"I want to tell a story of something that happened this week, Monday, in my country,” Dr. Stella Nyanzi told the crowd as she began her keynote speech to kick off the 11th Annual Western Regional International Health Conference.
“People marched through Kampala, carrying banners and posters with the most shocking messages for those of us who had been working with the LGBTIQ community in Uganda, messages that said things like, ‘Uganda belongs to God,’ or, ‘Musevini, we the children thank you for saving our future.’”
Stella Nyanzi. Photo by Cooper Inveen
In February, President Museveni singed the Uganda Anti-Homosexulity Act into law, a bill that broadens the criminalization of same sex-relations to include life in prison, among other punishments. The bill also includes harsh penalties for individuals, companies, non-governmental organizations, and media outlets who promote LGBT rights in any way.
Nyanzi, whose talk was titled Mobilizing Gender and Sexuality Movements for Global Health, is a social science researcher and anthropologist at Makerere University in Uganda, having received her PhD from the University of London after
ethnographic field work highlighting the negotiation of sexualities, sexual and reproductive health, and rights among young people in The Gambia.
“How can we mobilize within our movements for global health?” she asked. “Understanding the context of the countries where we work is important. If we don’t understand why things are the way they are, I don’t think we can begin to have solutions.”
Nyanzi spoke of how contextualizing LGBT rights in Uganda is only possible by recognizing the elements that have locked those beliefs into Ugandan culture and society. These elements – or “strongholds” – include Ugandan law and religious fundamentals, the local medical community’s pathologies and perceptions of HIV/AIDS, societal fears of widespread immorality and degradation, and a general distrust of the West and other “un-African” nations.
These “strongholds” are enforcing hegemonic norms and beliefs about homosexuality that make it very difficult for Ugandans to speak out against oppression. But if these elements of control that are keeping convictions like homophobia cemented in the minds of the Ugandan public are not recognized and addressed, then Nyanzi worries that the solutions to these problems will be lost, and homosexuality will remain censored and oppressed.
“It is important that we ‘uncensor’ gender and sexuality, because this is not just about gay people – it is about all of us,” Nyanzi concluded. “We are pretending and lying to ourselves about global health for all human beings if we do not begin to engage with these issues, and realize that they are our issues too.”
This is a blog post by Cooper Inveen on the 11th Annual Western Regional International Health Conference, held at UW April 4-6, 2014. Cooper Inveen is a student at the University of Washington studying Journalism and International Studies: Africa.