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Monetäre Anreize auf der Makroebene stellen das Zentrum der bis heute kontrovers diskutierten Homann’schen Wirtschaftsethik dar. Wir unternehmen in diesem Beitrag den Versuch, seine Ethikkonzeption auf ihre Praxistauglichkeit hin am Beispiel des von uns in einer internationalen Arbeitsgruppe entwickelten "Green Impact Fund for Technology" zu untersuchen. Dabei werden die Anschlussfähigkeiten, aber auch die Grenzen seines Ansatzes aus einer praktischen Perspektive verdeutlicht.

Im Politikfeld der Entwicklungszusammenarbeit (EZ) wird die Frage nach deren Wirksamkeit umfänglich diskutiert. Doch trotz zahlreicher Kontroll- und Evaluierungsformate, die zu Lernprozessen und damit zu einer Steigerung der Wirksamkeit führen sollen, ist diese Steigerung häufig nicht abbildbar. Dieses Paper hat vor diesem Hintergrund das Ziel, den Nutzen von Ex-post-Evaluierungen (EPE) der Entwicklungsbank der Kreditanstalt für Wiederaufbau (KfW) zu analysieren – sowohl innerhalb der KfW Entwicklungsbank als auch bei ihrem Auftraggeber, dem Bundesministerium für wirtschaftliche Zusammenarbeit und Entwicklung (BMZ). Aus der Forschung lässt sich schließen, dass EPE mit hoher Sorgfalt betrieben werden. Zudem können EPE zur Legitimität der (finanziellen) EZ beitragen, da Projektergebnisse strukturiert reflektiert und präsentiert werden. Dennoch schätzen die für diese Studie Interviewten die EPE als eine (sehr) subjektive Bewertung ein und halten diese Evaluierungen unter Umständen auch nicht für untereinander vergleichbar. Die Vergleichbarkeit von EPE ist jedoch erforderlich, da aus ihren Gesamtnoten eine Erfolgsquote errechnet wird, die zurzeit bei ca. 81 % liegt. Dies wiederum hat Einfluss auf die Erfolgsberichterstattung der KfW gegenüber dem BMZ und der Öffentlichkeit. Die Daten aus den Interviews zeigen, dass durch Zielkonflikte, die bei der Erstellung und Anwendung der EPE entstehen, der Nutzen dieses Formats eingeschränkt zu sein scheint. EPE sollen sowohl der Rechenschaftslegung gegenüber der Öffentlichkeit bzw. dem BMZ als auch dem Lernen innerhalb der KfW dienen. Allerdings konfligieren diese beiden Ziele miteinander, da für jedes eine andere Herangehensweise erforderlich wäre. EPE werden laut den Befragten von KfW und BMZ nur selten gelesen oder genutzt. Interviewte beschreiben, dass EPE selten Relevanz für die operativen Bereiche haben, da sie erst mehrere Jahre nach Abschluss des Projektes erscheinen und nur vereinzelt relevante Informationen für aktuelle Projekte enthalten. Diese Zeit muss jedoch abgewartet werden, da sonst die Nachhal-tigkeit und die entwicklungspolitische Wirkung eines Projektes nicht abgebildet werden können. Zudem haben EPE laut den Interviews und der Evidenz aus anderen Untersuchungen kaum politische Steuerungsrelevanz im BMZ, auch nicht in aggregierter Form. EPE nicht mehr durchzuführen ist jedoch nach Ansicht der Autorin keine Option, da lediglich auf diese Weise kostengünstig und für eine repräsentative Projektanzahl entwicklungspolitische Wirkung und Nachhaltigkeit überprüft und somit die Basis für die Rechenschaftslegungsfunktion gebildet werden kann. Den Zielkonflikt zwischen Lernen und Rechenschaftslegung zu lösen stellt eine Herausforderung dar. Für die Lernkomponente erscheint es sinnvoll, verstärkt auf Querschnittsauswertungen zu setzen sowie eine zentrale Unterstützungsstruktur für alle Durchführungsorganisationen und das BMZ zu etablieren, um alle Kerninformationen aus den Evaluierungen zu sammeln und – zugeschnitten auf die Bedürfnisse an BMZ, KfW, aber auch an die Partnerländer – weiterzugeben. Für die Rechenschaftslegungskomponente sollte außerdem die Transparenz erhöht werden, indem abgeschlossene Evaluierungsberichte zeitnah und in voller Länge der Öffent-lichkeit zur Verfügung gestellt werden. Das Paper basiert neben einer Auswertung internationa-ler Forschungsliteratur insbesondere auf empirischen Interviewdaten. Insgesamt wurden 13 gezielt ausgewählte Expert*innen aus dem System der deutschen Entwicklungszusammenarbeit interviewt. Diese Interviewdaten stellen damit eine illustrative, aber keine repräsentative Stichprobe dar.

23-09-17_D+C/E+Z - Presseschau - Russland-Afrika-Gipfel dagmar.wolf Fri, 18.08.2023 - 02:00 On 27 to 28 July 2023, the second Russia-Africa Summit was held in Saint Petersburg. Here are excerpts of selected pieces of African media coverage on the meeting Press review African media on the Russia-Africa Summit On 27 and 28 July 2023, the second Russia-Africa Summit was held in Saint Petersburg. The Russian war on Ukraine, which has pushed up inflation worldwide and led to higher food and oil prices, loomed over the meeting. In African countries in particular, the situation was exacerbated by Russia’s abandonment of the Black Sea Grain Initiative, a UN-brokered deal that allowed Ukrainian food exports to reach international markets, just a week before the summit. At the first summit in 2019, 43 heads of state attended. Now they were only 17. Here are the headlines of – and excerpts from – selected pieces of African media coverage and BBC News Swahili on the summit. We are quoting the websites. 18.08.2023Sub-Saharan Africa Central Asia, Caucasia, Southeast Europe and Russia In brief SDG2 SDG7 SDG9 SDG16 SDG17 Entwicklungspolitik, Entwicklungsstrategien Ernährung, Hunger Kolonialismus, Entkolonisierung Weltwirtschaft Why we do politics of poverty

(...) The few African leaders who attended were in fine form, with rousing speeches, on why Africa is still largely a poor continent. They touched on many of the reasons; dark global forces that exploit Africa, the damage of nearly 400 years of the enslavement of Africans; the disruption and plunder of nearly 100 years of colonialism; and the rigged international system that followed after independence.

Only the recently-arrived-on-the-scene Burkina Faso military leader Captain Ibrahim Traoré touched on the internal reasons for Africa’s miserable state. Noting the immense wealth of the continent, he blamed past African leaders for mistakes and denounced their “beggary” mentality.

However, Capt Traoré seems to be the kind of ruler who preaches water and drinks wine. While he correctly noted the shameful spectacle of going to Russia to beg it to return to its grain deal with Ukraine (which it invaded over a year ago) and get their food and fertiliser exports to Africa back on track, his actions suggested his heart was elsewhere.

He didn’t visit a fertiliser or tractor factory in Russia. Instead, he and his delegation were particularly excited by a weapons exhibition the Russians had put on. That is part of the problem. People don’t eat guns. Africa has too many guns but too few tractors, irrigation rigs, seed plants, fertiliser factories and food silos. (...)

Charles Onyango-Obbo, Nation, Kenya
https://nation.africa/kenya/blogs-opinion/opinion/why-we-do-politics-of-poverty-4324268

Can Africa be accused of mobilising behind its interests?

(...) In Western discourse, Africans are seen as big kids who only obey their food instincts, when it’s not to equip themselves with Russian weapons to shoot each other. Even if Africans are not above criticism (...) can they really be reproached for rallying behind their interests? The answer to this question is certainly no. And with good reason. Didn’t General Charles De Gaulle say that “States have no friends; they only have interests”? It is this well-known maxim that guides international relations. (...) 

So Africa has nothing to be ashamed of in the face of Western accusations. On the contrary, it should take responsibility for its choices, which are dictated by the needs of the moment. (...) Indeed, the competition between the great powers in Africa, based on their economic and geostrategic interests, should offer the continent a wide range of choices in the partnerships offered to it, while freeing it from the Western conditionalities that often accompany international aid. (...)

Beyond the choices to be made between partners on the basis of interests, this is an opportunity for Africa to raise the very issue of its place in international relations. Often reduced to aligning itself with the positions of the world’s major powers, Africa has no real say in decisions on major global issues, including those that primarily affect Africans themselves. (…) 

But the continent must be able to speak with one voice if it is to succeed. And that, unfortunately, is precisely what we can deplore. In fact, before going to the major world events, Africa fails to prepare properly. African leaders are scattered in their ranks, each preaching to his or her own chapel. (...) 

The consequence of this unpreparedness is that one summit follows another with no real impact on the continent’s development. (...)

Le Pays, Burkina Faso (translated from French)
https://lepays.bf/sommet-afrique-russie-peut-on-reprocher-a-lafrique-de-se-mobiliser-derriere-ses-interets-2/
 

Meeting of Russia and Africa: Putin wants to increase influence

(...) In any case, Russia is only one of several major players who are now stepping up their efforts to exert political and economic influence in Africa – including not only China, but also India, Turkey, the Gulf states, South Korea and, of course, the nations of the West and Japan. (...)

Moscow’s decision to abandon the agreement on the safe transport of Ukrainian grain via the Black Sea ports will make it difficult for Russia to convince of having goodwill and better intentions, even if Putin has promised to make up for the deficit that has arisen. (...)

The political context has changed dramatically since African leaders went to Sochi in 2019 for the first Russia-Africa summit.

For the past three years, the Kremlin has seemed driven by a desire to destabilise France and other Western nations, showing at least partial sympathy for the military that has taken power in Mali, Burkina Faso and Guinea and is seen by neighbouring governments as a threat to the region. (...)

BBC News Swahili (translated from Kiswahili)
https://www.bbc.com/swahili/articles/c72kzj6d4reo
 

Russia-Africa Summit – In the presence of some twenty heads of state: Vladimir Putin promises to feed Africa

(...) The grain trade, which is becoming a diplomatic tool, was at the heart of the second Russia-Africa Summit. While African countries were worried about Moscow’s withdrawal from the cereals agreement, Vladimir Putin reassured his African partners by promising free wheat to six African countries most at risk of food insecurity. Against this geopolitical backdrop, which is once again polarising the world as a result of the war in Ukraine, the Russian president is sparing no effort to include Africa in his ever-expanding zone of influence on the continent. (…)

In the presence of some twenty African heads of state and government, including President Macky Sall, Vladimir Putin could not miss the opportunity to charm the continent. Especially at a time of crisis with Europe, marked by the war in Ukraine. This crisis has been exacerbated by the Russian government’s refusal to extend the agreement that has guaranteed Ukrainian cereal exports for the past year, and which risks plunging the African continent into food insecurity. Naturally, in his speech, the Russian President sought to reassure his distinguished guests. (...)

Woury Diallo, Le Quotidien, Senegal (translated from French)
https://lequotidien.sn/sommet-russie-afrique-en-presence-dune-vingtaine-de-chefs-detat-vladimir-poutine-promet-de-nourrir-lafrique/

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In 2003 a militia drawn from ethnic Arab tribes in Darfur known as the Janjaweed partnered with the government of Sudan in a genocidal campaign against non-Arab tribes in the region. An estimated 300,000 people were killed in the 2003-2004 Darfur genocide. The Janjaweed have since rebranded as the Rapid Support Forces, the RSF. And in August 2023, there is mounting evidence the RSF is embarking on a campaign of ethnic cleansing in Darfur. The US Holocaust Memorial Museum is warning that there is risk of a full blown genocide.

“What we are seeing now is the RSF and allied Arab militias beginning a campaign of extreme violence and even ethnic cleansing, certainly in parts of West Darfur largely targeting Masalit communities there.” Cameron Hudson, a former CIA Intelligence Analyst and State Department official now at the Center for Strategic and International Studies tells me in a podcast interview. “We’re hearing reports of destruction of villages, seeing satellite imagery again of burning villages. We’re discovering mass graves to the extent that people have access to the region…villages being entirely wiped out by these militia attacks…A lot of the same elements that we saw 20 years ago are replicating themselves again — the same victims in many cases and the same perpetrators”

We kick off discussing the available evidence we have that there is an ongoing campaign of ethnic cleansing underway in Darfur.  Cameron Hudson then explains how the genocidal Janjaweed militia became the Rapid Support Forces, which are carrying out these atrocities while battling for control of the whole of Sudan in a full blown civil war that began in April. We discuss how the Rapid Support Forces funds its operations, and the support it is receiving from the United Arab Emirates.

Note to readers: A systematic and organized campaign of ethnic cleansing is underway in Darfur and the outside world is barely paying attention. We will change that. Global Dispatches will bear witness to the unfolding crisis in Darfur even as it is far from the headlines of most western outlets. We will offer original reporting, and give you the analysis and context you need to understand this crisis as it unfolds through a series we are calling Darfur Genocide Watch. To access this series and support our work, become a paid subscriber in Apple Podcasts, via Patreon or via Substack

To listen to this episode on your podcast player, go here. 

Evidence of Ethnic Cleansing and Crimes Against Humanity in Darfur

Transcript excerpt

Cameron Hudson: I think we’re back to the point of having a full blown war in Darfur, not dissimilar to what we saw nearly 20 years ago when the Darfur crisis came onto the international agenda for the first time. We are seeing attacks by the Rapid Support Forces, the militia group that’s fighting the south in Khartoum. Their stronghold has always been in Darfur. And what we are seeing now is the RSF and allied Arab militias beginning a campaign of extreme violence and even ethnic cleansing, certainly in parts of West Darfur, largely targeting Masalit communities there. But I think also a generalized violent campaign against civilians across the board. We’re hearing reports of destruction of villages, seeing satellite imagery again, of burning villages. We’re discovering mass graves to the extent that people have access to the region, a number of mass graves of villages being entirely wiped out by these militia attacks. Obviously, there’s a heightened amount of sexual violence associated with this. We’re seeing children targeted, we’re seeing elderly targeted. And of course, we’re seeing widespread looting associated with all of this violence. And I guess the last element is the sort of cleansing part of it, where we’re seeing now over 100,000 people leaving Darfur in west Darfur, primarily for Chad. So a lot of the same elements that we saw again 20 years ago are replicating themselves again, the same victims in many cases and the same perpetrators.

Mark Leon Goldberg: You mentioned the SAF. This is the Sudanese armed Forces that is the other protagonist in the Sudanese civil war that’s fighting the RSF, the Rapid Support Forces. I’d like to dive a little deeper into the ethnic element of this. You mentioned that the Masalit community is primarily the victims thus far of this incipient ethnic cleansing campaign that we are seeing. Who are the Masalit? And can you describe more broadly like the ethnic dimensions of this and why it is important to understand what’s driving this conflict?

Cameron Hudson: The Masalit are one of the principal tribes in Darfur. They are on the western side of Darfur. And so there are many Masalit in Chad as well. Again, there’s no real national boundary to tribal disbursement in this area. Interestingly, we are not seeing attacks on the Fur population, for example, or some of the other African populations targeted 20 years ago when the Janjaweed were originally activated. But again, I think that we are seeing some elements of parallels here in the sense that it is Arab tribes that are committing much of the violence against these communities right now in Darfur. [00:08:47][42.0]

Mark Leon Goldberg: And the Masalit are not Arab. The RSF is the successor to the Janjaweed, which was an ethnic Arab militia that was tapped by the former government of Sudan to kind of do the dirty work on the ground, resulting in the genocide that we saw 20 years ago. What are you hearing from your contacts, your interlocutors on the ground in Darfur, in terms of who is perpetrating these assaults? And is it the RSF directly? Is it groups affiliated with the RSF? What’s the general conflict dynamic that you’re seeing in Darfur right now?

Cameron Hudson: Certainly, it’s hard to say. There’s a great deal of access issues that we are facing right now in terms of getting real eyewitness accounts. And there’s been very little effort, I think, internationally, to document the crimes that are occurring there, certainly not like we saw 20 years ago. So there is certainly a kind of fog of war that pervades this conflict. That being said, there are some eyewitness accounts that have been taken by human rights groups on the Chadian side of the border which confirm that some of the perpetrators are wearing uniforms and so have been identified as such. But there are also many perpetrators not in uniform and who are associated with the RSF tribally. But again, we don’t have right now the same kind of awareness of the perpetrators. Like we did 20 years ago. And I think that’s primarily because 20 years ago this was a state directed assault on this population. It wasn’t an indigenous war in Darfur. It was being directed by central government authorities in Khartoum. and so there was a pattern to the violence in Darfur because it was instigated in the first part by Sudan’s army, by the Sudan Armed Forces. And it was done in conjunction with and they directed the activities of the Janjaweed on the ground. And so there was a pattern of violence that we could map and discern in ways that allowed us to document more easily, understand the perpetrators more easily. And of course, the central government was making statements about what they were doing. They didn’t see it as genocide. They saw it as putting down an armed rebellion. And so there was just a lot more documentation about what was going on…So it’s a very different set of facts surrounding the violence. And that makes it harder, I think, to pinpoint exactly who was doing what to whom and for what motivation right now.

Full transcript available to newsletter subscribers.

The post Ethnic Cleansing Has Returned to Darfur. Is Genocide Next? appeared first on UN Dispatch.

Wie hat sich die kommunale Entwicklungspolitik in Deutschland in den letzten Jahren weiterentwickelt und wo steht sie heute? Was wurde erreicht und welche Herausforderungen bestehen für kommunales entwicklungspolitisches Engagement? Und wie können deutsche Kommunen weiter unterstützt werden, um bis 2030 und darüber hinaus einen möglichst großen Beitrag zu einer global nachhaltigen Entwicklung leisten zu können? Diesen Fragen wurde in zwei komplementär angelegten Untersuchungen nachgegangen.

23-08-17_Dagmar Wolf - Culture Special - Die erste Frau dagmar.wolf Thu, 17.08.2023 - 02:00 In “The First Woman”, Ugandan author Jennifer Makumbi portrays the many facets of feminism in Uganda Novel Experiencing feminism in Uganda In her book “The First Woman”, Ugandan author Jennifer Nansubuga Makumbi contrasts western-style feminism with indigenous forms of Ugandan feminism. This is the fourth item in this year's culture special with reviews of artists' works with developmental relevance. 17.08.2023Sub-Saharan Africa High-income countries In brief SDG1 SDG4 SDG5 SDG10 Bevölkerung, Familienplanung Bildung, Ausbildung Gender, Frauen Indigene Völker, traditionelle Gemeinschaften Infrastruktur Kinder, Jugend Religion Sozialpolitik, Sozialentwicklung Culture Special

Kirabo, the protagonist of the 2020 novel „The First Woman“, is growing up in a Ugandan village in the 1970s under the loving care of her grandparents. Kirabo has never met her mother, and her father lives with his new wife and two children in Kampala.

As an adolescent, Kirabo moves to her father’s home in Uganda’s capital. It is an abrupt change from her previous middle-class village life. She is confronted with an almost western urban lifestyle. Later, thanks to a scholarship, she attends a boarding school for girls, where the staff make every effort to prepare the girls for a meaningful life for themselves and their country.

This coming-of-age novel is exciting to read, but it captivates readers less through its plot and more through the depth and complexity with which it portrays various characters, times and places.

A central theme of the novel is the role of women in Uganda’s patriarchal society. Kirabo is always accompanied by strong, yet very distinct women who influence her development. Makumbi relies on these women to tell the story of Ugandan feminism, or “mwenkanonkano” in Luganda. It is a story of Ugandan women’s daily fight against oppression of every kind.

Kirabo also struggles with her social role. Despite the love that she receives from her grandparents and the entire village community, she is searching for her mother. When she is 12 years old, she describes feeling like two souls live within her. She wonders whether she is a witch, and if that’s the reason her mother left her. Hoping to find an answer, she seeks out the solitary

Nsuuta, who is a witch according to her grandmother. Kirabo tells her that she sometimes feels like she is leaving her body, especially when someone forbids her to do something because she is a girl. That makes her want to do it even more.

Sometimes she hates being a woman and feels squeezed inside her body. That’s when one of her souls flies away, she says. Nsuuta explains that she leaves her body because “the original state” is within her. She calls this “the first woman”. “We were huge, strong, bold, loud, proud, brave, independent,” Nsuuta says. But women in their original state were rejected by society and suppressed for centuries. Nsuuta explains that the original state was bred out of women.

The women around Kirabo handle their situations very differently. Each develops her own strategy to subvert the patriarchy and live in, and survive, the prevailing system. Makumbi shows that they are all feminists in their own way. But the author makes it equally clear that men also have difficulties breaking out of the system and the roles assigned to them, even if they want to.

World Conference on Women, Mexico, 1975

Makumbi’s novel is largely set in Uganda in the 1970s and 1980s, when attention to the World Conference on Women in Mexico brought rich countries’ ideas of feminism to Africa. Yet these concepts were only received by the English-speaking urban middle class, not by people in rural areas or poorer segments of the population.

The dominant ideas of this type of feminism do not correspond with the experiences of most Ugandan women. Nevertheless, feminist notions are already rooted in their own indigenous traditions and stories. They do not find expression in rallies and demonstrations, but are rather transmitted through oral traditions, stories and legends within communities, from generation to generation.

In her novel, Makumbi emphasises that women are not oppressed in the same ways around the world. Instead, oppression is culturally specific. For that reason, feminism cannot mean the same thing in all countries and cultures and has to be expressed differently in different contexts.

Book
Makumbi, J. N., 2020: The first woman. London, Oneworld Publications.

Dagmar Wolf is E+Z/D+C’s office manager.
euz.editor@dandc.eu

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A Venezuelan woman has been talking about how she made a perilous journey across the Caribbean Sea to the tourist island of Curaçao and how she is now forced to live a secretive existence due to her illegal status.

African economies should seize the opportunity to better integrate into technology-intensive global supply chains and boost prosperity, but this depends on their ability to harness key market and investment trends, the UN’s trade and development body UNCTAD said on Wednesday.

23-08-16_Isabella Bauer / Lissa Janet / Opio - LGBTQ - Africa - Box dagmar.wolf Wed, 16.08.2023 - 02:00 The recent signing of the “Anti-Homosexuality Act” in Uganda threatens members of the LGBTQ community with life imprisonment. LGBTQ in Uganda A free life is impossible for LGBTQ persons in Uganda Uganda’s President Yoweri Museveni once claimed that homosexuals were not persecuted or discriminated against in his country. However, the recent signing of the “Anti-Homosexuality Act” threatens members of the LGBTQ community with life imprisonment and reveals the influence of fundamentalist Christian groups from abroad. 16.08.2023Sub-Saharan Africa In brief SDG5 SDG16 Gender, Frauen Kolonialismus, Entkolonisierung Menschenrechte Recht, Verwaltung Religion Sozialpolitik, Sozialentwicklung Zivilgesellschaftliche Organisationen

“Homosexuals in small numbers have always existed in our part of black Africa... They have never been prosecuted. They have never been discriminated against,” Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni said on the BBC programme “Hard Talk” in March 2012 (see also main text). Today, simply identifying as lesbian or gay can lead to lifelong imprisonment, according to the “Anti-Homosexuality Act” just signed by the same president. What has happened?

Isabella Bauer Anonymous Author Lissa Janet 15.08.2023 LGBTQ rights in Africa – between progress and backlash

President Museveni came into power in 1986 and has since been very strategic in his cooperation with international allies and supporters. In the 1990s, sexual and reproductive health approaches received massive financial support – mainly from the US government under Bill Clinton. Uganda was one of the most successful African countries in fighting the AIDS epidemic. With the ABC approach (stay abstinent, be truthful, use condoms) the government managed to reduce infection rates.

With the election of President George W. Bush, right-wing politicians determined health policy. Some of them were fundamental Christians. “Abstinence only” was the new directive. Development-aid recipients had to change their rhetoric and approach. As the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) reports, free condoms were banned from health facilities and hospitals in Uganda, and more and more fundamental Christians spoke out publicly. Their main message was: AIDS is God’s punishment for homosexuality.

“Kill the Gays Bill”

The influence of fundamentalist Christian churches has increased dramatically since then. Under the label of “human rights advocacy”, groups such as the US-based Family Watch International organise seminars in which they label homosexuality a mental illness, promote conversion therapies, oppose sex education in schools as well as the right to abortion. The drafting of the first so-called “Kill the Gay Bill” in 2014 was also influenced - and funded - by the religious right in the US. While the first bill was invalidated by the Constitutional Court due to a procedural error, this time it passed and will cause immense suffering.

It is impressive that despite these challenges, the ­LGBTQ community has made progress in the area of inclusion, especially in the health sector. They have worked with the Ministry of Health to fight AIDS and promote the right to health, regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity. However, at the signing of the recent bill, the Minister of Health, Ruth Achieng, praised Museveni, raising concerns about the future alignment between the Ministry and the ­LGBTQ community.

It seems that the Ugandan parliament often uses the LGBTQ community as a scapegoat, especially when there are scandals in the country. By exploiting deeply rooted religious norms, they believe that the public will support their agenda. Since the introduction of the law, there have been numerous attacks and arrests targeting LGBTQ organisations and their members. 

Lissa Janet is Communications Officer at Queer Youth Uganda. 

Anonymous Author

Isabella Bauer is a freelance journalist and consultant.
post@isabellabauer.de 

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23-08-15_Isabella Bauer / Lissa Janet / Opio - LGBTQ - Africa dagmar.wolf Tue, 15.08.2023 - 02:00 Legal and social attitudes towards LGBTQ persons in Africa vary significantly within societies and between countries. LGBTQ rights in Africa LGBTQ rights in Africa – between progress and backlash Legal and social attitudes towards LGBTQ persons in Africa vary significantly within societies and between countries. Currently, only a few African countries have decided to recognise and protect their rights. In most countries, LGBTQ individuals are still persecuted. 15.08.2023Sub-Saharan Africa Hintergrund SDG5 SDG16 Gender, Frauen Kolonialismus Menschenrechte Recht, Verwaltung Religion Sozialpolitik, Sozialentwicklung Zivilgesellschaftliche Organisationen

Homosexuality is currently considered a crime in 66 countries worldwide according to the International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Association (ILGA). 33 of them are in Africa. Countries such as Nigeria, Sudan, Somalia and Mauritania have laws in place that impose severe penalties, including imprisonment and in some cases even death sentences.

Most recently, Uganda’s “Anti-Homosexuality Act” led to an international outcry from human-rights activists. It was ratified by president Yoweri Museveni in March. The law foresees up to 20 years of imprison­ment for homosexual practices. In cases of “aggravated homosexuality”, the consequence is death penalty. “Aggravated homosexuality” includes sex with people under 18 or the involvement of a HIV-positive person.

Anyone who provides medical care to homosexuals, accommodates them or represents them in court is liable to prosecution as well. The “promotion of homosexuality” is a criminal offence too. Media organisations that share information on LGBTQ issues face serious consequences, including a hefty fine of 1 billion Ugandan shillings (€ 250,000) and a ten-year licence revocation.

The few organisations that supported the LGBTQ community in Uganda were deprived of any legal basis. Support from western organisations or Ugandans living abroad is severely hampered as well. This law makes it impossible for LGBTQ persons to live and express their true selves. Essentially, it aims to eradicate queerness in Uganda.

At the same time, there have been positive developments in a few African countries. Namibia recently recognised same-sex marriages concluded outside the country. South Africa has offered full legal protection to LGBTQ persons for some time. But even here, social acceptance is limited outside the three major cities of Johannesburg, Durban and Cape Town.

Other countries, including Botswana and Mozambique, have made legal progress in recognising LGBTQ rights, but are still far from legal equality and even further from social acceptance. In April, the NGO Plan International launched the “Amahitamo Yanjye (“My Choice”) Comprehensive Sexuality Education Toolkit” in Rwanda, which targets adolescents and young people under the age of 24. It aims to address teenage pregnancy and includes information on homosexuality and other sexual orientations. There is no restriction on the discussion or promotion of LGBTQ issues in the country.

“Un-African”?

One reason for the continued oppression of LGBTQ persons and the sluggish progress towards equality in just a few countries is a certain narrative put forward across Africa: homosexuality is an import from the west, a neo-colonial attempt to weaken the continent. Kenya’s President William Ruto described homosexuality as incompatible with African culture and religion. In Ghana, journalists launched an anti-queer campaign in response to the opening of a ­LGBTQ centre in Accra, calling homosexuality “un-African”. Moreover, there are countless conspiracy stories circulating on social media, which essentially boil down to the West trying to eradicate Africans by spreading homosexuality.

As a matter of fact, this narrative is simply wrong historically. There is evidence, for example, that King Mwanga II was openly gay in the kingdom of Buganda, which comprises part of present-day Uganda.

He is perhaps one of the most famous gay pre-colonial African figures, but he was not the only one. Before European colonisation, many African societies had different understandings and expressions of same-sex relationships and identities according to Sylvia Tamale, a Ugandan human-rights activist and law professor who researches the history of sexuality in Africa. The ancient cave paintings of the San people near Guruve in Zimbabwe, for example, show two men engaged in a form of ritual sex. The “mudoko dako” or feminised men among the Langi in northern Uganda or the “mawali” in Zande society in central Africa were treated as women and could marry men.

The vocabulary used to describe same-sex relationships in African languages is further evidence of their existence in pre-colonial Africa, as Tamale’s research shows. Basotho women in what is now Lesotho engaged in long-term relationships called “motsoalle” (special friend), the Shangaan in southern Africa referred to same-sex relationships as “inkotshane” (man-woman), and the Wolof language spoken in Senegal has always had a word for this as well (“gor-digen”).

However, Tamale emphasises that same-sex activity in Africa was not always an expression of desire and differs to some extent from the contemporary Western concept of sexual identity. According to her research, same-sex acts also took place for spiritual and ritual purposes and as part of sex education among peers.

As much as these studies can prove that homosexuality was hardly brought to Africa by western powers, they should not hide the fact that same-sex relationships were widely rejected in pre-colonial times too. The colonisers and Christian missionaries then further criminalised them and introduced laws and moral codes that reflected the attitudes prevalent in their home countries at the time.

Lissa Janet is Communications Officer at Queer Youth Uganda.

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Isabella Bauer is a freelance journalist and consultant.
post@isabellabauer.de

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