Debating Silence by Michelle Dobrovolny on August 4, 2010 · 0 comments in IYIP Rights Media Internships,Malawi

Debating Silence

by Michelle Dobrovolny on August 4, 2010 ·

in IYIP Rights Media Internships,Malawi

The posters created by local Malawians in a clandestine campaign for gay rights.

The caller on the other end of the line would only dance around the issue, never daring to explicitly state his purpose:

“Are you the Canadian reporter?”
“Um, possibly. Who are you?”
“You want to know something?”
“That depends. Are you Mwanajuma’s* friend?”
“Maybe. What is it you want to know?”

It felt like I was arranging a drug deal. Actually, I was trying to find a gay Malawian who could speak, even anonymously, about his or her experiences in a country in which two gay men were recently sentenced – and subsequently released following international outcry – to 14 years of hard labour for their relationship. This cryptic phone call was about as far as I got.

Homosexuality, treated in Malawi as a criminal matter, has been pushed into dark corners where people hardly dare to utter the word gay. There is no debate, as such, on gay rights. Simply the unrelenting silence of the majority.

Mwanajuma, my link to Malawi’s underground gay community, has been trying to raise awareness about the rights of gay people since the media explosion surrounding the engagement of Steven Monjeza and Tiwonge Chimbalanga. With four of his friends, Mwanajuma blanketed Blantyre in posters boasting the slogan Gay Rights are Human Rights (see right).

Speaking in the back office of his local business, Mwanajuma describes why he felt the need to get involved. ”We began a small campaign to be a voice of opposition to what, at the time, was just an overwhelming negative attitude: kill them, throw them in jail, that kind of thing. It was horrible,” he says. “We started raising awareness, trying to muster up the courage of human rights organizations locally who really weren’t doing anything.”

Anything that is seen to “encourage” homosexuality is a criminal offense in Malawi, under an interpretation of the penal code by which “any male person who…attempts to procure the commission of any [indecent] act by any male person with himself or another male person…shall be guilty of a felony.” One of the participants in Mwanajuma’s campaign was caught and arrested under this section, though he was later released. It’s not just gay relationships that are illegal. Even promoting gay rights can land you in jail.

But the penal code is not the main instrument in restricting free debate on gay rights. Social taboo has far more weight. Take, for example, the fact that one of the gay men involved in the international imbroglio eventually bowed to social pressure and recanted his relationship, despite winning his legal battle.

In Malawi, such social pressure is often cloaked in religious rhetoric, according to Mwanajuma. “The lens through which people saw the issue was very religious,” he says. “Ultimately, the Bible is used as a cover for a deeper prejudice. No one ever wants to say that they are bigots. The Bible is used as a buffer.”

But adhering to religious principles, he says, is not solely about faith. It’s also about social standing. ”You can discuss [homosexuality] with people but you have to understand that religiosity is not just a social and cultural thing, it’s also very political,” Mwanajuma notes. “Having close ties to a church or deep knowledge of the Bible earns you status points within the community. Any veering from that loses status points. When having a discussion with someone, you always have to be mindful of that.”

The situation has thus become that few people are willing to discuss a matter which is weighted – both legally and socially – with so much personal cost.

*a false name was used to protect the identity of my source.