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By Marc
Epprecht
Western journalists have a poor reputation for their
coverage of Africa. Stories often cater to and exploit
popular imagery of the continent as a place of savage
violence, corruption, decrepitude and victimization.
Coverage of the HIV/AIDS pandemic is particularly
weak. If it happens at all, coverage tends to emphasize
Africans’ supposedly exotic and dangerous sexuality
(baby rape, widow inheritance, widow cleansing and
the like). That narrative line is typically counterbalanced
with stirring stories of selfless white people who
go to help.
African journalists are not necessarily much better
in their coverage of the many sensitive issues that
swirl around HIV/AIDS. Not only are they typically
under-resourced, but many are also operating in
political contexts where the traditions of a free
press and free speech are weakened if not directly
opposed by the state. Moreover, so much stigma and
prejudice is attached to the behaviours which fuel
the spread of the disease that a careless story
or two can easily incite scapegoating or denial.
African journalists have, in some notorious cases,
fanned flames of xenophobia, tribalism, and the
flat denial of scientific evidence. A particularly
inaccurate and dangerous idea that still circulates
in some venues is that there is no connection between
HIV and AIDS, and that Western scientists and drug
companies who make that connection are engaged in
a conspiracy to exploit or even to wipe out Africans
entirely.
The issues are obviously far more complex. In this
article I would like to focus on one of those issues
that tends to be under-reported both in the West
and in Africa. That is the struggle to extend the
framework of human rights to include sexual rights
for everyone, including sexual minorities such as
lesbians, gays, bisexuals, transsexuals and intersexed
people (LGBTI). Despite the dismal record of failure,
homophobic reactions, or “gay imperialism” often
reported in the media, there have been some very
dramatic, home-grown African successes in this struggle
in recent years.
For example, in 2006 South Africa joined a select
group of countries in the world, and became the
first nation in Africa to legalize same-sex marriage.
This was the culmination of an almost unbroken string
of legal and political triumphs for LGBTI persons
beginning in 1996, when protection against discrimination
on the basis of sexual orientation was enshrined
in the national constitution (again, South Africa
was one of the pioneers of this action).
At the other extreme, the federal government of
Nigeria began debate on a bill to criminalize not
just same-sex marriage, but anyone who supports
it. The bill is so draconian that it would outlaw
the registration of gay clubs, societies or organizations
and the dissemination, even indirectly, of information
pertaining to “same sex amorous relationship [sic].”
With a potential penalty of five years in prison,
it would likely preclude the development of safer
sex education or prevention strategies even in well-known
places of homosexual high-risk activity (prisons,
notably).
African LGBTI activists and their allies are not
taking the challenge lightly. Local and pan-African
networks have begun to coalesce to fight both state-backed
homophobia and silences around LGBTI issues in debates
about human rights and public health. The clearest
expressions can be found in the cybersphere, for
example on the website Behind
the Mask, to which many non-Africans and Africans
living in the Diaspora contribute. Other initiatives
include the Coalition
of Africa Lesbians, the African
Regional Sexuality Resource Centre and the International
Resource Network. The latter aims to develop
an African regional network linked up with other
IRN regional networks around the world. Together
with major Western donors and solidarity groups,
they are working to expand and protect sexual rights
in countries where these concepts are not only new
but are also often seen as threatening by the majority
of the population.
Networks of activists and researchers, specifically
in francophone or lusophone Africa, have yet to
emerge. Nonetheless, challenges to state-backed
homophobia and stereotyping in the African media
have begun to appear on the website le
seminaire gai out of France.
Journalists have a big role to play in this pan-African
coming out: first, by reporting fairly on these
developments (that is, resisting any impulse or
editorial pressures to exaggerate or sensationalize
the conflicts); and second, helping in the long-term
project of dismantling decades of popular prejudice.
This would include learning about the kind of diversity
that is typically hidden within such broad terms
as “gay” or “homosexual,” and directly challenging
harmful myths and prejudices that actively discourage
open-minded research and reportage. One of the biggest
such prejudices in the African media today, for
example, is the idea that homosexuality is a Western
practice being pushed on Africa. In this view, human
rights for LGBTI individuals are a new form of Western
imperialism that undermines African culture and
sovereignty.
LGBTI activists at the inaugural IRN workshop in
Dakar in February 2007 were virtually unanimous
about the critical importance of clearly and irrefutably
demonstrating the falseness of the “Western gay
imperialism” conspiracy theory. This can be done
through careful historical and ethnographic research
that shows long traditions of same-sex sexuality
and social tolerance in Africa. That academic scholarship
must then be interpreted for popular audiences,
which is where the need for properly sensitized
local journalists is greatest.
Western media have a role in the project as well.
For example, mainstream accounts in the West tend
to passively accept the notion that “African AIDS”
is only transmitted heterosexually. It assumes that
Africans are so sensitive to the taboo topic of
homosexuality that they have to be protected from
free speech and knowledge about the real world.
Both points are demonstrably false and patronizing.
Constantly re-iterating or uncritically assuming
them ensures continued denial of education, research,
and policy in favour of the rights of sexual minorities.
Western journalists may of course feel they are
respecting African culture by keeping quiet. In
this case, however, their politeness is contributing
to a collective silence that consigns millions of
Africans to death by ignorance.
Figures don’t lie, they say, but liars figure.
I am therefore wary of bringing numbers into the
debate. At this point, however, it is sobering to
recall that there now are an estimated 27 million
Africans with HIV or AIDS. Looking only at the lowest
reasonable estimations of male-male transmission
of HIV, and disregarding all the indirect effects
of homophobia or male-male transmission of other
STI’s or issues arising from female-female sexual
relationships, this still means the blindspot toward
same-sex sexuality in Africa is costing a lot of
lives. Even if only 2% of infections can in any
way be attributed to male-male sexuality, that percentage
translates into over a half of a million people
who are already sick and dying from a preventable
disease. That number is roughly the same as the
entire number of people living with HIV and AIDS
in Western Europe.
Political figures, including high profile scientists
and diplomats associated with UNAIDS or other multilateral
institutions, are clearly constrained from speaking
the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the
truth on delicate matters like sexuality. Journalists,
however, should be expected to push the envelope.
Indeed, there are some innovative and exciting programmes
currently in place to improve the quality of reporting
on HIV/AIDS in general, and specifically to recognize
outstanding achievement in African HIV/AIDS journalism
(see the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation for an
example http://www.kff.org/hivaids/index.cfm).
Another excellent resource, out of Ottawa, is the
Interagency Coalition on AIDS and Development. It
produces a primer written for non-specialists on
how homophobia and heterosexism put the majority
population at heightened risk of HIV/AIDS (http://www.icad-cisd.com/content/pub_details.cfm?ID=113&CAT=9&lang=e).
Winning human rights for sexual minorities is an
important movement in Africa that not only improves
the circumstances of LGBTI persons but also for
women, children and other marginalized or stigmatized
minorities.
* Marc Epprecht is associate professor in the
department of History and the Development Studies
Programme. Queen’s University.
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