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First gay secret wedding in
Zambia
18 Fed 2007- What turned out
to be a house party ended up being one of the first gay secrete wedding
in Zambia. David lwendo and his partner Steve Mannings have been
together for eight years. David told Africanveil that, they were looking
forward to this commitment, but the only obstacle was the laws towards
homosexuality in Zambia.
The community where David and his
partner lived started spreading word round that they where a gay couple,
this forced us to live separately, we ended up buying two separate
apartments in a same block of flats in another area of the city, that
way we only visited each other without raising suspicions from
neighbours.
We did face difficulties at some
point, things like shopping together, the moment we would get to the
till to pay and you could see the service was changing and the attitude
of the cashiers. It was even worse seeing white and black male couple.
The city of Kitwe can not be compared to the city of Lusaka.
David and Steve have both come to
realise that even if they want to call Zambia home, it’s best to go and
express our partnership outside Zambia. We called our close friends to a
house party that we felt free with and announced that before we leave we
want to celebrate with friends and let them know that we are one.
David went on to explain to explain
to Africanveil that it’s sad that I have to leave my home country on
sexual grounds, but the best thing I wanted, to do before, leaving was
this ceremony.
The whole function was about us
being a couple and letting our close friends know are committing to each
other. The funny thing about this function was that, everyone we wanted
to attend was to be secretly invited and that was the only way we were
going to handle the situation.
This whole function and commitment
was all blessed by David and Steve’s relationship and for us it’s
important that even if we are away from home they are aware that we are
together and of our sexuality.
Report by Ndanji
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