No Legal Organizing in Zambia
PlanetOut.com
September 3, 1998
Zambian activists have vowed to fight for their rights, despite official
pronouncements that organizing would be a felony.
Zambian Minister of Legal Affairs Vincent Malambo affirmed September 2 that
there will be no legal registration of any gay or lesbian organization there
because of the national sodomy law, and that in fact since homosexual acts are
felonious, organizing such a group would also constitute a felony. But Alfred
Zulu, program manager of the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender
Association (LEGATRA), insists that the group will be registered despite
Malambo's pronouncements.
Zulu, previously identified in his other roles as president of the Zambia
Independent Monitoring Team and Homosexual Proponents for the Legalization of
Homosexual Associations in Zambia, insists that the protections of minorities
in Part Three of the Zambian Constitution takes precedence over the sodomy
law, which he says should be repealed. Currently Chapter 87 of Zambia's Penal
Code Act describes homosexuality as an "offense against morality;"
Chapter XV, Section 155 says that, "Any person who has carnal knowledge
of any person against the order of nature, or permits a male person to have
carnal knowledge of him or her against the order of nature is guilty of a
felony and is liable to imprisonment for fourteen years." It is not clear
how often this law is actually enforced.
Zulu said that, "LEGATRA will be registered as planned because the
Zambian laws are such that we are in a pluralist society where our laws allow
freedom of association and assembly. ... Registration is going on as
planned..." Zulu condemned as bigoted remarks by Malambo and by Minister
of Broadcasting David Mpamba that homosexuality is "unAfrican," and
called on the public to ignore them; Zulu even hinted that some government
officials are themselves closeted. Mpamba in turn had called on Zulu to
resign, alleging that he had misinformed the public on homosexuality.
"The Post" of Zambia recently ran a pioneering four-part series
on homosexuality in which Francis Yabe Chisambisha identified himself as a gay
man and said he had a group of gay friends who were interested in forming an
association to obtain their civil rights. Zulu then came forward to say that
homosexual orientation was not sinful but inborn, and that "Gay people,
just like lesbians, are normal people and are entitled to fundamental human
rights and should not be discriminated against," but should be protected
by law. Zulu also said that his own gay and lesbian civil rights group had met
with like-minded groups from the Netherlands and the U.S. (Zulu also said that
ZIMT was sponsoring a dozen gays and lesbians to attend the World Council of
Churches global conference in December in Harare, Zimbabwe.)
Ironically, "The Post" series attributed current discussions of
homosexuality to Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe's diatribes against it
dating back to 1995, when he blocked an attempt by the group Gays and Lesbians
of Zimbabwe (GALZ) to display literature at the Zimbabwe International Book
Fair.
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