The interaction of human rights and religion in Africa’s sexuality politics

Abstract

This article examines varieties of human rights appropriation in the context of sexuality politics in Africa. Noting how contested the landscape of human rights has been in Africa, it demonstrates how the human rights of lesbians, gays, bisexual, trans, queer, and intersex persons or sexual and gender minorities (LGBTQI+) are excluded from protection as a result of what are described as three interconnected predispositions. These predispositions are postcolonial, cultural, and religious tendencies within many African countries which adopt “othering” narratives that justify, and even sacralize, discrimination or violence based on gender identity and sexual orientation. The article analyzes the rights-based arguments—the appropriation of human rights language—used by anti-gay advocates in Africa, which emphasize rights to religion, culture, and family and exclude or deny the rights of LGBTQI+ people. This presentation of a human rights corpus and discourse which excludes LGBTQI+ rights, and which circulates both within and outside Africa, relies on alliances with the US Christian Right, and with the Vatican and Islamic leaders, to oppose sexual rights, and is often deployed by African politicians to retain political power. The article concludes by exploring the concept of ubuntu as a potential alternative to or as an accompaniment to human rights language, as a way of vernacularizing and Africanizing LGBTQI+ rights.