Blogging in Uganda (Part 7): GayUganda
On the subject of homosexuality in Uganda, opinions abound. Back in 1999, President Museveni made his position clear by asking the police to arrest gays. His authority notwithstanding, the Sexual Minorities Groups in Uganda held a press conference in August to demand for their rights. Their lobby drew a response from former Justice Minister Mayanja Nkanji in which he called homosexuality and lesbianism a morally corrupting influence. Others have taken their chance to defend the gay community. Now in the blogosphere, one gay Ugandan is speaking for himself.
GayUganda is a blog by a gay Ugandan, as you might expect. He blogs about issues concerning gays, lesbians, and other sexual minorities in Uganda, and about the choice between wanting to live a quiet life away from public scrutiny and persecution, and the compulsion to take part in gay activism. The blogger keeps his profile anonymous, which is to say that he is not a fool. Homosexuality is illegal in Uganda and along with the law, there are tabloids and religious groups to worry about.
New content is updated regularly, sometimes a post a day. Much of it is poetry; most of it is introspective. Occasionally though, there is something really engaging, like the blogger's correspondence with Pastor Martin Ssempa. From those letters, it is clear that GayUganda distrusts religious types. However he does concede the divisions that work in his favour when he is defended at his work place by a born-again christian. In this way this blog shows a microcosm of the growing divisions over homosexuality among many christian groups.
The fact that the blogger is gay is not a novelty by itself—BBC profiled a gay Ugandan Christian in 2003. The story here is how the he is using his blog as a media outlet. Homosexuals do not have easy access to the media in Uganda. In 2004, Radio Simba was fined $1,000 for hosting homosexuals in a live talk show.
In the blogosphere though, Uganda's government is not able to enforce its censorship policies. This leaves GayUganda free to tell his story to those who will listen. No doubt Information Minister Nsaba Buturo is unhappy, but unless he can get Google's CEO on the phone, at least one gay Ugandan is not going to be denied his right to free speech.
Reader comments
I hope more Ugandans of diverse sexual orientations start to use the internet as a medium for expression on how it is to live in the country. At the forum last month, just mentioning homosexuality - even from a theoretical or academic perspective - was taboo and frowned upon, and the only way to increase discourse on sexuality in the country is by bringing marginalized voices to the forefront. The internet is the best way to start doing that.
"Much of it is poetry; most of it is introspective. Occasionally though, there is something really engaging, like the blogger's correspondence with Pastor Martin Ssempa. "
Do you mean what you write here? Or has the nuance escaped you? "Occassionally though" is derogatory for it negates "poetry" and "introspective" in favour of political issues which are "really engaging." How backward looking this is. The personal is political, poetry and introspection, the awareness of the inner spirit, are where politics springs from. The strength of Gayuganda's blog is that it links the inner to the outer. Furthermore, "this is not a novelty". I doubt that the author of the blog wants to be a "novelty"...he wants to be what he is: a human being. You really should evaluate the quality of your write-ups and write justly.
I see nothing wrong with describing GayUganda's poetry as introspective. The "Occasionally though", is a reference to the fact that the blogger breaks from the esoteric to offer up something that everyone might appreciate, even those who are not gifted with an understanding of the nuances of poetry.
I do not refer to the blogger himself as a novelty—that really should be clear in the piece if you care to read it over—it is the blog which is novel. GayUganda does not need anyone's permission to be a human being, he is one. What is at issue here is access to media in a manner that allows him to share that humanity.
Thanks for your feedback Eshuneutics.
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