>Ghana, a longtime symbol for the entire continent as the first African country to declare independence from colonial rule, and a model for stability in a turbulent region, is currently targeting a group of people for who they are and who they choose to be with.
The LGBTQ community in Ghana has been targeted by one of the harshest anti-gay laws in the entire world. Throughout the continent, extreme legislation has been passed against queer people, even extending to the death penalty or life imprisonment in some countries.
In the midst of an approaching presidential election, the LGBTQ community in Ghana finds itself at the center of a political storm, with a proposed anti-gay bill raising tensions between foreign and local affairs. Both the ruling and opposing parties have taken a firm stance against homosexuality with the bill, titled, “Promotion of Proper Human Sexual Rights and Ghanaian Family Value,” framing LGBTQ sentiments as a foreign, western concept that contradicts African tradition. Compounded by a recent visit from U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris, members of the LGBTQ community are thrust into the spotlight as they seek potential sanctions and grapple with human rights concerns.
An upcoming by-election also serves as a predictor for next year’s general election, and sheds light on public sentiments regarding the LGBTQ community. Queer individuals indicate how the issue is being manipulated and exploited for political gain. Activists have faced arbitrary arrests, and community centers have been forced to shut down, further exacerbating the already dire situation faced by the queer community.
The political landscape surrounding the LGBTQ community in Ghana made headlines recently with the closing of Freedom Skatepark. Made possible by the late fashion designer, Virgil Abloh, it was the first skatepark built in Ghana. The closure followed a visit from Vice President Harris in May, which led to public denunciation of the park as an ‘LGBTQ headquarters‘ and community uproar. Initially reported as a land dispute, protestors associated with the ‘Islamic Youth for Peace’ argued that the park held ties to the LGBTQ community, forcing the park’s activities to operate underground.
“It was a tricky move to push LGBTQ, it made the community more against the park,” said head of security at the skatepark, Joseph Kelvin, 42. “If the park were to reopen, it would be on [landowners’] terms.” The park’s closure serves as an extreme anti-LGBTQ reminder in the region.
In response to previously passed anti-gay laws, such as the recent case in Uganda which includes the death penalty for what is calls “aggravated homosexuality,” countries like the U.S. have threatened sanctions and restrictions on immigration. The proposed penalties, however, could put added pressure on the queer community. “If you put a sanction on say, Ghana, for passing an anti-LGBTQ bill, you’d expect that it’s going to make Ghana suffer,” said Ghanaian LGBTQ activist Papa Kojo. “But whilst that is true, it is also going to put targets on the back of Ghanaian queer people, because they were the reason why the sanctions were put in the first place.”
The threat of violence is difficult to escape. Just the proposition of Ghana’s anti-gay bill has been enough to cause a rise in attacks of LGBTQ individuals – including harassment, sexual violence, forced evictions, and employment discrimination – creating an “unsafe environment” for the community, according to Outright International. Moreover, queer adolescents in Ghana have a 45% higher rate of self-harm compared to their heterosexual counterparts, as well as higher rates of alcohol and substance use.
Papa Kojo finds the paranoia has had an effect on his day-to-day life, saying, “There are so many times when, before I step out of the house, before I do anything, I have to analyze where I am going because I have my face out there on Twitter, I talk about queer issues… you see me and the first [thought] is, ‘This person is queer,’ you know?”
While many Ghanaian politicians believe homosexuality to be a western import, research indicates that queer identities and relationships have existed in Africa since before pre-colonial times. For example, the existence of Ghanaian terms like kojo besia and obaa berima – meaning an “effeminate man” and “masculine woman” – speak to the long history of those who fall outside of gender norms. Ethnohistorian Eva Meyerowitz, while based in Ghana to observe the Asante and Akan peoples from the 1920s to the 1940s, found that “lesbian affairs were virtually universal among unmarried Akan women,” and “men who dressed as women and engaged in homosexual relations with other men were not stigmatized, but accepted.”
Papa Kojo added: “And so, if anything, it is homophobia that has been imported. African people didn’t know about homophobia – there was nothing like homosexuality being criminalized until [the] British introduced their colonial laws in Ghana and the Gold Coast, and that has been maintained.” This western influence extends to U.S. evangelicals, who have been cited for supporting anti-queer sentiments throughout the continent.
Despite attempts to stifle them with ongoing political debate, the deep roots of the LGBTQ community in Ghana remain as prolific today. This is where Papa Kojo finds relief: “I have a community. I have a community of queer people that surrounds me, and so it always creates an amplification where you speak on queer issues in Ghana and you have a lot more queer people amplifying it.”
The LGBTQ community in Ghana finds itself in an extremely sensitive spotlight as the country approaches an election. The situation is still developing, but when looking at the continent as a whole, anti-queer legislation is prevalent and dangerous.