Across the continent

The persecution of gays and lesbians is not limited to Zimbabwe. In South Africa, where gay and lesbian rights are enshrined in the country's constitution and gay bars, restaurants and even tour packages are common; homosexuals have been on the receiving end of mob justice.

In early May 2010, a Pretoria woman instituted a R1.5 million ($195,000) damages claim against a member of her church who allegedly kicked her several times between the legs in "a bid to convert her to being a heterosexual" as it was "ungodly" to be gay.

Cecilia (Liana) Munnik, 31, of Garsfontein stated in papers filed at the Pretoria High Court that not only was she severely injured, but her feelings were also hurt by the May 2007 incident. 

Homosexuality hit the headlines in Uganda recently when President Yoweri Museveni's government has proposed what is known as the The Anti-Homosexuality Bill of 2009.

The bill creates a new category of crime called "Aggravated Homosexuality," which calls for death by hanging for gays or lesbians who have sex with anyone under 18 and for so-called "serial offenders."  It also calls for seven years in prison for "attempt to commit homosexuality," five years for landlords who knowingly house gays, three years for anyone, including parents, who fail to hand gay children over to the police within 24 hours and the extradition of gay Ugandans living abroad.

David Bahati, the bill's sponsor, has since reported that the death penalty advocated only applies to homosexual pedophiles and said that in Uganda, 95 percent of the population does not support homosexuality.

"It is impossible to be gay or be a friend of a gay person and not be subject to a death sentence," a Ugandan journalist, asking to remain anonymous, told ChinAfrica, adding, "You don't have to be gay or have gay sex to be put to death under this law."

President Museveni's government said the bill was intended to "consolidate the traditional family by prohibiting sexual relations between people of the same sex."

In the small central African country of Malawi, a gay couple, Steven Mojeza (26) and Tiwonge Chimbalanga (20) were sentenced to 14 years in jail with hard labor on May 20, 2010, after they were convicted for what the judge reportedly called "having sex against the order of nature and gross indecency."

"The right to a fair trial was compromised and sentiments expressed by the judge support this," said a Lilongwe-based human rights campaigner, speaking strictly under condition of anonymity.

In passing judgment on the gay couple, Malawian judge Nyakwawa Uisiwausiwa said, "We are sitting here to represent the Malawian society, which I do not believe is ready at this point in time to see its sons getting married to other sons or conducting engagement ceremonies."

The country views homosexuality as a crime, which carries a maximum sentence of 14 years.

UnAfrican?

For all the condemnation being seen in Africa toward homosexuality, leading African traditionalist and historian, Phathisa Nyathi, who has done much research on homosexuality in the African cultures, with specific reference to Zimbabwe, said while homosexuality is being looked down upon by most African leaders and its peoples, it is not a new phenomena as it existed even before colonialism.

Nyathi said, however, because Africans worshipped the doctrine that sex was meant to produce children, homosexual tendencies were sometimes violently suppressed in some communities of the continent.

"In African cultures it was seen as abominable things which needed cleansing," he said. Nyathi said Africans involved in gay and lesbian relations were ostracized from society and seen as outcasts.

"Such behavior is viewed as abnormal, delinquent and diverting from normalcy," he said. "Africans adhere to a biblical fertility statement in the book of Genesis, which roughly says men and women should produce as many children as they can. To most black Africans, sex is for utility and very little in the way of fun," he added.

Commenting on the fact that Africa's leaders often said that homosexuality is foreign to the African way of life, Dibussi Tande, Cameroonian poet, blogger and social commentator, said on his blog that defence by authenticity is a peculiarly African trope, and a particularly resistant one: homophobia appears to be on the wane elsewhere, but not here. Across the world there are 76 countries in which people can be prosecuted because of their sexual orientation, and half of those countries – 38 out of the continent's 53 states – are in Africa, said Tande.

Homosexuality, even to this day in most African cultures, was unacceptable and the societies sought remedies "for this disease" for relatives with such tendencies.

"There are two ways that are done to try to dissuade homosexual practice in some societies," said Nyathi. "First by advising the people with homosexual tendencies that it's unAfrican. This is done by the word of mouth. Second, it is what I call Afro-science, that is the use of traditional medicine on the victims or even conducting traditional rituals such as slaughtering a goat and smearing the blood on the affected people to cleanse them. It's unAfrican for a man to marry a man or a woman to marry a woman. Remember sex is meant to produce children," added Nyathi.

The Zimbabwean historian added that homosexuality was prevalent in jails and most current Zimbabwean leaders experienced this during their incarceration during the 1960s war against British colonialism, he said.

"And I think that's one of the reason our leaders speak out against gays and lesbians," said Nyathi.

(Reporting from Zimbabwe)