Malawian gay couple jailed for 14 years
By Info | May 21, 2010
Godfrey Mapondera and David Smith, the Guardian, 20 May 2010
The worst fears of a gay couple in Malawi and supporters across the world were realised today when they were sentenced to 14 years in jail with hard labour.
Steven Monjeza, 26, and 20-year-old Tiwonge Chimbalanga, convicted earlier this week of unnatural acts and gross indecency, now face “hell on earth” in the maximum security Chichiri prison in Blantyre, where they have been held on remand. Read the rest of this entry »
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Desmond Tutu leads fight to halt anti-gay terror sweeping Africa
By Info | April 6, 2010
By David Smith, the Guardian, 4 April 2010
Battle has been joined against the criminalisation of homosexuality in Africa. Last week, Archbishop Desmond Tutu and more than 60 civil society and human rights groups called on Uganda to reject proposed punishments for gay sex that range from life imprisonment to the death penalty.
Activists in Malawi were steeled by pressure from Human Rights Watch for the dropping of a case against the first gay couple to seek marriage in the conservative country. Steve Monjeza, 26, and 20-year-old Tiwonge Chimbalanga will stand trial this week after holding a traditional ceremony last December. Read the rest of this entry »
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Police shut gallery showing images of Zimbabwe political violence
By Info | April 6, 2010
By David Smith, the Guardian, 4 April, 2010
How Zimbabwe censors information while maintaining illusion of democracy.
Sunset in Harare, and a drowsy evening was settling on Livingstone Avenue. I sat on a wicker chair on the veranda of an art gallery that was once the colonial-style home of landscape painter Robert Paul. Read the rest of this entry »
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Homosexuality and human rights in Africa
By Info | April 6, 2010
The paradox facing Africa’s HIV/AIDS agendas
As in many African countries, homosexuality is illegal in Malawi. Until recently authorities have turned a blind eye, but on 27 December 2009 two gay men were arrested for planning to marry. Tiwonge Chimbalanga and Steven Monjeza had been living as a heterosexual couple, with Chimbalanga posing as a woman. They were charged with felonies of unnatural acts and gross indecency, which could result in 14 years imprisonment. In early February a man was charged, as part of a police sweep against homosexuals, with ‘conduct likely to breech the peace’ and given two months community service for putting up posters stating “Gay Rights are Human Rights’. Read the rest of this entry »
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In Africa, a step backward on human rights
By Info | March 15, 2010
From the Washington Post, Friday, March 12, 2010
By Desmond Tutu
Hate has no place in the house of God. No one should be excluded from our love, our compassion or our concern because of race or gender, faith or ethnicity — or because of their sexual orientation. Nor should anyone be excluded from health care on any of these grounds. In my country of South Africa, we struggled for years against the evil system of apartheid that divided human beings, children of the same God, by racial classification and then denied many of them fundamental human rights. We knew this was wrong. Thankfully, the world supported us in our struggle for freedom and dignity. Read the rest of this entry »
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