NATURE AND SEXUALITY

The first gay pride march in Johannesburg in 1990 was a colourful affair, but involved only a few hundred brave participants asserting their right to dignity and respect. But there was also a palpable air of anxiety, and some of the participants wore paper bags over their heads. There was little of the spirit of joyful celebration and defiance that marked later gay pride marches. At the time, bystanders appeared largely puzzled or amused, but there were some angry faces and hostile placards. One read, ‘Homosexuality is unnatural’. This points to the one sense in which nature is a conscious presence in our everyday lives: it is frequently invoked as a model of appropriate behaviour.

Culturally variable practices such as homosexuality and incest are often described as ‘crimes against nature’. For this reason, Jonathan Dollimore has written about ‘the violence and ideological complexity of nature as a cultural concept’ (cited in Soper, 1995: 120). My main concern here is with the violence that has been directed against homosexuals through the representation of their sexual practice as a violation of nature. Such views have been expressed by a number of South African leaders, such as Chief Phathekile Holomisa and Jacob Zuma, for whom gay marriages are ‘ungodly and unAfrican’. A recent article by columnist Jon Qwelane described same-sex unions as ‘illogical’ and flying ‘in the face of nature’ (Qwelane, 2006). Such views have been expressed by African leaders and linked to heavy penalties. For example, in Uganda in 1990 the maximum penalty for ‘unnatural’ carnality was increased from 14 years to life imprisonment, and in 1994 the Ugandan president, Yoweri Museveni, said that his government would ‘shoot at’ anyone bringing the ‘unnatural practice’ of homosexuality into his country. In Ghana, four men were jailed for two years in 2004 for ‘unnatural acts’. Similar attitudes have been expressed by Zimbabwe's Robert Mugabe, Kenya's Daniel Arap Moi, Namibia's Sam Nujoma and Zambia's Frederick Chiluba (Gevisser, 1999). Moi, the former president of Kenya, said in 1999 that homosexuality ‘is against African tradition and biblical teachings’ (cited in The Star, 2006h). All of these African leaders have characterised homosexuality as ‘unnatural’, ‘unAfrican’ and a Western import.