Mr. Monjeza, left and Mr. Chimbalanga
A court in Malawi yesterday convicted a gay couple of gross indecency and unnatural acts in a case that has highlighted the persecution of homosexuals in Africa and drawn international condemnation.
Steven Monjeza, 26, and Tiwonge Chimbalanga, 20, who will be sentenced tomorrow, face at least a decade behind bars. They were arrested in December after testing Malawi’s anti-gay laws with a public “engagement ceremony” before a wedding planned for this year.
The action outraged authorities in the deeply conservative country, one of the poorest in Africa. The men have been in prison ever since, despite an international campaign for their release and reports of maltreatment.
Judge Nyakwawa Usiwa-Usiwa, sitting in the old colonial capital of Blantyre, convicted both men of engaging in gay sex, which he said was “against the order of nature”. The couple’s lawyer argued that their actions had not victimised anyone.
“Unlike in a rape case, there was no complainant or victim in this case,” he said. “Here are two consenting adults doing their thing in private. Nobody will be threatened or offended if they are released into society.”
That argument fell on deaf ears in a country in which gays are now in hiding. Large crowds have jeered and pilloried the men on each occasion that they have been brought to court. At a previous court appearance Mr Chimbalanga, who was sick with malaria, was forced to return to the court room to mop up his vomit.
The chief prosecutor welcomed the judge’s decision. “In Malawi, we don’t allow men to marry men or women to marry women,” Dickens Mwambazi said. “I think 90 per cent of the crowd here agrees with the ruling.” The men had denied the charges and their lawyer said that their constitutional rights had been violated.
Homosexual acts are outlawed in many African countries but, until recently, authorities turned a blind eye as long as they took place underground. In the past two years, however, battles being fought in the West over “gay marriage” and the ordination of homosexual and women priests have spread to Africa, where right-wing evangelical Christianity has combined with deeply traditional beliefs. Gays in Uganda, Zimbabwe, Zambia, Cameroon and Senegal have also felt the weight of government campaigns.
Mr Monjeza and Mr Chimbalanga,are certain now to become a cause célèbre. Peter Tatchell, the British gay activist, issued a statement calling the verdict “cruel and unjust”. Sixty-seven British MPs had previously signed a petition deploring the court action.
The verdict will increase pressure on the British Government, which gives Malawi about £80 million a year in aid, to cut back on donor funding unless it softens its anti-gay stance. Amnesty International called for the immediate release of the two men. “Being in a relationship should not be a crime. No one should be arrested and detained solely on the basis of their real or perceived sexual orientation or gender identity,” Michelle Kagari, Amnesty’s deputy Africa Director, said. “Their human rights, the rights to freedom from discrimination, of conscience, expression and privacy have been flagrantly violated.”
The Malawi Government insists that the men broke the law. Church leaders say that the West should not be allowed to use its financial power to force Malawi to accept homosexuality. Some analysts believe that the rows over homosexuality in Africa are really a proxy war in an American cultural dispute, with both evangelicals and gay rights groups in the US pouring money and support into the continent.
TIMESONLINE
