Zambian Court Finds Suspected Gays With Case To Answer

James Mwape and Phillip Mubiana who were the first suspects
to be tried over homosexuality in Kapiri Mposhi in 2013.

By Paul Shalala in Kapiri Mposhi

A Magistrate's Court in the central Zambian town of Kapiri Mposhi has found two men with a case to answer in a matter where they are accused of practicing homosexuality.

The small court room where the case was held this morning was fully packed with relatives and friends of the two men.

The two, 30 year old Steven Sambo and 38 years old Japhet Chataba have since been put on their defence pending judgement next month.

Passing ruling this morning, Kapiri Mposhi Magistrate Ackson Mumba said he found a prema facie case against the two in the matter which has so far taken eight months.

Magistrate Mumba said based on the evidence adduced by the Prosecution, he found the two with a case to answer.

Particulars of the offence are that Mr Chataba on 25 August 2017 had canal knowledge of Mr Sambo at Chanika Lodge in Kapiri Mposhi. 

The two were on the particular day arrested by Police officers at the lodge and later charged with performing unnatural acts contrary to Section 155 of the Penal Code.

In his ruling, Magistrate Mumba said five prosecution witnesses explained how the two men booked a room at the lodge and later bought condoms at the bar before having sex.

During trial, the supervisor at the lodge testified in court that she saw through the window of the booked room how the two were having sex and Mr Sambo got tired and ran out of the room but was dragged back into the room by Mr Chataba.

The Prosecution produced a video and pictures showing Mr Chataba, who was wearing a pant, dragging Mr Sambo back into the room.

In the video, Mr Sambo was seen wearing a jean as he shouted for help from onlookers but was overpowered by Mr Chataba who closed the door, locking themselves inside.

However, Magistrate Mumba said even though the videos and pictures showed what transpired, they did not contain dates and times when the alleged acts where committed.

A medical doctor who examined the two accused persons found that the results from the tests were not consistent with the allegations laid against them.

The doctor however found that one of the suspects had a reduction in the size of his anus and recommended that the Police do investigate the matter further.

After the ruling, the accused persons through their lawyer Daniel Libati of Abha Patel and Associates of Ndola, informed the court that they will remain silent for the rest of the case.

Magistrate Mumba then set 21 June 2018 as the day he will deliver judgement in the matter.

Both the defence and the prosecution have indicated that they will file written submissions before judgement day.

Mr Sambo and Mr Chataba are on bail and will appear before the court on 4th June, 2018 for mention. 

This is the second court case involving alleged sexual acts between men in Kapiri Mposhi in the past five years.

In May 2013, Phillip Mubiana and James Mwape where arrested in Kapiri Mposhi on alleged homosexuality.

The two men where remanded in custody without bail for over eight months but where later acquitted in 2014.

The case had earlier raised international interests, leading to a number of western diplomats attending the court cases.

Homosexuality is illegal in Zambia, a country whose constitution describes it as a "Christian nation."

In this deeply conservative Southern African country, homosexuality carries a jail term of 15 years. 

Muhsin Hendricks: The World's First Openly Gay Islamic Cleric

Imam Muhsin Hendricks -Pictures by Robert Wanjala

 By Paul Shalala in Cape Town, South Africa

He is a man who was married to a woman and had three children but divorced her and later married a Hindu man.

Imam Muhsin Hendricks is the world’s first Islamic Cleric to come out in the open that he is gay.

He is a well trained Islamic cleric who studied classical Arabic and Islamic Sciences at Jamia-Dirasat Al-Islamiyyah (University of Islamic Studies) in the Pakistani city of Karachi between 1990 and 1994.

Childhood and first marriage

Iman Hendricks was born 49 years ago born in Landsdown, Cape Town in South Africa.

In a wide ranging interview he recently gave me and some reporters in Cape Town, the cleric says he started noticing traits of homosexuality in his life at the age of five.

“At five, I started playing with toys for girls. And in my teenage years, I found myself loving men. 

My father never spoke about my sexuality and that gave me some peace,” said the Imam.

He claims that when he completed his clerical studies, he was forced to marry a woman.

“They forced me to marry a woman because there is a belief that an Imam cannot be without a woman. The same woman was very much in love with me.”

However, that marriage did not last.

In six years, the couple had three children and they later divorced.

Divorce and Gay Marriage

After the divorce, the cleric says his children suffered as they faced discrimination based on his sexuality.

His two daughters have since been married and he says he has a good relationship with them.

Soon after the divorce, Iman Hendricks says he went into prayer and fasting to find a way of surviving within Islam.

He dated a Hindu man for five years before they got married.

The couple has now been married for five years.

 “My ex-wife and I have since moved on. I have married a Hindu man and I know I again broke the rule. We have since adopted two children. My former wife has married another man and they have two children,” he said while laughing.

Making History as first Gay cleric

Imam Hendricks says after years of reflection and research, in 1998 he decided to come out of the closet and openly declared his sexuality which made it to the front pages of South African tabloids.

He became the world’s first Islamic cleric to openly declare he was gay and since then, a few other Islamic leaders in France, the USA, Canada and Australia have followed suit.

In 2004, the Imam went further to form The Inner Circle, a non-governmental organisation which is championing the rights of homosexuals in the Islamic world.

“The organisation offers a lot of help to homosexuals in Islam. We plan to start training our own Imams who will not be preaching against homosexuality. We currently have 18 trainers in several countries were we support other gay muslims.”

The organisation also creates what they call safe spaces for Islamic homosexuals where they can feel free to live and strengthen the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) community.

The All Inclusive mosque

Iman Hendricks with the author during the interview

Within Cape Town, the Imam runs his own mosque where gays worship from and women are allowed to also say their prayers inside the mosque, in contrast with mainstream Islam were women don’t enter the building.

“Women do not cover their face when coming to our mosque. Both queers and straight people come for Friday prayers.”

Since 2011, Iman Hendricks has been conducting same sex marriages for muslims and people of other faiths in his mosque.

Opposition from Muslim leaders

Since becoming openly gay, the Imam’s activism has also taken him to the mainstream media.

In 2007, he released a documentary titled “A Jihad for Love” which was received with huge opposition and the Muslim Judicial Council of South Africa even issued a fatwa against him.

A fatwa is an instruction issued by an Islamic authority on an issue seen to be against Islam.

In some countries, fatwas have led to followers issuing threats, causing violence and even killing people named in the fatwas. 

However, the fatwa against Iman Hendricks was not acted upon and he is still safe, travelling around the country and the world, spreading his version of Islam which embraces homosexuality.

This week he was scheduled to appear on a radio station in Durban to spread his activism.

But local muslim leaders blocked the program on account that he was no longer a muslim.

With 20 years of fighting for homosexuals within Islam, Imam Hendricks says he is not in conflict with his religion.

“Am in conflict with tradition and not Islam. I work with some Imams who are progressive in thinking. Islam does not say homosexuality is wrong, it is silent.”

Homosexuality in Islam

In a 30 minutes powerpoint presentation he made to reporters in Cape Town on Monday, Imam Hendricks quoted various scholarly works showing some poets who he claims were gay.

One of those highlighted was Abu Nawas whom he says praised teenage boys in some of his poetry.

He also showed a photo of gay men holding hands at an Islamic gathering which he says was drawn in 1798.

Asked why there are no known lesbians in Islam, the cleric said Islam is patriarchal and not much is said about women.

“The Quran says women must sit at the back not to distract men as they kneel to worship. Maybe this was done so that men do not look at women’s buts,” he said.

His organisation The Inner Circle is funded by among others, Oxfam South Africa and the Open Society Foundation.

Since he embarked on his crusade for Islam to embrace homosexuality, Imam Hendricks says he has no plans to make the annual pilgrimage to Mecca which he did before he became openly gay.

African Youths Call For Non-Discrimination Of Homosexuals

The youths who attended the African Union Consultation

By Paul Shalala in Windhoek, Namibia

Youths from across Southern Africa have called for the respect of minorities in society such as homosexuals, saying they deserve respect because they are also human beings.

According to recommendations made at the just ended two day African Union Regional Youth Consultation on Human Rights with focus on Youths and Women, the youths called for the respect of all people’s rights irrespective of their economic status, sexual orientation or religious affiliation.

“As a group, we feel that society must recognise the existence of minorities such as homosexuals. We also need a common goal on how these people can be fully integrated into society,” said Roopanand Mahadew from Mauritius, who read the resolutions from the group on Inclusion, Diversity and Popular Participation which discussed various issues and made recommendations to the African Union.

Roopanand Mahadew speaking at the meeting

The group also recommended that there was need for massive advocacy on the issue of sexual minorities to avoid the continued stigma and hate against the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transsexual (LGBT) community.

“We need advocacy and education for the judiciary. Imagine if we have an LGBT person taken to court and the magistrate has no idea of homosexuals. He or she can discriminate against the suspect and not give fair justice, he added”

The youths called on the civil society to champion a campaign to raise awareness of sexual minorities so that they can also enjoy their rights.

20 youths from all southern African countries met in Windhoek on Thursday and Friday to come up with recommendations for the African Union 10 Year Human Rights Strategy which would feed into the Agenda 2063, an ambitious road map to Africa’s development which the continental body is pushing.

In other groups, youths recommended that there was need for improved environmental governance in Africa to protect people from environmental disasters and effects of climate change.

The youths also recommended that AU member countries must promote the establishment of Youth Think Tanks to champion the interests of young people.

Some of the youths who attended the meeting 

They further said there was need for the African Union to establish a Youth Division at its Addis Ababa headquarters so that issues pertaining to young people are ably handled by a specialised office.

“There is need for affirmative action on gender equality. Member states should also harmonise the disparities between customary and statutory laws so that women can be protected,” said Nsovo Mayimele, a youth from South Africa who read the resolutions from the group which discussed Women’s Rights.

Under Project 2016, the African Union is holding four regional consultations for youths in Southern, Eastern, Western and Northern Africa before it can consolidate its 10 Year Human Rights Strategy.

According to the objectives set by the continental body, the consultations are expected to help in the establishing of learning platforms and networks as an ongoing knowledge sharing and peer mentoring platform for promoting human rights in Africa. 

Investigation Reveals Zambia's 600 Homosexuals Living In Fear

An African gay rights activist hiding his face

By Paul Shalala

 

A four year undercover investigation has revealed that Zambia has a thriving community of about 600 lesbians, gays, bisexuals, transsexuals and intersex (LGBTI) who practice their sexual orientation in total secrecy for fear of being lynched by the community or being arrested by the Police.

According to results of a secret baseline survey of the LGBTI community in Zambia commissioned by a Lusaka-based human rights advocacy organization Dette Resources Foundation, about 600 gays, lesbians, bisexuals and transsexuals are known to be leading their normal but difficult lives in Lusaka, Copperbelt and Southern Provinces.

The baseline survey was launched on 21^st July 2012 and immediately, the Zambia Police Force embarked on a search for the people behind it and activists lived in fear of being arrested. 

Zambia’s current President Edgar Lungu, who was then Home Affairs Minister, warned that the people behind the survey would be arrested and brought behind bars to face the law.

However, no one was arrested as the people behind the survey went underground for fear of being arrested and prosecuted.

The survey was actualized across the country and the results are now ready and this reporter is the only Zambian journalist to have full details of the findings.

The document reveals that the secretive community is so closed up that even human rights activists have tough time to penetrate it and offer health services to those with complications.

According to results of the survey, the 600 LGBTI are known to be leading their normal but difficult lives in Lusaka, Copperbelt and Southern Provinces. 

The survey indicates that in other provinces with vast rural areas, the LGBTI community could exist but these could be very few people who may be scared to be identified and be integrated into the wider LGBTI community.

This reporter has interacted with activists who have shared the struggles that the members of the Lesbian and Gay community face in Zambia.

David Musonda

“We should not ignore the fact that some Zambians are born like that. We need to accept them and do everything we can to help them live their normal lives without being arrested or discriminated against,” said David Musonda, a Zambian human rights activist who is a Global Coordinator for Religious Global Interfaith Network for Sexual, Sex Orientation, Gender Identity and Expression (GINSSOGIE).

He went on to say Zambians need to change their mindset on LGBTI as most of them are born that way.

"We need to change our mindset in the way we treat gays and lesbians. They are people created by God but with a different sexual orientation. Many Zambians are not well informed about this community that's why there is too much animosity against LGBTI," said Musonda.
 

Mr. Musonda, who has undergone training as a Catholic priest in East Africa, says there is need for religious leaders to embrace the LGBTI community. 

He says it saddens him that people who preach the word of God and Jesus' tolerance are the ones in the forefront discriminating against people created by God.

The activist is determined to advocate for the rights of the LGBTI community adding that there is need for the Government and all stakeholders to chat the way forward on this matter other than resort to leaving this issue in abeyance as it will explode one day and the effect will be difficult to deal with.

And Dette Resources Foundation Director Jane Kaluba has called for policy change in Zambia in the way the LGBT community is treated by society.

“I call upon religious leaders, politicians and lawmakers to come together and reason on this matter. The country needs to change the way it looks at gays and lesbians,” said Ms Kaluba, who is an outspoken Zambian activist who has in the past eluded arrest over the issue of gay rights.

Like Mr Musonda, Ms Kaluba’s advocacy is also on the religious front.

“Yes Zambia is a Christian nation as declared in the preamble of our republican constitution. But that doesn’t mean that gays and lesbians are not Christians. They are also God-fearing despite their sexual orientation,” she said.

Kitwe, Lusaka and Livingstone are some of the biggest cities in Zambia where the largest members of the LGBT community live.

According to investigations, due to the cosmopolitan nature of the three cities, gays and lesbians find it easy to live in these towns and satisfy themselves with their partners as opposed to rural areas where resentment for such acts are considered a taboo and unheard of.

In their typical day to day lives, Zambian LGBT host secret parties where they enjoy themselves over beers but sex is highly practiced while the party is on.

Homosexuality is highly criminalized in Zambia and practicing it carries a 25 year jail term upon conviction.

According to the colonial-era Zambian Penal Code, homosexuality is a crime which makes it an emotive issue in this southern African country which has a strong conservative society.

The all-powerful three church mother bodies who have thousands of affiliate churches are open campaigners against homosexuality which has been a major campaign issue during general elections in Zambia since 2006.

On July 22, 2014, a youth-led organization Zango Youth Consortium submitted before the on-going sittings of the Legal and Justice Sector Reforms Commission that homosexuality must be decriminalized by removing the words‘unnatural acts’ from the statute books.

“We need to amend the Penal Code so that we can allow homosexuals to live freely in Zambia. Our research has shown that there is a thriving community of homosexuals and they are being oppressed,” said Kaimbo Katengo, Chairman of Zango Youth Consortium when he appeared before the Frederick Chomba-led Legal and Justice Sector Reforms Commission which sat at Nakatindi Hall in Lusaka.

After his story was published by the mainstream media, Mr Katengo received death threats and he was forced to go into hiding for five days only to reappear and offer an apology on TV for his comments on homosexuality.

“Am here to apologise to His Excellency President Michael Chilufya Sata and the people of Zambia. Our submission to the Legal and Justice Sector Reforms Commission has not been received well by stakeholders and am here to withdraw our submission on homosexuality. Next week I will appear before the commission to officially withdraw our comments,” said Katengo as broadcast by Zambia’s state TV channel.

On April 7, 2013, a gay rights activist Paul Kasonkomona appeared on the privately owned MUVI TV’s ‘The Assignment’ one hour live TV show where he discussed various issues to do with the LGBT community.

Paul Kasonkomona live on MUVI TV

Police officers in full riot gear stormed the privately owned television station and arrested Mr Kasonkomona for allegedly propagating homosexuality in Zambia.

The activist was charged with loitering but he was acquitted by the courts of law on February 25, 2014.

Another highly publicized case was the arrest of two youths from the central Zambian town of Kapiri Mposhi who were arrested for sleeping in the same house and allegedly practicing homosexuality.

Philip Mubiana and James Mwape were arrested on May 6, 2013 and acquitted on July 3, 2014.

Their historical court case was consistently attended by western diplomats based in Zambia whose presence in the courts was received with protests from the Zambian government.

After their acquittal, they are now freely living in their home town but it is not clear if they are still living as a ‘couple.’

But religious leaders have now joined forces with activists to campaign and help change people’s mindsets and accept the LGBT community as human beings who need the same love and care as heterosexuals.

Reverend Patson Kabala

Reverend Patson Kabala of the Uniting Presbyterian Church of Southern Africa is an ordained minister who has been preaching the word of God since 1991 and his comments may be considered controversial in Zambia due to his open advocacy for the need to allow gays and lesbians to freely practice their sexuality without state intervention.

“In John 3:16 God says he loved all humanity and died for all of us. This passage is clear, it does not leave out homosexuals. We should not judge these people; let us allow God who created them to judge them. Ours as human beings is to embrace whatever God created,” said Reverend Kabala in an interview in Lusaka.

Reverend Kabala likens the stigma against homosexuals to the people who suffered and died in the early years of the HIV virus.

“When HIV first came in our Zambian society, people were discriminated against and many died of stigma which was too much to bear. What is happening now to people of different sexual orientation is the same. We need to break the silence and allow these people to access medical attention and live peacefully,” said Rev Kabala.

Another religious leader who feels the LGBT community needs support is Reverend Tellas Shumba of the Reformed Church in Zambia (RCZ) Chawama East congregation in Lusaka.

“I have been a leader in the church since 1988 and I can tell you I have interacted with all types of people and it is unfortunate that our brothers and sisters the homosexuals are highly discriminated against,” said Rev Shumba who has served in various positions of RCZ in Zambia.

Reverend Tellas Shumba

The clergyman goes further to call upon the Zambian government to decriminalize homosexuality and create what he calls ‘an equal society.’

“We can only fully embrace the gays and lesbians in this country if government comes up with a law to embrace the LGBT community. I therefore call upon those in the corridors of powers to bring up this law. We need to be an equal society in Zambia,” he added.

And Zambia's only openly gay person Lundu Mazoka has welcomed the support by religious leadersto embrace homosexuality.

"The rising support for homosexuality among priests is progressive but it is also worrying as it is not African born. And it stands threatened by the fact that those that are currently proponents may fall by the wayside under the attacks of conservatives," said Mazoka in an emailed statement. 

And on the need for new laws to protect the LGBTI community in Zambia, Mazoka says implementation is where the problem is.

"Zambia does not need any new laws until we are able to properly implement the ones that we already have," he said.

On 13th October, 2014, PANOS Institute of Southern Africa held a workshop on the marginalized community at Cresta Golfview Hotel in Lusaka which was aimed at creating a platform of discussion on the human rights of marginalized communities in Zambia.

Lilian Kiefer

The German Embassy-funded one day workshop discussed various issues but the issue of homosexuality brought up the most heated debates as both its opponents and advocates sized each other up during the highly charged debates.

In an interview on the sidelines of the workshop, PANOS Executive Director Lilian Keifer said the workshop was necessary as the issue of marginalized communities was no longer a secret.

“This workshop is a platform on which various interest groups in Zambia can discuss human rights and try to find solutions to the human rights problems we are going through. In Zambia, it is not easy to openly discuss homosexuality but am happy people in this workshop are debating it freely,” said Ms Kiefer.

The one day meeting was attended by a serving ruling party Member of Parliament, various leaders of opposition political parties, lawyers, journalists, human rights activists and civil society leaders.