By Tswelopele Makoe
At the beginning of this month, the daughter of Cameroonian President Paul Biya caused quite frenzy when she shared a social media image of her kissing another woman.
Brenda Biya, 26, received roaring threats and widespread criticism in response. Homosexuality is outlawed in Cameroon. In fact, it is outlawed in 30 African nations as of June 2024.
LGBTQIA+ rights have been increasingly advocated for in recent years, not only in the Central African nation, but across the continent.
What Biya’s post has shown is not only the reality that innumerable queer Africans contend with but also the immense boldness that is required to inspire change – the stroke of true leadership.
Not only in the nations that homosexuality is outlawed, but also across the continent, homosexuality is still stigmatised and seen as a taboo. Queer violence, a topic I touched on in June designated as international pride month, is a prevalent issue across the globe.
Violence against members of the LGBTQIA+ community occurs at an exponential rate, with queer people being nine times more likely than non-queer people to be victims of violent hate crimes.
In addition to this, the social, legal and cultural ramifications faced by queer people in nations where homosexuality is outlawed are often brutal and severely inhumane.
Homosexuality across these nations can be punishable by over two decades imprisonment, physical punishments such as whipping and stoning, financial penalty, and in some countries, extrajudicial killings (being sentenced to death).
Biya, a daughter of the highest man in the Cameroonian nation, expressing her sexuality in such an open manner, and on a highly publicised platform is a clear sign of a revolutionary act by the Cameroonian national.
This has forced society to come to grips with the fact that homosexuality is a human trait, prevalent across the world, and its chastisement is only further fracturing our civilisations.
Many face rejection, violent outbursts, criticism, psychological abuse, and so much more. The controversial image posted by Brenda Biya was in fact, an act of “coming out”, which is essentially the publicising of a non-heterosexual person's sexual orientation.
For many queer people, the act of coming out is one that is riddled with angst. Innumerable queer people, upon coming out, face rejection by their parents, friends, extended families, religions, and communities.
They are often subjected to criticism, harassment, and sexual violence, such as “correctional” rape, all as a result of expressing their sexual orientation.
In nations where homosexuality is outlawed, many are forced into exile, to change their identities, and to disassociate with their previous lives completely. Furthermore, many face persecution, homelessness, human trafficking, and many other forms of violence.
A Cameroonian lesbian woman, who is forced to live out her sexuality secretly, said in an interview with DW News that she is “afraid for my life every day, afraid of being hit in the street, afraid to hold hands on the street with the person I share my life with because they can arrest and throw me in prison without any respect for my rights”.
According to the Human Rights Watch, arrests of people on the basis of perceived identity are unlawful. However, countless countries in our contemporary era are boldly and intentionally enacting ruthless punishments for this very act.
Queer people are not only stigmatised by society, but they are also arduously punished under the force of the law. In some instances, they completely disappear, never to be seen again.
This imposes an immense weight on society, where citizens are riddled with fear, anxiety, anger and resentment. This also fosters and entrenches a dangerous level of intolerance, which in turn exacerbates societal challenges.
Although civil society and queer activism groups have been critical to overturning the many inhumane injustices imposed on LGBTQIA+ people, it is important to note the momentousness of acts such as Biya’s post.
This is reminding people that queerness is a reality in our society, an identity embodied by billions of people across the world, at all levels of society. Although leaders can utilise legislature, law enforcement and societal rhetoric to criminalise and control sexuality, it is inherent in humanity and cannot be suppressed.
As emotively said in the acclaimed Netflix series, “Bridgerton”: “There is so much in society that is unnatural. But a feeling between two people, whatever their sex, is the most natural thing in the world.”
Ignoring queerness, chastising queerness, will never result in its non-existence. It must not only be addressed effectively in our societies, but it must also be meaningfully instituted and accepted into the educational and institutional fibre of our societies.
This will require leadership that is honest, fearless, and consistent in their betterment of a society. This will not only lead to stronger unity, but also positive advancement in a society.
The ability to acknowledge, accept and benefit from the diversity within a society is the key to advancement. Prolific leaders such as Nelson Mandela and Martin Luther King Jr restated this factor themselves! Truly, strength lies in differences, not in similarities.
True leadership is understanding this, and supporting a society that is tolerant, accepting, and progressive.
A brilliant saying by engineer Charles Kettering states as follows: “The world hates change, yet it is the only thing that has brought progress."
May Biya’s posted image be a drop that triggers a wave of favourable change, not only for Cameroonian people, but for all of Africa.
* Tswelopele Makoe is a Gender & Social Justice Activist and the Editor at Global South Media Network. She is a Researcher and Columnist, published weekly in the Sunday Independent, Independent Online (IOL), Global South Media Network (GSMN), Sunday Tribune and Eswatini Daily News. She is also an Andrew W Mellon scholar, pursuing an MA Ethics at the Desmond Tutu Centre for Religion and Social Justice, UWC. The views expressed here are her own.