african gay issues finally taken to the world

By Mashilo Mnisi (BTM Editor)

May 11, 2007: In a daunting brainstorming four-day conference of Lesbian and Gay Association (ILGA) of the African region lasted Tuesday this week, an eleven member-representative of interim board was eventually nominated.

Out of five regions of Africa – which are the Northern, West, East, Central and the Southern Africa, two members from each region were elected, and there was a consensus that an additional member is needed to represent those identifying themselves as intersexual and transsexual.

 The eleventh-member representative in the interim board has not yet been nominated, and it’s GenderDynamix’s (a South African lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex [LGBTI] organisation representing transgender people) responsibility.

“The timeframe that we’re looking at is between now and May 2008. We’re giving ourselves a year to fill the space, especially, looking at the Africa transgender conference coming next year”, asserted Director of GenderDynamix, Liesl Theron.

Theron is flexible coming to language. “We don’t limit in terms of language. When choosing the ‘I’ or the ‘T’, it doesn’t matter whether they’re Anglophone or Francophone”, she contended. This utterance veritably reflects that ILGA of the African region encompasses diversity in terms of language use, however, the languages being used are English, Portuguese and French.

The second day gained momentum as the conference split into seminars where emphasis was on research for lobbying and advocating for human rights and lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex (LGBTI) issues. “We have to find ways to be understood first before we ask for equality”, Joel Nana of the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission (IGLHRC) added.

A critical working relationship with religious institutions was highlighted in the discussions where common ground between churches and LGBTI organisations should be sought. Rev Rowland Jide Macaulay added that; “The book of Ecclesiastes verse 14:7 states that ‘when two people lie together they keep warmth. The verse doesn’t specify the sex of the two people, but emphasizes the warmth the people keep.”

In addition, Muhsin Hendricks of The Inner Circle – an organisation representing Muslim homosexuals says; “We need to analyse the situation in consideration to different time periods and effects on modernisation.”

Education and health was also some of the milestone debates in the seminars. The focus was on educating and training LGBTI activists about the local laws and rights, the media and creating awareness to healthcare providers especially with regard to LGBTI issues.

Again, one of the scathing discussions was around gender-based violence and hate crimes on the continent, and that invoked plans on how to symbiotically work with the media in general so there’s adequate coverage on these, and strategies to address these nuisances.

On the same day, the large proportion of the delegates took on an excursion by bus to Soweto by the Gays and Lesbian Archives of South Africa (GALA). As part of inspiration, they were taken to a home of Beverly Ditsie – one of the LGBTI human rights defenders where they heard Ditsie’s mother elucidating how she raised her lesbian daughter in a homophobic Soweto environment.

They also visited a lesbian Sangoma, Nkunzi Nkabinde in Soweto passing the Hector Petersen Museum up the way to Nelson Mandela and Desmond Tutu’s houses.

It was agreed upon that the interim board should consist of two representatives from the different regions with gender balance as the criterion. The ten interim board representatives are from Cameroon and Rwanda - the Central Africa, Uganda and Kenya - the East Africa, Namibia and Mozambique - the Southern Africa, Morrocco representing North Africa, Nigeria representing West Africa and Burundi representing the Central Africa.

Most representatives concur with Faarooq Mangera that the conference was a success, and that it was inevitable. “It’s creating understanding between organisations as IGLHRC and the African Commission. It brings us together”, conceded one of the participants.

Farooq says; “Here we’re representing all regions and it [the work] will infiltrate into the grass roots level.” He added that the ILGA Africa Region is more representative than the other working organisations in the continent.

The representatives’ main duty is to manage ILGA Africa Region’s activities and participate in the global ILGA strategies during the two-year tenure.

According to Director of The Lesbian and Gay Equality Project Mangera, the conference didn’t entirely obtain its intentions. “The main aim was achieved – that is to elect a board of African activists and engage in African issues. But the secondary objective of the conference – that is networking, was just mainly achieved”, Mangera complained saying that there’s a lot of work around networking that needs to be done, also glimpsing at capacity building – which was one of the discussions.

Mangera will be satisfied as long as an African voice dilates, and he hoped for 53 countries ideally. “We need to participate in meetings at international level and do some organising as it is important. We shouldn’t shy away from our issues”, he explained.

The end of the conference was marked by the drafting of the ILGA Africa Region constitution. The fundamental objective of the constitution is “to promote universal respect for and observance of human rights and fundamental freedoms, including the elimination of all forms of discrimination.”

David, secretary of a faith-based organisation – Integrity in Uganda, said; “It [ILGA Africa Region] will show that homosexual people do exist in African countries and not just something happening in countries with white people.” 

Note: Behind The Mask will be accountable as secretariat for the ILGA Africa Region on the interim. The ILGA Africa Region office will be located during the June meeting of representatives.