An overview of Nigeria’s anti-gay law, international condemnation, Africa’s defiance and the face-off with a gay minority.
AS soon as the news of the newly signed law by the nation’s number one citizen, President Goodluck Jonathan, repressing the rights of gays, filtered in, there were spontaneous reactions. The Same-Sex Marriage Prohibition Bill which was signed into law on January 7th criminalises gay marriage, gay clubs and same-sex public affection, and stipulates 14 years imprisonment for offenders.
While some applauded the action, a few Nigerians opined that the presidency should have sat on the fence over the matter instead of fixing a 10-year jail term for anyone caught joining or promoting any gay organisation in the country.
This was followed with local and international reports of a clamp down on the gay community. One of such stories was that of a gay man who was said to have been whipped 20 times after being convicted of sodomy in a Sharia court. Mubarak Ibrahim, 20, pleaded guilty in the city of Bauchi to the act of sodomy which occurred about seven years ago. Ibrahim who claimed that he was tricked into the act by the principal of the high school he was attending and has not since committed a homosexual act.
Mr. Ibrahim was spared the sentence of death by stoning because the incident occurred many years ago and because he had shown “great remorse,” Judge Nuhu Mohammed said. The lashes were given using an animal skin whip in the packed public court and he was also asked to pay a fine of 5,000 naira.
Just before the law, homosexuality has become increasingly prevalent among young Nigerians, while parents and guardians exhibited fears of what the future portends. It was, therefore, the Nigerian legislative that finally took the bull by the horns to stem this trend.
The new law, however, has attracted harsh criticisms from some human rights groups, western governments and the U.N. Secretary-General, Ban Ki-moon. A larger per cent of the citizenry are in support and have applauded the action of the Nigerian government.
Nigeria is not alone. At least 76 countries retain laws criminalising gay sex, including five where it’s punishable by death. However, it is important to understand that the world is currently divided as far as gay relationship is concerned. Gay and gay marriages are legal in some parts of the United States and Mexico.
It is also on record that sixteen countries have legalised same-sex marriage. This list includes Canada, South Africa, Argentina, Uruguay, Brazil and New Zealand, as well as 10 European nations.
The greatest resistance to the gay movement comes from Africa. According to human rights groups, more than two-thirds of African countries outlaw consensual same-sex acts, and discrimination and violence against gays, lesbians and transgender people is commonplace. While many of the laws date to the colonial era, opposition to homosexuality has gained an increasing traction as a political tactic over the past two decades.
In 1995, President Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe denounced gays and lesbians as “worse than pigs and dogs.” He has since been joined by political and religious leaders continent-wide calling for punishments ranging from arrest to decapitation.
In Liberia, for example, a religious group called the New Citizen Movement has spent the past year collecting signatures urging President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf to sign a law banning same-sex marriage even though, as in Nigeria, there has been no local movement to legalise it.
In Cameroon, gay men are routinely sentenced to prison for gay sex, and in July a prominent gay activist, Eric Ohena Lembembe, was tortured and killed in an attack.
The gay liberation movement of the late 1960s and early to mid-1970s urged lesbians and gay men to “come out” publicly revealing their sexuality to family, friends and colleagues as a form of activism, and to counter shame with gay pride.
The movement involved the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender communities in North America, Western Europe, Australia and New Zealand.
Specifically, the word ‘gay’ was preferred to previous designations such as homosexual or homophile; some saw ‘gay’ as a rejection of the false dichotomy of heterosexual vs. homosexual.
Gay lib is also known for its links to the counterculture of the time, and for the Gay liberationists’ intent to transform fundamental institutions of society such as gender and the family. In order to achieve such liberation, consciousness-raising and direct action were employed.
By the late 1970s, the radicalism of Gay liberation was eclipsed by a return to a more formal movement that espoused gay and lesbian civil rights. The strategy had always been to pursue incremental legal and legislative reform, increasing gay and lesbian visibility, pressing for fair treatment in all aspects of life.
