Homosexuality: “unAfricanness” and Vulnerability

Rose Jaji (PhD), University of Zimbabwe, Harare, Zimbabwe
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Cape Town, South Africa, March 2019. Photo of participants at the Gay Pride Parade event in Cape Town. In the foreground is a banner with a lion (a symbol of South Africa) with gay colours in its mane. Credit: Lois GoBe/shutterstock.com

Many anti-homosexual[1] Africans claim that homosexuality is “unAfrican” and view advocacy by Western governments for homosexuals’ rights in Africa as cultural imperialism. The crisis of attribution regarding homosexuality has created confusion manifest in its westernization. Juxtaposed with traditional accommodation of non-conformity and diversity in African cultures, the prevailing intolerance and homophobia among many Africans was in fact introduced by missionaries who condemned traditional practices on the continent as pagan, primitive, and evil.[2] It is puzzling how African Christians question the “Africanness” of homosexuality without questioning the “Africanness” of Christianity which was brought to Africa by Western missionaries. If homosexuality is “unAfrican” and “Western” for the reason that Western governments advocate homosexuals’ rights, why have the same Africans embraced Christianity which came to Africa through Western missionaries and is thriving in Africa decades after the continent shook off the colonial yoke? 

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