by Gift Mawire
Africa remains one of the mostly divided continents over same sex relationships. While most people cite its conservative and mostly religious nature as a reason for the backlash, its leadership has been vocal and spoke fiercely against the practice. Here are some of the worst things African leaders said about gay people, homosexuality, and same-sex marriage.
“If you do it [in the Gambia] I will slit your throat — if you are a man and want to marry another man in this country and we catch you, no one will ever set eyes on you again, and no white person can do anything about it,”
“No study has shown you can be homosexual by nature. That’s why I have agreed to sign the bill… Outsiders cannot dictate to us. This is our country. I advise friends from the west not to make this an issue, because if they make it an issue the more they will lose. If the west does not want to work with us because of homosexuals, then we have enough space to ourselves here.Homosexuals are disgusting”
“When I was growing up, unqingili [‘homosexuals’ in the Zulu language] could not stand in front of me, same sex marriage is a disgrace to the nation and to God”
“I repeatedly say that for Kenyans today the issue of gay rights is really a non-issue. We want to focus on other areas…maybe once, like you, have overcome some of these challenges, we can begin to look at other ones, but as of now the fact remains that this issue is not really an issue that is at the foremost minds of Kenyans and that is a fact.”
“Homosexuals were “worse than pigs and dogs” and warned those practising in his country: “We will punish you severely.”
