash it away in one wave. As people fighting in this war, we need several wings. We need activism – which thank God is doing quite well. We need education, which am afraid is not doing as well. We need a wing dedicated to education. Who is a gay person? Is homosexuality a habit? Can a person be Christian or even Muslim and still be gay? Can a gay person be in a committed loving relationship? These issues and many more need to be addressed as a matter of urgency. We also need a dedicated wing of flag bearers if you like, professionals like Doctors, Nurses, Engineers who are gay and can demonstrate that gay people have a life outside their sex life and their lives can and in fact do impact us all in different ways. Build wells; organize mobile clinics and so on. We can call this a human face.
We also need to train local gay affirming clergy within the Church as an investment for the future justification being the church still wields tremendous power in Africa. True change will ultimately come from within the Church in this part of the world because this is where most of the intolerance is rooted. We are going to need religious leaders who can demonstrate the love of God as it is and not what head quarters is telling them to do. In May this year, I applied to Bishop Tucker Theological Institute for training but failed to raise funds required for the 3 year course. I had to put it on hold till September when hopefully, funding will be available for my training. Am willing to walk the talk.
Two days before David Kato was killed, he had called me and told me that he was working on something he wanted me to part of. We set an appointment for the following weekend, but he was killed mid week and the meeting never happened. At his funeral, speaker after speaker spoke of the love that David had toward all those who knew him, a love that cost him his life and the bible tells me, it IS the greatest!
God Bless You All
Believer
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