Mozambique

26 Feb 2008 -Maputo, Mozambique - An African lesbian group on Tuesday called on governments in the largely conservative continent to stop treating homosexuals like criminals.

The Coalition of African Lesbians is holding a conference attended by about 100 people in Mozambique to highlight discrimination against lesbians.

"Our main goal is that lesbian and homosexuality can no longer be seen as a criminal offence," the group's director and conference spokeswoman, Fikile Vilakazi, told Reuters.

African gay activists accuse authorities in many countries of "state-sponsored" homophobia and tacitly condoning their persecution. In some cases, possible sentences against gays include death by stoning.

Many traditional African societies view homosexuality as abhorrent. Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe has called gays "worse than dogs and pigs" and his government has banned local gay campaigners from displaying literature at local book fairs.

Thirty-eight of the 85 U.N. members that outlaw homosexuality are in Africa, according to an April 2007 International Lesbian and Gay Association report.

South Africa has adopted a liberal attitude and in 2006 became the first African nation to allow gay marriages, but campaigners said there were problems there too.

"People are facing detention and arrest, three lesbians were brutally murdered in South Africa and several others in Sierra Leone," said Vilakazi, a South African. "We want to get Africans to start talking openly about sexuality in their own way."

The conference, organised together with a gay organisation in Mozambique, will also discuss issues such as AIDS and violence against women.

12 Oct 2006- Maputo-The chairperson of the Mozambican Human Rights League (LDH), Alice Mabota, on Thursday urged the country's gay and lesbian citizen to organise and fight for their rights.

She was speaking at the first ever seminar on gay rights in the country, organised by the LDH, with the sponsorship of the Dutch NGO Hivos.

"Citizens win their rights, they're not a gift from the state", said Mabota. "If gays and lesbians struggle for their rights, the LDH will support them".

She added that the LDH is not campaigning on such specific issues as the legalisation of gay marriage: it would be gay people themselves who should raise such a demand, if they wanted to marry.

Gay activist Danilo de Sousa noted that few Mozambican gays are open about their sexuality - but that the number is growing.

"Many lead a semi-open (or semi-closed) life, while the majority keep their sexual orientation completely clandestine, or even deny it", he said.

"One often finds homosexuals married to members of the opposite sex, merely to please their family and society", he added. "But they're unhappy and often lead a double life".

Sousa was optimistic - for there are signs that young Mozambicans are more tolerant towards gays than the older generations, "and younger homosexuals are now posing openly the possibility of living their sexual orientation regardless of the wishes of their families".

"Amongst those who come into regular contacts with homosexuals, at home, or at work, or socially, there is a great level of acceptance, which shows that mutual knowledge is the main factor for overcoming intolerance, stigmatisation and discrimination", he said.

Mozambique, Sousa declared, has gay people "in all parts of the country, of all social strata, of all religions, of all ethnic groups, of all academic levels, and of both sexes".

Homosexuality was not something exclusive to any particular part of the world, said Sousa. He found it ironic that stigmatisation of gays had been introduced into Africa "by a culture that did come from outside the continent - Christianity.

Those who argue today that homosexuality is anti-African do so on the basis of a culture that was forced on Africans by colonialism and by force of arms".

In the Mozambican case, it was the Portuguese "who came to teach us that homosexuality was a sin and an abomination".

Yet to date, gay rights have not been on the agenda of any Mozambican political party - or indeed, prior to this seminar, on the agenda of human rights groups. "The homosexual community itself must bear part of the blame for this situation", said Silva. Rather than risk provoking "a conservative backlash", many gays preferred to go on living "in an undefined, clandestine situation".

In some quarters, Silva added, gay rights were dismissed as irrelevant, because Mozambican society had more pressing issues to deal with, such as the fight against hunger. "Strangely such questions are not raised when it comes to the rights of other minorities, such as the disabled, HIV-positive people, or religious groups, who are given huge attention on the various national political agendas", he said.

Today, stressed Silva, the development of democracy is increasingly measured "by the extension of freedoms and legal protection for all minorities. The progress in gay rights in various countries does not reflect cultural factors - it reflects democratic advances. Only thus can one explain the cultural diversity of the countries that are in the vanguard of gay rights".

Silva suggested that Mozambican gays should concentrate on removing any clause from the country's laws that might be used to criminalise gays, and to introduce measures that ban discrimination on the base of sexual orientation, just as discrimination on the grounds of race, sex, religion or ethnic group is already outlawed.

He did not call for gay marriage, but suggested "gradual recognition of the rights of gay partners living in de facto unions".

"Mozambique is a nation of many colours, a people of many rhythms, a country of many riches", Silva concluded. "We are part of this diversity and these riches. As citizens we ask only that you respect our rights, and give us the freedom that feeds the joy we feel in our hearts when we declare that we are, above all, Mozambican citizens".

It is sometimes claimed that homosexuality is banned under Mozambican law. Custodio Duma pointed out that this is inaccurate. Homosexuality, as such, is not mentioned in the country's penal code, although the vague phrase "practices against nature" does appear.

Article in the code which some have interpreted as criminalising gays are in fact aimed at "vadios", a Portuguese word best translated as "vagrants".

Duma also cited a recent survey on attitudes towards gays, in which 700 people, aged between 18 and 56, were interviewed in four Mozambican cities (Maputo, Beira, Nampula and Quelimane).

A leader of the Brazilian gay movement, Luiz Mott, Professor of Anthropology at the Federal University of Bahia, argued that, while many African countries regard homosexuality as a crime and three (Nigeria, Mauritania and Sudan) even execute gays, the history of homosexuality on the continent long predates colonialism. Works of art displaying gay sexual practices, ranging from San rock paintings in the Kalahari, to Ashanti metal sculptures from Ghana, show that there were pre-colonial African societies that accepted homosexuality.

Mott attacked the intolerance of religious leaders, particularly the declaration by the head of the Roman Catholic Church Joseph Ratzinger (Pope Benedict XVI) that homosexuality is "intrinsically disordered".

Gay Rights Raised in Mozambican Paper

04 July 2006- Mozambique- For the first time in maputo, a mainstream Mozambican paper has published an article by a prominent Mozambican journalist arguing in favour of gay rights.

Previously the question of homosexuality has been largely ignored in the Mozambican media, with the exception of occasional outbursts of homophobic nonsense by christian or moslem clerics.

But one young gay man, interviewed in the new publication "Matinal", claimed that Mozambican gays intend to present a petition to the country's parliament seeking the approval of gay marriage.

Prominent Radio Mozambique journalist Emilio Manhique took the issue up on his phone-in programme "Cafe de Manha" last Thursday. Some of the listeners who rang in to the programme were shocked - how could Manhique even raise the subject ? For them, homosexuality was so taboo that it should not even be discussed in Mozambican society.

Manhique has returned to the question in his weekly column in the Beira daily paper "Diario de Mozambique", in which he argues strongly that gay people have "the right to be different".

"Homosexuality, contrary to what many people think, is not a disease", writes Manhique. "It's a question of sexual orientation. Nobody asked to be born homosexual, just as nobody asked to be born heterosexual, and nobody asked to be born black, white or Chinese".

"Less than 40 years ago in this country we were humiliated and despised because of the colour of our skins", recalls Manhique. "We were considered second class citizens".

"Today we point accusing fingers at people with a different sexual orientation", he adds. "And, if that weren't enough, we stigmatise them. Some, such as President Robert Mugabe, even call them dogs".

The real question, Manhique argues, does not concern gay marriage, but is simply "are we or are we not capable of accepting that homosexuals have a right to be different ?" "This is the great question that the world has been facing for centuries", he stressed. "When the colonialists arrived in Africa and America they slaughtered millions of people because they were different. They had a different skin colour. They had a different culture. They had a different way of life. Right from the start, human beings have had difficulty living with those who are different".

"We're in the 21st century", continued Manhique. "And if we want to build a state founded on the rule of law, we must know how to respect our differences, and believe that each of us can lead our own lives, without any need to attack each other".

Now that the issue has been raised, it is unlikely to go away. Manhique points out that on this subject, in a mere half hour, "Cafe de Manha" received 23 phone calls - a record for listener participation in this programme.

Mozambique

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