Do you know that the United Kingdom, one of the biggest traditional donors to Sierra Leone, has announced new measures to cut aid to Commonwealth countries if they failed to openly support homosexuality?
Homosexuality is a sexual attraction between persons of the same sex, a dictionary definition. In Sierra Leone it simply means a man and man or woman and woman having sexual intercourse.
According to Australian born Peter Tatchell, who has been campaigning for human rights, democracy, lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) freedom and global justice since 1967, “nearly all Commonwealth countries penalise male homosexuality with lengthy jail terms. In Bangladesh, Guyana, Sierra Leone, Pakistan, Uganda, Barbados and Tanzania the maximum penalty is life imprisonment.”
Therefore, this latest change of policy by Britain, according to Kenya’s Daily Nation, is likely to affect more than 40 out of 54 Commonwealth countries whose laws outlaw homosexuality and carry punitive penalties for offenders. Sierra Leone has been a member of the Commonwealth since 1961.
We are not sure of the immediate direct impact on Sierra Leone of the decision by Prime Minister David Cameron to withdraw the general budgetary support targeted nations engaged in what they said was “the abuse of homosexuals,” but our investigations found out that the government, which has never openly made a statement on gay rights issues, was ambivalent.
Consistent with a 2011-2015 operational plan, a recent report (April 2011) by the British Department for International Development (DfID) confirmed that “Sierra Leone currently remains heavily dependant on donors’ aid which currently accounts for 19% of the country’s Gross National Income (GNI) and an even higher percentage of the national budget.”
With one of the lowest revenue bases in Sub-Saharan Africa, Sierra Leone is currently standing at 12% GNI compared to Liberia (in excess of 20%) and therefore has every reason to be jittery. The Brits, with World Bank, European Union (EU) and African Development Bank, who lead on infrastructure, energy and agriculture, provides 80% of total development assistance to Sierra Leone.
Meanwhile, the country waits avidly for the anticipated mining boom to relieve its economy from such a donor conditionality that often comes with flickering commitment. According to government budget and statement of economic and financial policies for the financial year 2011,exports recovered strongly, growing by over 50 percent to US$ 163 million in the first half of 2010, compared to US$ 108 million for the same period in 2009. This performance was largely due to the recovery of mineral exports, which grew by 36 percent to US$ 90 million in the first half of 2010.
In the interim, a spokesperson in the UK's Department for International Development said the Cameron administration would use the budget support to ensure that human rights abuses against homosexuals come to an end.
Early this year, the Sierra Leone government, through the National HIV/AIDS Control Program, conducted its first ever study on men who have sex with other men as part of its public health response to the HIV/AIDS pandemic, nevertheless, statistics on homosexuality are still hard to come by. The situation is even compounded by the fact that individual politicians, political parties and other political organizations in the country have either deliberately avoided making public statements on lesbian and gay rights issues or come out in opposition to them on religious grounds.
In 2004, Fanny Ann Eddy, the founder of the first LGBT rights organization in Sierra Leone, was brutally murdered. The BBC reported that while working in her office, several men broken in, brutally raped and murdered her. Many human rights activists believed that she was targeted for being gay and her work on behalf of the rights of women and the LGBT community.
Scott long, director of the LGBT project at Human Rights Watch had called on the government to investigate the crime fairly and fully and that “they must send a message to a frightened lesbian and gay community that violence against them will not go unpunished.” This advice could not be heeded because of the sensitive nature of homosexuality.
Sierra Leone is, however, ambivalent on lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender rights. Probably the only apparent official information by a top government diplomat on such sensitive issues was provided in a case for an asylum seeker.
On January 29, 2001, an official of Sierra Leone’s Embassy on 1701 Nineteenth Street, N.W. Washington, DC 20009 was providing information on the status of homosexuals and persons with HIV/AIDS when he categorically stated that: “there are no written laws that deal with the status of homosexuals; the morality of the citizens is based on the teachings of the two main religions i.e. Christianity and Islam; both religions regard homosexual activity as sinful; I am not aware of any gay rights movement in Sierra Leone; homosexuality is not openly practiced.”
But according to a Wikileaks (id#242245) cable with subject: ‘Sexual Orientation In Sierra Leone: Quietly In The Closet’, said Sierra Leone has an archaic and seldom (if ever) enforced laws against homosexual behavior on the books, but societal prejudices, rather than legal consequences, keep homosexual orientation hidden.
“There are no current initiatives to revise, eliminate, or enforce current legislation, and post was unable to contact any groups that advocated for or against gay rights….it is unclear if a lesbian activist killed several years ago was specifically targeted for her political activities, or simply one more victim of crime,” it added.
The cable further stated that: “Sierra Leone adopted at independence a number of British laws, including the 1861 Offences against Persons Act, which, under "unnatural offences" includes article 61 on "Sodomy and bestiality: Whosoever shall be convicted of the abominable crime of buggery, committed either with mankind or with any animal, shall be liable...to be kept in penal servitude for life.”
Put into perspective, a religious cleric in Freetown, who chose not to be mentioned here, said “the word ‘sodomy’, outlawed by article 61 under the 1861 Offences against Persons Act ‘simply means homosexuality.’ But it seems politicians don’t dare talk about it. Even the lawyers dodge it.”
“While article 61 of the law was eliminated from the British code, it is still on the books in Sierra Leone, although local lawyers contacted could not recall a case in which the law had been applied,” the cable mentioned.
As at Thursday, December 31, 2009 13:58 UTC, there has been no attempt by the government to deal specifically with this clause in parliament. In the meantime there has been some discussion about the need to revise the entire 1861 law to reflect modern sensibilities; nonetheless, there are no revisions pending or imminently anticipated.
The Wikileaks cable disclosed that Sierra Leone does not have any active gay rights movement. Thus, many Sierra Leoneans believe that homosexuality is practiced exclusively by, or through inducements from, foreigners -- it is assumed that homosexuals are either copying Western practices, or motivated by economics.
“A number of Sierra Leoneans, even those with considerable exposure to Western culture, said that homosexuality does not exist locally, and any cases were due directly to Western influence. The few Sierra Leoneans who admitted knowing someone they believed to be homosexual said that in no case would anyone openly admit it, and if they did, they would be shunned by their families and friends and possibly threatened by community members. Unfortunately, Sierra Leoneans contacted on this issue were all heterosexual, as attempts to locate any openly gay nationals failed.”
The government, the politicians and the country might be ambivalent, but without active discrimination, or a critical mass of activists, individuals are unlikely to assume the immediate negative consequences of going public to fight for greater acceptance.
In the absence of such activism, however, homosexuality is likely to continue to be viewed by Sierra Leoneans as it is now -- an abomination in the same category as pedophilia, bestiality, and witchcraft.
