Homosexuals ‘To Be Barred from Entering Namibia’
The Namibian,
April 6, 2001
Windhoek, Namibia
Email: graham@namibian.com.na
By Christof Maletsky
President Sam Nujoma yesterday said Government would immediately deport
homosexuals who try to enter the country through Hosea Kutako International
Airport.
Speaking at the opening of an Agricultural Development Centre at Erwee in
the Kunene region, Nujoma expressed his disgust at the recent weddings of gay
and lesbian couples in the Netherlands.
He said such people would be barred from entering Namibia.
"If they arrive at the Hosea Kutako Airport, we’ll send them back
with the same aircraft—if they are couples or found to be homosexuals.
Definitely it’s against God’s will. It is the devil at work," he
said.
He said he had seen footage of gay marriages in the Netherlands on
television and even held up a copy of The Namibian showing a photograph of two
men kissing each other at the wedding ceremony in Amsterdam, where same-sex
matrimony is recognised.
"How can a man marry a man or a woman marry a woman?" he
exclaimed to the community gathered for the opening.
"Only four days ago I was watching TV and I saw something funny,
something strange in the Netherlands," he said referring to the same-sex
weddings. People involved in such sexual activities," Nujoma said,
"made holes like a woman and women made plastic things".
He maintained that "the Constitution is being misinterpreted by
colonialists who are confused. They are using the Constitution to protect
homosexuals and lesbians in an irresponsible way."
"In Namibia we don’t allow lesbianism or homosexuality. They must
keep it in Europe. Which god is responsible for these homosexuals? Is it the
god of the Africans or the god of the Europeans?"
Nujoma claimed that priests were being used to approve gay marriages in the
same way that missionaries had previously been used by imperialists to advance
the colonial cause and steal land from the people."
"We will combat this with vigour—we will make sure that Namibia
will get rid of lesbianism and homosexuality," he emphasised. He told the
gathering they must tell their children "to give up the idea of
homosexuality and lesbianism".
Minister of Agriculture Helmut Angula, who was the master of ceremonies at
the event, backed Nujoma saying that homosexuality and alcoholism were
"evils that were befalling the country".
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