The view that homosexuality is alien to
Africans has been widely propagated by
several traditional and faith leaders, and even
great sons of Africa that topped or continue
to top the echelons of African political
leadership like Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe,
Sam Nujoma of Namibia, Yoweri Museveni of
Uganda, and the late Bingu wa Mutharika of
Malawi, to mention only a few of them.
Homosexuality is not an alien culture to
Africans because historically, Africans were
the first human beings to practice
homosexuality not Europeans or Americans.
Therefore, homosexuality is not an importation
from the West, if anything, what Africans
imported from the West is the criminalization
of homosexuality, which only began when
Europeans colonized Africa between the
1880s and 1900 and enforced their political
governments and legal systems on our
continent.
As a matter of fact, Africans are historically
rather tolerant towards homosexuality and
they tolerated homosexuality until Europeans
came with Christianity which introduced
homophobia. Homophobia is rooted in the
belief that homosexuality is sinful, because
that is what the Bible teaches. But the Bible
is not an African book; neither is Christianity a
typical African Religion, but a Western one.
Therefore, if Africans must blame the West for
anything to do with Homosexuality, then we
must blame them for criminalization of
homosexuality and homophobia through
teachings of the Bible because that is what
they brought, not the culture of
homosexuality.
Secular history shows that homosexuality was
practiced in Ancient Egypt about 4500 years
ago. The first human homosexual couples on
earth lived in the Egyptian city of Saqqara in
2400 BCE. Their names were Khnumhotep and
Niankhkhnum. They were manicurists who
served in the palace of the Pharaoh, and
according to Egyptologist Greg Reeder, they
were among the privileged few who could
actually touch the Pharaoh. Given the years of
the homosexuality between Khnumhotep and
Niankhkhnum, these two gentlemen practiced
homosexuality 500 years earlier than the
famous Biblical homosexuals of the city of
Sodom whom God burned in Genesis 19.
And the Bible too supports the reality of
Egyptian homosexuality. The Bible reports
Egyptian homosexuality, alongside the
homosexuality of the people of Canaan in
Leviticus 18:24-27. Given the year Leviticus
was written, and the departure of Israelites
from Egypt (1440 BCE) the homosexuality is
reported in a period in Egyptian history
referred to as the New Kingdom which existed
between 1550 BCE to 1069 BCE. The Bible
does not give a clue, as to when the
homosexuality in Egypt begun, but it does
clearly state that the behavior was rampant in
Egypt even when the Israelites lived there as
slaves for 430 years (Exod 12:40). It is clear
therefore, that there was homosexuality in
Egypt probably as early as 1900 BCE, which is
the same year the people of Sodom were
practicing homosexuality.
however, even going by Biblical history, the
people of Egypt might still be the first to
practice homosexuality, because despite
practicing it at the same time with Canaanites
of Sodom and Gomorrah, it is important to
remember that Egypt was the political and
military superpower of these ages, and did
Colonize even territories of Canaan, in which
case, much of the culture of Canaan was
influenced by Egyptians. Therefore,
Canaanites might have copied homosexuality
from Egyptians.
Another oldest occurrence of African
homosexuality is recorded to have occurred in
Zimbabwe about 2000 years ago, and that is
according to a 2013 report by the Amnesty
International. The homosexuality in Zimbabwe
was practiced by the Khoisan or Bushmen
that were earlier inhabitants of Zimbabwe. If
you seriously consider the year of
Zimbabwean homosexuality, you will notice
that there was homosexuality in Zimbabwe
almost the very same years that Jesus Christ
was on earth.
In
South Sudan too, there was institutionalized
homosexuality among the Zande people. The
homosexuality was pederastic (between boys
and men). It was practiced until around the
1850s and it was brought to the global
spotlight by a renowned British Anthropologist
E.E Evans Pritchard who visited the Zande
community in person, and document the
pederasty.
I have only given a few incidences just to
show that even before Europeans began to
get civilization, Africans had already
discovered homosexuality, and they practiced
it for thousands of years before the
Europeans came to Africa. And throughout the
thousands of years, there is no recorded
evidence that the homosexuality was
criminalized, or that there was homophobia.
My argument therefore, is that if Africans and
of course the government of Malawi must
fight against the gay rights revolution
sweeping across the continent and mounting
up within our very country, we must get our
facts straight, and understand the truth about
homosexuality, not promoting heresies. We
must first stop living in denial that
homosexuality is not African, and address it
as a reality not a mere western concept or
ideology, because like the Human Rights
activist, now Prophet, or Apostle, Undule
Mwakasungula challenged in his recent article
on Nyasa Times “pro-gay rights movements
and supporters are very strong, vibrant, solid
and well connected. They have an agenda and
purpose to achieve.”