analysis

'Legatra's foundation was not a wise step'

Francis Chisambisha was the first Zambian to come out the closet publicly. In an interview with The Post of Zambia in July 1998 he explained that he became aware of his homosexuality at the age of twelve

His decision to go public was two-fold. 'Firstly, what I want to tell society is that this gay thing has been there even before our generation. It's just that in our African culture, it's believed to be taboo and hence people do it in hiding', he said. 'But the fact that I am doing it, shows that this practice is there and will continue to be there as long as man is there. Our friends in South Africa and Zimbabwe and elsewhere have spoken out that they want their feelings to be respected and be allowed to enjoy their sexual preferences. That is what I want to do here in Zambia. It makes me feel bad to be criticised that what you are doing is wrong when I am not causing harm to the person I am doing it with.'

It was not Chisambisha's intention to form an organisation immediately. 'I just wanted to start up the debate.' But soon after the interview he was approached by the president of the Zambian Independent Monitor Team (ZIMT), Alfred Zulu.  The NGO offered all the support needed, encouraged Chisambisha to form an organisation. 'Zulu more or less took over the initiative. He chaired our meetings, he wrote proposals for foreign financial support without consulting us.' When Chisambisha, together with eleven other gays and lesbians had launched Legatra, they became suspicious of Zulu's behavior. 'Then we found out that foreign money, earmarked for Legatra, had been channelled into ZIMT. Zulu became very angry when we confronted him', says Chisambisha.

The infighting did Legatra no good and  the tensions soon reached the media. On top of all the  Zambian government prevented the official registration of Legatra and, according to Chisambisha, orchestrated the formation of The Alliance Against Abnormal Sexual Behavior. Since Chisambisha had taken up a public profile he expected to be the first to be victimized by this vigilante group. Therefore he took the bus to Johannesburg just before Christmas 1999 and applied for asylum four weeks later. Chisambisha got the support of the National Coalition for Gay and Lesbian Equality in Johannesburg.  

In retrospect the former Legatra president feels that the organisation was formed too soon, under a too-outspoken name and misguided by Alfred Zulu who, according to Chisambisha used the initiative to popularise his own NGO internationally. Since he came out publicly alternative roads have been cut of. 'Now I feel that it would have wiser to form an informal grouping under a name that would not raise suspicions, like the Gentlemen's Alliance in Ghana.' - Behind The Mask News Service.

Chisambisha is portrayed by our Zimbabwe correspondent Dumisani M. Dube in our profile-section.