LGBTQ rights in Africa

In a 2011 UN General Assembly declaration for LGBTQ rights, nation states were given a chance to express their support, opposition, or abstention on the topic. Only Cape Verde, Central African Republic, Gabon, Guinea-Bissau, Mauritius, Rwanda, São Tomé and Príncipe, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, and South Africa expressed their support. A majority of African countries expressed their opposition. State parties that expressed abstention were Angola, Botswana, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Ghana, Lesotho, Liberia, Madagascar, Mozambique, Namibia, Republic of the Congo, and Zambia. In 2010, a cisgender man, Steven Monjeza Soko, and a transgender woman, Tiwonge Chimbalanga Kachepa, were arrested by the Malawi police and charged following their engagement ceremony, despite no evidence of the two having sex. The court denied bail, sentencing both Soko and Kachepa to prison. Nicholas Hersh reports that LGBTQ asylum-seekers and refugees in Morocco often fear for their lives. Queer Moroccan Refugees have been subject to social discrimination and violence, including rape and imprisonment. Queer Moroccan Refugees who have been outed in their communities may experience poverty, frequently turning to sex work in exchange for housing. In recent years, although many countries have made progress with decriminalization, some countries in which homosexuality is illegal have introduced harsher penalties. In addition to criminalizing homosexuality, Nigeria has recently enacted legislation prohibiting the support of LGBTQ rights. According to Nigerian law, a heterosexual ally "who administers, witnesses, abets or aids" any form of gender non-conforming and homosexual activity could receive a ten-year jail sentence. Uganda's Anti-Homosexuality Act of 2023, which permits the use of capital punishment for certain types of consensual same-sex activities, has also garnered significant international attention. Burundi became the first country in the 21st century to criminalize sodomy in 2009, followed by Chad in 2017, Mali in 2024, and Burkina Faso in 2025. Previously, these countries never had any laws against consensual same-sex activity. Conversely, some African states have abolished sodomy laws in the 21st century. Cape Verde in 2004, Lesotho and São Tomé and Príncipe in 2012, Mozambique in 2015, Seychelles in 2016, Botswana in 2019, Angola in 2021, Mauritius in 2023, and Namibia in 2024. Legalization is proposed in some African states like Eswatini, Ghana, Kenya, Liberia, Malawi, Togo, Zambia and Zimbabwe. Gabon passed a law criminalizing sodomy in 2019, but reversed its decision in 2020, when it decriminalized homosexuality. Since 2011, some developed countries have implemented, or considered implementing, laws limiting or prohibiting general budget support to countries that restrict the rights of LGBTQ people. Rather than fueling the granting of greater LGBTQ rights, in some areas, this has exacerbated homophobic sentiments. Past African leaders such as Zimbabwe's Robert Mugabe and Uganda's Yoweri Museveni have claimed that homosexuality is an "un-African" import from Europe. However, most scholarship and research demonstrate that homosexuality has long been a part of various African cultures. ==History of LGBTQ+ rights in Africa==

Ancient history Egypt Ancient Egypt had documented third gender categories, including for eunuchs. In the Tale of Two Brothers (from 3,200 years ago), Bata removes his penis and tells his wife "I am a woman just like you"; one modern scholar called him temporarily (before his body is restored) "transgendered". Ancient Egyptian attitudes towards homosexuality remain unclear. There are no records condemning or penalising homosexuality, but documents that make reference to sexuality do not clearly reference specific sexual acts. Thus, a simple evaluation remains problematic. The best-known case of possible homosexuality in ancient Egypt is that of the two high officials Niankhkhnum and Khnumhotep. Both men lived and served under Pharaoh Niuserre during the 5th Dynasty (c. 2494–2345 BC). Both Niankhkhnum and Khnumhotep had wives and children, but were buried together in one mastaba tomb. In this mastaba, several paintings depict the men embracing and touching the tips of their noses together. In ancient Egypt, this gesture typically represented a kiss. Other scholars interpret the scenes as evidence that Niankhkhnum and Khnumhotep were twins, possibly conjoined twins. He noted traditional roles amongst the Otoro Nuba where male-assigned people would dress and live as women and marry men. Similar gender roles exist amongst the Moru, Nyima, Krongo, Mesakin and Tira people. In the Korongo and Mesakin tribes, Nadel also reported a common reluctance amongst men to abandon the pleasures of all-male camp life for the fetters of permanent settlement. In the late 1980s, Mufti Muhammad Sayyid Tantawy of Egypt issued a fatwa supporting the right for those who fit the description of mukhannathun and mukhannathin to have sex reassignment surgery. East Africa In pre-colonial East Africa, male-assigned priests (called mugawe among the Meru and Kikuyu) would dress and style their hair like women and marry men.[page needed] the Nuer also have a traditional male-to-female role. The Life and Struggles of Our Mother Wälättä P̣eṭros (1672) makes the first reference to homosexuality between nuns in Ethiopian literature. The Amhara people have historically stigmatized men who adopted feminine dress. Uganda Among the Baganda, Uganda's largest ethnic group, homosexuality has traditionally been treated with indifference. The Luganda term refers to homosexuals, though usage nowadays is typically considered pejorative. Among the Lango people, individuals made up a third gender category. Homosexuality was also acknowledged among the Teso, Bahima, Banyoro, and Karamojong peoples. Societal acceptance of LGBT+ people in Uganda declined following the arrival of the British and the creation of the Protectorate of Uganda in 1894. Kenya Not unlike neighbouring Uganda, male homosexual relations were acknowledged and tolerated in precolonial Kenyan society. Swedish anthropologist Felix Bryk has noted active (i.e. penetrative) male homosexuality and "homo-erotic bachelors" among the pastoralist Nandi and Maragoli (Wanga) people. Crossdressing has also been historically practiced by the Nandi as well as the Maasai during initiation ceremonies. West Africa The Dagaaba people, in Burkina Faso, have a traditional of viewing homosexual men as possessing the ability to mediate between the spirit and human worlds. Further, they treat(ed) gender as determined by the energy of a person rather than their anatomy. Southern Africa Writing in the 19th century in an area roughly adjacent to southwestern Zimbabwe, David Livingstone asserted that the monopolisation of women by elderly chiefs was primarily responsible for the "immorality" practised by younger men. Edwin W. Smith and A. Murray Dale described one Ila-speaking man who dressed as a woman, did women's work, and lived and slept among, but not with, women. They translated the Ila label mwaami as "prophet" and noted that pederasty was not rare, "but was considered dangerous because of the risk that the boy will become pregnant". Marc Epprecht's review of 250 court cases from 1892 to 1923 found cases of various cases of alleged homosexuality spanning the period. Five 1892 cases involved exclusively black Africans. A defense offered was that "sodomy" was a part of local "custom". In one case a chief was summoned to testify about customary penalties and reported that the penalty was a fine of one cow, which was less than the penalty for adultery. Across the period, Epprecht found the balance of black and white defendants proportional to that in the population. He notes, however, that consensual relations in private did not necessarily provoke notice by the courts. Some cases were brought by partners who had been dropped or who had not received promised compensation by their former sexual partner. Although the norm was for the younger male to lie supine and not show any enjoyment, let alone expect any sexual mutuality, Epprecht found a case in which a pair of black males had stopped their sexual relationship out of fear of pregnancy, but one wanted to resume taking turns penetrating each other. In Malawi prisons, there is documented homosexual behavior. During the 1980s and early 1990s, President Hasting Kamuzu Banda ignored the massive rise of HIV/AIDS. From the late 1990s and early 2000s, although greater education of the virus was promoted, it is still negatively associated with homosexuality. ==Legislation by country or territory==

Views of African leaders on homosexuality carrying a banner with the flags of the then-72 countries with laws against homosexuality. Some of the African countries shown are Zimbabwe, Ethiopia, Nigeria, Algeria, Sudan, Mauritania (using the pre-2017 flag), Botswana (legalized 2019), Gambia, and Egypt. The presidencies of Robert Mugabe between 1987 and 2017 were characterised by uncompromising hostility to LGBTQ rights in Zimbabwe. In September 1995, Zimbabwe's parliament introduced legislation banning homosexual acts. In 1997, a court found Canaan Banana, Mugabe's predecessor and the first President of Zimbabwe, guilty of 11 counts of sodomy and indecent assault. Mugabe has previously referred to LGBTQ people as "worse than dogs and pigs". In the Gambia, President Yahya Jammeh (between 1996 and 2019), called for anti-gay legislation "stricter than those in Iran", declaring he would "cut off the head" of any gay or lesbian person discovered in the country. In a speech to the United Nations on 27 September 2013, Jammeh said that "[h]omosexuality in all its forms and manifestations which, though very evil, antihuman as well as anti-Allah, is being promoted as a human right by some powers", and that those who do so "want to put an end to human existence". In 2014, Jammeh called homosexuals "vermins" that must be fought "in the same way we are fighting malaria-causing mosquitoes, if not more aggressively". He went on to declare: "As far as I am concerned, LGBT can only stand for Leprosy, Gonorrhoea, Bacteria and Tuberculosis; all of which are detrimental to human existence". In 2015, following Western criticism, Jammeh intensified his anti-gay rhetoric, telling a crowd during an agricultural tour: "If you do it [in the Gambia] I will slit your throat—if you are a man and want to marry another man in this country and we catch you, no one will ever set eyes on you again, and no white person can do anything about it." In Uganda, recent efforts against LGBTQ+ rights culminated in the Anti-Homosexuality Act of 2023 on March 22, 2023, making it illegal allowing to identify as LGBTQ, punishable by life in prison, and allowing the death penalty for "aggravated homosexuality". The United States, United Kingdom, Canada, Germany, and the European Union, as well as several local and international NGOs have condemned the act. However, it was sponsored by American Pentecostal communities in Uganda, who have a strong base in the country, and have supported previous anti-gay legislation passed in 2014. British newspaper The Guardian reported that President Yoweri Museveni "appeared to add his backing" to the 2023 legislative effort by, among other things, claiming "European homosexuals are recruiting in Africa", and describing gay relationships as against God's will. In a 2014 interview with CNN, Museveni described homosexuals as "disgusting" and "unnatural", although he stated he would ignore them if it was proven that "[he] is born that way". He further said that he had appointed a group of scientists in Uganda to determine if homosexuality was a learned orientation. This led to widespread criticism from the scientific community, with an academic of the National Institutes of Health calling on his Ugandan counterparts to reconsider their findings. Role of religion in influencing public attitudes In Ethiopia, where same-sex activity is criminalised with up to fifteen years of life imprisonment under the Penal Code Article 629, the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church plays a significant role in maintaining anti-gay attitudes, with some members forming anti-gay movements. One of these movements is "Zim Anlem" founded by Dereje Negash, who is strongly affiliated with the national Church. Abune Paulos, the late Patriarch of the Church, has stated that homosexuality is an animal-like behaviour that must be punished. In much of north Africa, Islam has played a significant role in informing socially conservative attitudes hostile to queer rights. Despite not finding punishment for homosexual acts prescribed in the Quran, regarding the hadith that mentioned it as poorly attested, Egyptian Islamist journalist Muhammad Jalal Kishk personally disapproved of homosexual acts. However, he believed that Muslims who abstained from sodomy would be rewarded by sex with youthful boys in paradise. By contrast, in 2017, the Egyptian cleric, Sheikh Yusuf al-Qaradawi (who has served as chairman of the European Council for Fatwa and Research) was asked how gay people should be punished. He replied that "there is disagreement", but "the important thing is to treat this act as a crime". Advocacy for LGBT Rights In Morocco, the organisation Kif-Kif advocates for queer rights, publishing the monthly Mithly magazine in Spain. Despite lacking legal recognition, it has been unofficially authorised to organise specific educational seminars. In Uganda, the advocacy group Sexual Minorities Uganda was founded in 2004 by human rights activist Victor Mukasa. In 2014, they led a coalition of 55 organisations in successfully overturning the Anti-Homosexuality Act. Opinion Polls General acceptance Marriage Adoption Homosexuals as neighbours ==See also==