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Breaking
the silence in Zambia
A year
and a half ago a young man came out publicly to the Zambian
nation and said: 'Now look here, I am gay and I am proud of
it.' But oops there was trouble there after and his peace
was history. Behind The Mask correspondent Dumisani M.Dube
reports from Harare.
Francis Chisambisha decided to take his feelings to the press.
He approached a private paper, The Post, to break the silence.
Francis is a very elegant and good looking young man in his
twenties. The reason for him to come out in a country where
homosexuality is illegal was to bring awareness to the Zambian
government. 'To let them know that we exist', he says confidently.
Francis feels there was a need fir him to expose himself as
he gained inspiration from neighboring countries of which
many people have come out of the closet and said it all. South
Africa is a free country for the gays and lesbians in Africa
- the existance of a freedom of sexual orientation clause
makes all the moves possible.
After coming out in the paper Francis did not have a pleasant
time with the family as they were alarmed by this unexpected
move. They were not happy with him at all, because they said
he had destroyed the image of the family. To add salt to Francis'
injury the family members asked him to go back to the press
and withdraw his statements. From then Francis was asked to
find himself a place to stay, he only reunited with the family
when his father died.
Before coming out Francis had been studying Agriculture at
a Christian run institution. Since homosexuality is believed
to be devilish the church that was running the institution
asked him to step down a few weeks before he was supposed
to sit for the final examinations.
The general public did not give this young man much problems.
'I felt like a celebrity because when walking down town, everybody
watched and whispered, some even went to the extent of probing
on how things were done in homosexuality. I mean sexually',
Francis says with a smile.
Francis did not have a good relationship with other gay people
as they felt they would be victims of abuse when seen associating
with him. Some even went to the extent of threatening to hand
him over to the police if he did not cooperate. He was the
interim chairperson of a gay and lesbian grouping in Lusaka
founded after his coming out. Presently the organisation seems
to be non-existent. After a so-called Alliance Against Abnormal
Sexual Behavior announced that it would help the police in
fighting homosexuality Francis is seeking asylum in a neighboring
country. There are high hopes and expectations that he will
be granted asylum before the second half of this year.
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