Mazrui Attacks Museveni Over Homo Arrests
Africa
News, October 6, 1999 (excerpt)
The Monitor (Kampala)
By Julius Mucunguzi
Kampala — Reknowned African scholar Professor Ali Mazrui yesterday
stunned his audience when he opposed the view held by Ugandan president Yoweri Museveni
that homosexuals should be arrested and prosecuted.
"The issues of homosexuality are self regarding acts.... they may be matters for
the church, but not for the head of state... the almighty may judge, but not the
state," Mazrui begun.
Mazrui said this while giving a key note address at an International Conference on
Constitutionalism in Africa organised by the Faculty of Law Makerere University held at
the International Conference Centre.
"The governments of Yoweri Museveni of Uganda and Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe
attacking homosexuals sound as though they are more concerned with homosexuality than
corruption," the grey haired political science scholar said.
President Museveni Sept. 27 while addressing a Reproductive Health Conference at the
ICC ordered police to arrest and prosecute culprits of an alleged homosexual wedding in
Wandegeya mid last month. Zimbabwean president Robert Mugabe has also been at the
forefront of attacking homosexuals.
"That shouldn’t be a matter for the president to make pronouncements on. ...
homosexuals and gays shouldn’t be used as scapegoats. Intrusion in the private lives
of individuals is unconstitutional," Mazrui added.
"We can support the values of the African family without using homosexuals as
scapegoats."
Asked whether he thought that president Yoweri Museveni could have made the homosexual
remarks to divert attention on the agenda setting and matters for public debate, Mazrui
replied that: "I was also comparing in my mind the situation of American president
Bill Clinton who had a sexual scandal, but tried to divert it with a war, and president
Museveni who has war scandal (in the Democratic Republic of Congo ( DRC), and is trying to
divert it with homosexuality. I don’t know."
The topic of Mazrui’s address was: Constitutional Change and Cultural Engineering:
Africa’s Search for New Directions. . . .
[The article continues on other topics.]
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