That is has done neither in 60 years undermines its credibility severely.

It cannot begin to be an effective advocate for justice and human rights, let alone be intellectually coherent, until it takes these two indivisible steps.

Letting fundamentalists, or their apologists, determine policy in the Commonwealth will destroy it – and the world.

I agree with you on many of your points but was attempting to reply directly to the politics of CRJ. In doing I wrote in shorthand and possibly over-generalised.
Of course it’s impossible to talk about Africa in a general way as it is such a varied continent. I’m only writing from my own experience of living in a West African predominately Christian country.

I agree with you about the internalisation of prejudice in many African countries. But it is very hard to change this without education. That is why I believe the key is first to change the law. Once the laws are changed, education becomes easier.

These laws often came from the colonialists and where I live they were from the British. The laws were foreign imports. The language of these laws is imbibed with their version of Christian morality (I accept that are different interpretations of Christianity which are inclusive but that is not what we are dealing with).

If you have seen articles on the web and in African newspapers, intolerance always comes couched in religious terms, both Christian and Islamic. It doesn’t have to be of course, but all we have, where I live, is fundamentalism.

My intention was not to ignore cultural differences between countries in Africa but to warn about the dangers of the debate being framed from, what I believe, is a Western perspective (here I have some sympathy with CRJ). I believe that ‘gay’ is a social construct originating from North American identity politics and has done great damage to Europeans. I do not wish that mistake to be repeated in Africa, especially as the social construction of same-sex behaviour in Africa is not in the slightest related to the European/North American experience.

Graham,
I think you seriously underestimate the degree to which intolerance of homosexuality has been culturally internalised by African populations.
To lay responsibility so squarely at the door of “Christian morality” seems to ignore the homophobic legislation active in countries where the legal tradition is Muslim rather than Christian, and to frame the debate as a dichotomy between “African” and “Western” values seems to completely ignore the important variety, contrast, and contradiction between African cultures, as well as the very different origins from which those diverse cultures arise.

Africans have had same-sex relations long before this discussion started and without having to give it a name or an identity. In some African cultures, people who were perceived as being different (feminine men for example), where given special roles within the culture. It is not unusual for traditional priests to have sex with both genders.

It is unfortunate, but the North American model of identity politics is pervasive and persuasive in the way it frames the issues. In a sense, this model?s presentation of the subject leads to its conclusion.

Based on this, my proposals would be:

1. remove the colonial laws

2. undo the damage created by fundamentalist Christianity (now being imported from North America alongside their missionaries)

3. not try impose ‘gay’ identity politics (your notion of sexual liberation) in an African context.