“Small Animal”: How Language Reinforces Climates Of Sexual Violence In Uganda - Minority Africa
Toluwani Omotesho
April 19, 2024
But first, in Uganda, the Constitutional Court has rejected the petition against the anti-gay law. On Wednesday, April 3, 2024, the court announced its ruling not to nullify the Anti-Homosexuality Act. However, it’ll be scrapping two sections and two subsections that restrict healthcare access, criminalize renting premises to members of the LGBT community, and make it compulsory to report alleged acts of homosexuality.
The judges maintain that the anti-gay law does not violate the fundamental human rights of LGBT people but instead protects children from recruitment and targeting.
Despite the disappointment, the ruling doesn’t come as a shock to many people. Still, it’s unfortunate that the court’s decision further legalizes discrimination against the LGBT community in a country already struggling with widespread homophobia.
Following the enactment of the Anti-Homosexuality Act in May 2023, Uganda has been under pressure from the United Nations (UN), human rights organizations, and foreign governments. In August 2023, the World Bank suspended new loans to Uganda because the anti-gay law contradicts its core values. Many activists believe that Uganda is merely tweaking its anti-gay law as a ploy to restart funding from donors and are calling for more restrictions until the law is entirely revoked.
In the meantime, petitioners are not backing down but will appeal the ruling to Uganda’s Supreme Court.
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“Small animal”: How language reinforces climates of sexual violence in Uganda
Thinking back to her first intimate encounter with her husband, Jane, a mother of four in Kampala, Uganda realises the impact of language and culture on attitudes towards sex. She recalls the jumble of thoughts that rushed through her mind regarding how to handle intimacy.
As Jane, a Muganda by tribe, navigated conflicting messages during her upbringing, she faced the challenge of balancing the importance of protecting her “sweet” (a term for female private parts) with advice from her Ssenga, a paternal aunt tasked with educating girls about sex, on how to satisfy her future partner.
In society’s eyes, openly showing desire was considered inappropriate for a woman, yet she was still supposed to be alluring in private. Her struggles with being the ideal partner coloured her experiences.
Luckily, Jane’s husband empathised with her unease and provided support by urging her to accept her sexuality. After years of exploration, their bond has strengthened, resulting in a fulfilling intimate relationship. Uganda has a rich cultural and linguistic diversity, where words hold great power to inspire or harm. Sexuality plays a crucial role in this situation. Several linguistic traditions in the country, deeply ingrained in the culture, inadvertently contribute to narratives that sustain sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV).
How football games between persons with albinism and vitiligo are helping fight stigma in Kenya
While pursuing his bachelor’s degree at Moi University in Kenya in 2008, Tom Radido noticed patches on his body.
His family came up with a theory: they concluded he had stepped on ash burned during a traditional rite following the death of twins. To reverse the condition, Radido was given ash to lick, with some smeared on his face. Nothing changed.
It was instead the onset of vitiligo, a skin condition affecting about 0.5 to 2% of the world’s population. It also marked the beginning of a series of discrimination against Radido.
“You go for interviews and from the receptionist, no one wants to look at you twice,” he tells Minority Africa. “There is this interview that I was invited to attend, and I had not stated in my resume that I was disabled. During the interview no one dared to look me in the face, even the CEO, they asked me questions while looking down.”
30-year-old Radido is now one of nearly sixty persons who are part of Royal Patches, a group using soccer to foster the inclusion of persons living with vitiligo in Kenya.
“I feel more confident, and relaxed when I am around [other persons living with vitiligo],” he says. “I am able to express myself freely, I don’t get worried that people are staring at me due to my skin patches.”
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The story is huge news here – and the move by the police has elicited some praise, though others are questioning why there have been no arrests. The priest in question, Nuumo Borketey Laweh Tsuru XXXIII, is a much-respected member of a community that lives in the Nungua area of the capital, Accra.
Sometime in 2019,  a boy was brought to the Amina Dyslexia Center by his mother for possible dyslexia because he kept failing his exams at school.
Anita Nchat Kelvin, a dyslexia therapist who runs the centre in Kaduna, North West Nigeria, suggested that they pull him out of regular school for a year so he could get enough neurodivergent-conscious tutoring to catch up with his peers. She further suggested that the boy’s father come along to discuss it.
However, when the father came, he got upset and threatened the mother with a divorce if she dared to bring their child to a school ‘for disabled children’. When the situation started to escalate, Anita suggested they go back home. Only with the input of other family members did the father reluctantly allow it later on.
Anita recalled that in a span of four months, two remarkable things happened.
“One, the boy was able to read short words such as two- and three-letter words as well as put them in short sentences. Two, his writing became more legible, and the father slowly started to show interest. In fact, the father later brought along a friend whose son showed similar symptoms.”
Hong Kong LGBTQ activists upset at revised ID card gender rules
Hong Kong will allow transgender people who have not completed full sex reassignment surgery to change gender on their ID cards, the government said on Wednesday, but activists are upset by strict new surgical and hormonal requirements.
The Court of Final Appeal last February unanimously sided with appeals launched by transgender activists that barring transgender people from changing their gender on their mandatory ID cards unless they undergo full sex reassignment surgery violates their rights.
The court ruling for activist Henry Tse and another appellant identified as Q was hailed as a victory for transgender rights in the Chinese-ruled city. Wednesday’s announcement comes two weeks after Tse launched a legal challenge over the delay in allowing him to change his gender on his ID card.
Citing the February 2023 judgment, the government said in a statement that if people had not completed the full sex reassignment surgery but “satisfied the revised criteria and requirements, they may apply for a change of sex entry on their Hong Kong identity cards”.
Members of Bangladesh’s transgender hijra community, who were disallowed from attending other prayer services, have been welcomed at a new mosque in the Muslim-majority nation with the promise of worship without discrimination.
The humble structure, a single-room shed with walls and a tin roof, is a new community hub for the minority, who have enjoyed greater legal and political recognition in recent years but still suffer from entrenched prejudice.
The mosque near Mymensingh, north of the capital Dhaka, on the banks of the Brahmaputra river, was built on land donated by the government after the city’s hijra community was expelled from an established congregation.
“I never dreamt I could pray at a mosque again in my lifetime,” said Sonia, 42, who as a child loved to recite the Quran and studied at an Islamic seminary.
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