behind christianities Ugandan invasian
ideological colonialism? a toxic climate of right-wing christianity and vicious homophobia
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"I love Uganda, but something frightening is happening, that has potential to destroy Uganda... I foresee a lot of death. The fire has already been set, and I think it is important to trace where it is coming from" Rev. Kapya Kaoma
Uganda is a landlocked nation that has seen its fair share of horror; genocide, AIDS, Guerrilla terror and Dictatorship. Uganda is ranked amongst the worlds worst for human rights and freedom of the press. This 'failed state' is now a hotbed of American evangelical activity.
“What these people have done is set the fire they can’t quench,” said the Rev. Kapya Kaoma, a Zambian who went undercover for six months to chronicle the relationship between the African anti-homosexual movement and American evangelicals. Americans evangelicals “underestimate the homophobia in Uganda” and “what it means to Africans when you speak about a certain group trying to destroy their children and their families. When you speak like that, Africans will fight to the death.”
"I love Uganda, but something frightening is happening, that has potential to destroy Uganda... I foresee a lot of death. The fire has already been set, and I think it is important to trace where it is coming from" Rev. Kapya Kaoma
“Why so much interest in Uganda? Why are American conservatives lobbying for hate? The answer is they feel they have lost the culture war here at home and are exporting their ideas to the developing world” Roger Ross Williams
Around the world we have seen a drastic improvement in broader civil rights for the LGBT community. We have a US president who supports gays marriage, and a pope who seems slightly more open to equality for all, and certainly uses less inflammatory language than his predecessor. With these improvements it is easy for many to be lulled into thinking that the fight for homosexual rights and equality has already conquered it’s most arduous challenges. However, in many countries around the world homosexuality is still illegal, and as more draconian anti-gay laws are passed the violence against LGBT people is increasing.
The US has faced and overcome many challenges in regards to this fight for equality. The vitriol that has fuelled U.S culture wars for a very long period of time is now being exported, and some of the most ardent anti-gay warriors are finding a far more receptive audience abroad.
In the case of Uganda, a nation of 35 million people with many different ethnic and linguistic groups, Christians from the United States and other Western nations have been distributing a social glue that is becoming a hard-stuck part of Ugandan identity. The evangelical Christians have brought medical care and literacy to many of the poorest and most deprived people in Uganda. These undisputed good works were part of a larger strategy that has helped fuel an evangelical revival in the developing world. This has produced an odd situation; "African nationalism and anti-Western resentment coexist with the widespread acceptance of religious dogma transplanted and nurtured by white outsiders." Andrew O'Hehir