first national seminar on gay rights

Source: Allafrica.com

October 12, 2006: 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).

Only 16 per cent of this sample considered homosexuality a disease. Virtually everybody (96 per cent) said they knew gay people, and no less than 80 per cent said they had gay friends.

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".

"This Pope is going to hell", Mott predicted.

Agencia de Informacao de Mocambique