Why the Coalition of African Lesbians (CAL)

Fikile Vilakazi of the CAL gives a brief overview on the lack of 'good political governance on homosexuality' in Africa and the role of the Coalition of African Lesbians in combating the criminalisation of lesbians and homophobia in African societies.

Africa is a continent that is comprised of 53 states with only one state, South Africa that protects the rights of people who are in loving relationships with other people of the same sex and/or same gender. The South African constitution is the only constitution in the African continent that has a bill of rights that condemns discrimination on the basis of one’s sexual orientation . Otherwise, most countries in Africa are governed by penal codes that condemn homosexuality with penalties ranging from imprisonment, life sentence and even death sentence in some cases.

The lack of good political governance on homosexuality is an artefact of colonialism and apartheid that plagued the continent in the previous centuries. Colonial leaders introduced the idea that homosexuality is a sin and is a western import. This notion was filtered through the minds of African people and its leaders to an extent that most African people alleged homosexuality to be foreign, un-African and sinful. Post-colonial leaders promulgated colonial laws like penal codes to continue to condemn homosexuality and thereby betray African people who are in same sex and same gender loving relationships.. This has resulted in horrific political governance on issues related to sexual orientation, gender, gender presentation and sexuality in the African continent. This has contaminated African jurisprudence and constitutional law and produced shocking and limited legal and political judgment on this matter.

The consequences for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people has been and continues to be bloodcurdling. In most African countries, lesbian and gay people have been arbitrarily arrested and detained; assaulted, extorted, raped, beaten and even murdered simply because they self identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex. In Cape Town, South Africa, Zoliswa Nkonyana. In 2005, a young black lesbian woman was stoned to death by a gang of boys in front of her house and most lesbian women continue to experience hate crimes in the form of rape and assault. In 2006 in Zimbabwe, a group of lesbian women were beaten badly by a group of men. In the same year, a lesbian woman in Mauritius was sent to a mental hospital by her parents because there was no way that she could be lesbian and therefore certified her to be mentally ill.

In Uganda, police raided unlawfully a house of a transgender woman and arbitrarily detained her friend and brutally violated her rights to privacy and dignity by undressing her in front of group of policemen to prove whether she was a man or a woman. In Kenya, a lesbian couple and a gay friend were arrested and charged with an act of homosexuality and impersonation with a possible sentence of 14 years imprisonment. In Rwanda, Tanzania, Nigeria, Zambia, Ghana and other parts of Africa people of the same sex continue to live and fear and at the mercilessness of the criminal justice system that has a duty to ensure full compliance with penal codes. The situation is horrific. There is just nowhere to run to and find refuge and freedom to be.. There are no legal and political remedies at a local level that can assist in this situation

In attempting to address this situation, the Coalition of African Lesbians has an advocacy project that is directed at working with the African Commission to expose human rights violations against sexual minorities in African countries and call for remedies and the commissioners to hold African governments accountable to the African Charter on Human and People’s Rights and other International Human Rights Instruments that some African states have signed and ratified

Research on the existence of homosexuality in Africa..

The other challenge that is facing Africa is lack of knowledge and documentation on the existence of homosexuality in the continent. There is very little written work on the experiences, both positive and negative of people who are in same sex and same gender loving relationships. Most anthropologists and hi/herstorians that have written about this work have selectively hidden information on the subject. Those who have managed to expose these relationships in a good way have not been free from harassment and prejudice.

The experiences highlighted above get lost in time due to lack of effective documentation and research. Most researchers are afraid to write about these experiences due to their hostile political and legal environments. Most written work is from scholars who are often distances from the real experiences of lesbian and gay people. The exercise therefore remains purely academic with less social result and impact.

In responding to the phenomenon, the Coalition of African Lesbians also has a project directed at promoting creative writing and researching the lives of lesbian, bisexual and transgender women in the continent. This is a research project that will be conducted by lbt women themselves and CAL hopes to produce a book at the end of 2007,that will collate different experiences of lbt women in Africa.

The Coalition also aims to provide capacity and skills sharing opportunities for lbt women in order to build leaders that will take the struggle for the rights of sexual minorities forward. This happens through CAL’s annual Leadership Institutes and local country workshops and strategic international conferences, seminars, institutes and dialogues..
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Challenging homophobia and patriarchy through feminism

The Coalition of African Lesbians acknowledges that the experiences of lesbian, bisexual and transgender women are not separable from those of other women in the continent. Whilst lbt women face a specific struggle against homophobia, the commonality between and among all African women is the struggle against patriarchy and all its forms and systems. The African tradition and culture has for centuries promoted and overstated the superiority of men at an expense and compromise of their women counterpart. The notion of African values is framed and rooted in a system of male dominance in society. This thinking and ideology informs religion and culture and women remain on the receiving end of the system. Lesbian, bisexual and transgender women are not immune to this challenge. One of the reasons lbt women get raped is still to prove that women’s bodies are for men and anything that continues to challenge that phenomenon is persecuted by society.

It is against this background that any intervention that seeks to address the challenges facing lbt women need to realise that their struggles are not just about their sexual identity, but about the fact that they are also women and other things as well. We need a holistic approach to address inequalities against women in society. The commonality of all our struggles is the inequality and the injustice that we endure. It is against this background that CAL has committed itself to unite in the struggle against patriarchy and building feminist leaders that will wage the struggle to the end.

About CAL

The Coalition of African Lesbians (CAL) was founded in 2003 as an independent, non-profit organisation with a membership comprising organisations in Africa that work to support the struggle of lesbian women for equality. It is the first non-governmental organisation in Africa to work on the equality of lesbian women at a continental level.

The founding process was endorsed at a seminar in Namibia’s capital, Windhoek, in the last week of August 2004. The seminar was hosted by the Rainbow Project and Sister Namibia and attended by twenty-five representatives of lesbian organisations, as well as a number of individual women, from Sierra Leone, Ghana, Nigeria, Liberia, Rwanda, Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Botswana, South Africa, Mozambique and Namibia.

At this gathering the participants developed the vision, objectives and structure for the organisation. After lively discussion and debate they unanimously adopted African radical feminism as the foundational philosophy for CAL.

Aims and Objectives of CAL

The principal objectives of CAL are:

1 To advocate and lobby for the political, sexual, cultural and economic rights of African
lesbians by engaging strategically with African and international structures and allies;
2 To eradicate stigma and discrimination against lesbians in Africa;
3 To build and strengthen our voices and visibility through research, media and literature and
through participation in local and international fora;
4 To build the capacity of African lesbians and our organisations to use African radical
feminist analysis in all spheres of life;
5 To build a strong and sustainable lesbian coalition supporting the development of national
organisations working on lesbian issues in every country in Africa;
6 To support the work of these national organisations in all the foregoing areas including the
facilitation of the personal growth of African lesbians and the building of capacity within their organisations.
The Lesbian Equality Project

CAL currently manages one project called the Lesbian Equality Project. The project covers (1) Direct lobbying and advocacy with the African Commission, (2) Research on the experiences of lesbian, bisexual and transgender women in Africa, (3) Creative Expression to enable lbt women to express themselves through creative means like writing, singing, drama, photography and visual activism, and lastly (3) Capacity Building through Leadership Institutes and local country workshops to enable lbt women to advance advocacy and activism in their own contexts.

* Fikile Vilakzai is the Director of the Coalition of African Lesbians based in South Africa.
For further enquiries: Tel: +27(0) 11 487 3810/1, Fax: +27(0) 11 487 2332
E-mail: [email][email protected]

* Please send comments to [email protected] or comment online at http://www.pambazuka.org