Trigger warning: Homophobic song goes viral in Cameroon; LGBTI defenders sue
The song has inspired violence by homophobic gangs, complaint alleges
In Cameroon, LGBTI people are only too aware that they live in a society saturated with homophobic rhetoric and violent attacks targeting them. In recent weeks, that homophobic fervor has intensified in a torrent of online videos of a homophobic song calling for the death of LGBTI people.
It’s known as “Poign@rdez les PD“ — in English translation “Stab the Fxxxxts.” PD is short for “Pede” or “Pedophile”, which homophobic Cameroonians consider a synonym for “homosexuaL”.
If you really want to hear the song and see it performed, you can link here, here, here, or here. It’s also know by the title “Les nerfs des boys” (Boys’ nerves). The musician Snoopy la Mélodie performs it here in an “official audio” version on YouTube.
The LGBTI advocacy group ADEFHO (the Association for the Defense of the Rights of Homosexuals) on Nov. 19 filed a complaint against the songwriter, which it identified as “X, known as Captain of the Ghetto”. Elsewhere, he is identified as Snoopy la Mélodie.
That filing by ADEFHO’s president, LGBTI rights attorney Alice Nkom, and attorney Hugue Arsène Medou urges the public prosecutor for the court serving the Ekounou section of Yaoundé, Cameroon, to launch an investigation of the songwriter for inciting murder.
The lawsuit states that the song has inspired homophobic gangs to attack allegedly gay men and that they have distributed “Stab the Fxxxxts” T-shirts that encourage others to do the say.
Jeune Africa reported that “The song, released in its entirety on Friday, October 11, is now available on all legal download platforms. This has aroused the wrath of some informed Internet users who did not fail to mention the legal context. In Cameroon, Article 347 of the Penal Code criminalizes sexual relations between people of the same sex, a crime punishable by five years in prison, as well as a fine of up to 350 US dollars, or between 200,000 and 300,000 CFA francs. But even if homosexuality is prohibited, ‘at no time does the law stipulate that people convicted of these acts lose their fundamental rights, including the right to life,’ political analyst Yvanna Chantal Bessecke said indignantly.”
Snoopy’s manager claimed to Jeune Afrique that the song’s use of the term “PD” does not refer to homosexuals, but to “partisans of destruction (PD)”. Jeune Afrique declared the manager’s statements “incoherent”.
This is a translation of the ADEFHO complaint:
Mr. Public Prosecutor at the Court of First Instance of Yaoundé- Ekounou
Subject: Complaint against X calling himself “Captain of GHETTO”
Mr. Public Prosecutor,
In the name and on behalf of ADEFHO, represented by its President-Founder Me Alice NKOM, we have the honor to file a complaint against Unknown, for apology for the crimes of murder and serious injuries against the author or authors of the dlffuslon in the form of audio music and television clip, the artistic work performed by a certain “Captain of GHETO” and entitled “POIGNARDEZ LES PEDES”.
This musical work invites and incites the public to commit a criminal act by inflicting with a dagger wounds or simply the death of human beings and citizens called “PEDES”.
This musical work has started to claim victims in the neighborhoods.
Young people having organized themselves into gangs, armed with knives and other blunt weapons, to attack alleged “FxxxxTs”, with unheard of violence.
These attackers in armed gangs have made t-shirts that circulate on social networks, bearing the words “STAB THE FxxxxTs” as if to really imprint this violence in people’s minds in addition to the song, and take action.
Mr. Public Prosecutor, ADEFHO addresses you as guardian of laws and the defender of the rights of society.
In no country in the world is a citizen designated or categorized by his identity or his sexual practices.
In Cameroon, our common country, the Constitution which is our supreme standard, has expressly proclaimed that: “the human being, without distinction of race, religion, sex or belief, possesses inalienable and sacred rights.
In this case, those with a different sexual identity, are no less Cameroonian citizens in their own right and have no less rights in their capacity as human beings on the one hand, and as citizens on the other hand.
The call to crime made by these individuals, including this artist author of the song, expressed above, deserves to be repressed in accordance with the law, at the risk of seeing the offenses spread, making our country a land of impunity.
Mr. Public Prosecutor, if we let this happen, our status as Cameroonian citizens will be questioned.
Therefore, we are obliged to request that you take up our complaint, and order the opening of an investigation against the artist designated under the name of “CAPTAIN OF THE GHETTO” for the offense of justifying certain crimes and offenses punished and repressed in Article 267 of the Cameroonian Penal Code.
Said article states that: “Anyone who publicly justifies the crimes of murder, pillage, arson, destruction, theft, as well as crimes or offenses against the security of the State shall be punished by imprisonment of one to five years and a fine of 10,000 to 20 million francs or one of these two penalties only.”
The association of which we are the advisors is at your disposal for the follow-up that you may wish to give to our complaint.
Please accept, Mr. Public Prosecutor, the assurance of our respectful and deferential feelings.
Colin Stewart, editor of Erasing 76 Crimes, contributed to this report.
