Same-sex relations in Africa and the debate on homosexuality in East African Anglicanism

The 1998 Lambeth Conference of Bishops of the Anglican Communion was dominated by the issue of homosexuality. A feature of the debate, which took many British and Americans participants by surprise, was the lively contribution made by African bishops. Those who looked for a definitive Anglican statement against homosexuality were heartened by the vigorous condemnation of homosexual practice made by the East and West African bishops. Their clear and unambiguous position was unfavourably compared with the divisions and ambiguities of the churches in the North, not least among the leadership. Conversely, those who were looking for more tolerant and welcoming attitudes to homosexuals were dismayed at the intervention of the African bishops, feeling either that they did not understand the dimensions of the debate as it has emerged in secular, industrialised societies, or that the Africans had been co-opted by the financial clout of conservative American groups. This argument could easily assume an offensively patronising tone. African bishops naturally resented any notion that they were acting as puppets of western lobbies. One Ugandan bishop has spoken1 of bullying tactics during the Conference by liberal American groups. It certainly appears that aggressive lobbying from both sides at the Conference made rational debate and mature conclusions extremely difficult to achieve.

In the period since Lambeth 1998, East African bishops have continued to contribute to the debate. They have demonstrated their determination that the Lambeth resolutions on the incompatibility of homosexual practice with biblical teaching and Christian discipleship be strictly interpreted and adhered to. Three East African primates (Emmanuel Kolini of Rwanda, Donald Mtetemela of Tanzania and David Gitari of Kenya) were signatories of a letter to the Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church in the United States of America expressing alarm that the Church in America might be willing to countenance actions "at variance with what was resolved at Lambeth" and of the impairment of communion which would result.2 In January 2000, two Rwandan bishops, Archbishop Emmanuel Kolini and the Bishop of Shyira, John Rucahana, had joined with Archbishop Moses Tay in Singapore in the consecration of two conservative American Episcopalians as bishops to serve those American congregations disaffected with the -liberal" establishment of their Church, particularly on issues of sexuality.3 In June 2000 two retired Ugandan bishops, Howell Davies (formerly Bishop of Karamoja) and Eustace Kamanyire (recently retired as Bishop of Ruwenzori), intervened in a dispute in the Worcester diocese in England by accepting the invitation to confirm a number of candidates presented by the minister of a church in Kidderminster. The Revd Charles Raven had broken off relations with his diocesan bishop (Peter Selby of Worcester) because, he alleged, the bishop refused to endorse the Lambeth declaration on the incompatibility of homosexual practices and Christian morality.4 On 24 June 2001 the Rwandan bishops participated in the consecration, in Denver, Colorado, of four Bishops for the Anglican Mission in America.5 All these incidents serve to reinforce the perception that the issue of homosexuality is non-negotiable in many parts of Africa.

This essay will explore African attitudes to male homosexuality.6 It aims both to present something of the diversity and complexity of the phenomenon in Africa and of Christian responses to it, and to urge African churches to initiate and/or continue theological debate in ways which transcend the partisan and polarised positions adopted at the Lambeth Conference, which so seriously vitiated the moral authority of its conclusions. I hope that the article may further serve to increase understanding among Christians from western societies concerning the dimensions of the debate in a non-western cultural milieu. The focus of the article will be on East Africa (particularly Uganda), but with reference to contrasting developments in Southern Africa.7

The Background to the East African Contribution to Lambeth 1998

African bishops had not wanted homosexuality to dominate the Lambeth Conference: issues such as economic injustice and debt remission were of much greater immediate concern to the continent.8 These issues were indeed discussed at Lambeth, but as there was a consensus about the need for debt remission, it was hardly a controversial topic, nor did it generate heated debate. But, if homosexuality came low on their agenda, East African bishops were well aware that it was a controversial issue in the churches of Britain, America and Australasia, and that it was to be featured at Lambeth 1998. For a year or so before the conference, preparatory meetings of bishops were held in various parts of the world, with the intention of providing background material on the major themes of the conference. The organisers of some of these meetings were anxious to mobilise support for conservative positions on the sexuality issue, to ensure that conservatives would not find themselves hopelessly outmanoeuvred by what some feared would be an outspoken and intellectually assertive liberal minority at the Conference. There was a meeting in Kuala Lumpur in 1997 of Anglicans from provinces outside Britain and North America, which issued a forthright condemnation of homosexual practice. The Archbishop of Uganda had been speaking on the evils of homosexuality in American society on visits to the United States. In the Ugandan diocese of Muhabura the diocesan synod of January 1998, addressing the Lambeth agenda, urged "the World Bank and Western countries to relieve the third world countries of the debt burden before coming to the beginning of the third millennium," and went on to state that "the Diocese, basing on the culture and Biblical principles, does not support the idea of homosexuality to be recognised by the Christian Church as a divine gift."9