Colin Stewart is a 45-year journalism veteran living in Southern…
Map of Zambia shows Kapiri Mposhi and Lusaka, where recent anti-gay arrests have occurred.
Anti-gay forces in Zambia have launched a new wave of harassment of LGBT rights activists, including threatening phone calls, a criminal investigation, and a news article stating that activists traveling abroad will face criminal charges on their return to Zambia.
“Our lives are in danger,” said one activist who is still in the country. “I am now in hiding.”
“Someone has been stalking us,” he said. “This is another latest development of state-sponsored homophobia. We have been getting threatening phone calls and insulting messages since yesterday.”
Zambia has been in an uproar about homosexuality since last spring, triggered by an apparently false report that four gay couples tried to register for marriage in Lusaka.
A group of well-known Zambian gay and lesbian leaders have travelled to Stockholm, Sweden, to attend a fundraising event called the Rainbow leadership program, where they hope to raise some funds from various donors from Southern Africa … to implement their projects and activities in Zambia of promoting gay rights in Zambia. … According to sources, the group has thus far raised about $41,000.
An activist in Sweden disputed the Tumfweko account, saying that the program is a leadership training program, not a fundraising event.
The article described a police investigation into accusations that mirror a common stereotype of homosexuality in Africa — that people enrage in it as a means of social and economic advancement and that gays “lure” people into homosexuality by offering them economic incentives.
The Tumfweko article stated that an 18-year-old boy in the Lusaka area “was lured into homosexual practices” after meeting “the leaders of the group who at the time had just returned from another fundraising trip from South Africa in 2012.” He said they gave him money for “fancy” clothes and promised him “that they would pay for his school fees, provide him with subsistence allowance to assist him support his struggling parents and above secure himself a brighter future.”
His accusations are being investigated by police at the Emmasdale police station, the article stated. The alleged perpetrators will be officially charged when they return to Zambia, the article said.
The Tumfweko account claimed that homosexuality is on the rise in Zambia as a result of “high poverty and unemployment rates.” It also cited two anti-gay leaders:
Edgar Lungu, Zambian minister of home affairs
Earlier these year Home Affairs Minister Edgar Lungu was quoted as having stated “Those who are advocating for gay rights should go to hell! That is not an issue we will tolerate.” …
Meanwhile International Fellowship of Christian Churches (IFCC) President Simon Chihana has strongly condemned … the promotion of gay rights in Zambia when he said “Gay rights should not be allowed in Zambia. Such kind of acts are an abomination. The government should not even think of allowing such, no matter the pressure from the international community or whatsoever.”
