Ironically on the day the continent was supposed to be celebrating African Liberation Day, May 25, armed Zimbabwean police raided Chesterfield Samba's suburban home ostensibly looking for pornographic material. Luckily, Samba, Director of the Gays and Lesbian Association of Zimbabwe (GALZ) and a well-known gay rights activist, was away at the time. But this did not stop the police from harassing and intimidating his relatives, seeking the GALZ director's whereabouts. The police then proceeded to confiscate his identification documents along with some gay literature.

Three days earlier, the police had swooped on GALZ offices in Harare's leafy suburb of Milton Park arresting two employees, Ellen Chademana (34) and Ignatius Muhambi (38), accusing the gay rights activists of possessing pornographic material.

At the time of writing, they were formally charged for possessing pornographic material and are currently out on $200 bail each.

Gay bashing

President Robert Mugabe, who has led Zimbabwe since independence from Britain in 1980, is a well-known gay and lesbian basher. In 1995 Mugabe told a crowd, which included diplomats accredited to Harare, that homosexuals were "worse than dogs and pigs," making the outspoken Zimbabwean leader a target of gay rights activists in Europe.

Human rights activists have also noted that Mugabe's ZANU PF militia and state security agents, taking a cue from his anti-homosexual stance, have intensified efforts to persecute gays and lesbians in Zimbabwe, the bulk of which have gone underground.

"As ZANU PF [Zimbabwe's ruling party], we want any new supreme law to uphold Zimbabwe's cultural values," said Rugare Gumbo, ZANU PF spokesman. "Homosexuality is not part of the Zimbabwean culture," said Gumbo, a direct rebuke to gays and lesbians in the country.

But Okay Machisa, Director of Zimbabwe Rights, a human rights pressure group otherwise known as Zim-Rights, told ChinAfrica that they were deeply concerned.

"Whilst there may be differences in attitudes toward people of different sexual orientation, they are entitled to their rights as human beings. They have the right to live and lead the life they please," said Machisa. "Resenting them is no justification to attack them in anyway," he said.

Although gay and lesbian practices are not allowed in Zimbabwe, Samba's GALZ has official authorization to function in the country.

Abel Chikomo, Director of the Zimbabwe Human Rights NGO Forum, said the arrest of gay rights activists was a testament to the level of intolerance within the police and the government.

"We question the independence of the police in executing what clearly are political instructions against the gay and lesbian community in Zimbabwe," said Chikomo.

As Zimbabwe prepares to write a new constitution activists are concerned that gay and lesbian rights will not be enshrined in the envisaged new law of the land.