The webtalk “Colonial Legacies and Neocolonial Dynamics: LGBTIQ+ Rights and the Global Power Struggle in Africa”, was organised by the Hirschfeld Eddy Foundation and Amnesty International as part of the project “The Pink Factor – LGBTIQ+-Rights in the Geopolitical Conflict about Values and Resources.”
Health Funding Cuts and Anti-Rights Politics
Florence Khaxas (she/her, Y‑FEM, Namibia), Monalisa Akintole (she/her), Uganda National Trans Forum, Omar Van Reenen (they/them, Equal ‑South Africa) and Dr. Stella Nyanzi (Germany) reflected on the abrupt freeze of United States Aid Organisation (USAID) HIV/health funds and the parallel surge of anti-rights politics across Africa. The talk, moderated by Monty Dhanjal (none/they, Germany), addressed the impacts of the funding cuts, and strategic responses.
Immediate Impacts
The immediate impacts of the freeze in USAID HIV/health funds is the loss of HIV treatment, mental-health services and staff. Fear, disinformation and violence against LGBTQ+ communities have also increased. There is less civic space available in the affected countries and the media have been further polarised against queer people.
Aid might be rightly considered as reparations for European colonial laws and structures. However, Northern donors still control themes, timelines, and metrics.
New dilemmas
The governments of countries which face budget shortfalls are turning to anti-rights states such as Russia and China. China imposes no human rights related conditionalities to its funding. Russia promotes conservative family values. It is against queer rights, gender equality, and democracy.
In Uganda, President Yoweri Museveni is already threatening to expand the country’s existing relationships to Russia and China. The Museveni government is anti-democratic and hostile to LGBTIQ people and organisations. It also opposes queer and feminist rights. Uganda’s regime received funding from Russia. This funding helped Uganda as it prepared to pass its anti-homosexuality law.
African political parties play a crucial role in defending democracy. For example, in South Africa, Julius Malema and the Economic Freedom Fighters organized a protest at the Ugandan embassy, against the anti-rights actions of the Ugandan government.
Strategic responses
In asserting their rights to justice and healthcare LGBTIQ people play a concrete and active role in fighting for democracy, the rule of law and human rights. Florence, Monalisa, Stella and Omar shared ways to respond to the multiple crises in healthcare and other sectors provoked by the cuts to funding which was being provided through USAID. They talked about working together across different movements and including faith leaders, parents, and the private sector. They suggested creating safe online spaces and quick ways to defend rights. Other ideas were to build up local funding networks and pushing for government support. The speakers also said NGOs should not solely focus on results. Community care, rest, and learning between the different generations is equally important for the sustainability of their efforts.
Better Partnerships
Good partnerships need funders from the global North to be more flexible in approach and structure. Funding, planning, and programming should be democratic and non-paternalistic. On the global South side, organisations need to be intentional in their approach.
Equality in partnerships means allowing African queer organizations to determine their own priorities, just as other queer organizations in for instance, Ukraine, are allowed to do. Equality in partnerships would centre queer individuals from Uganda, Namibia, and other African countries.
Africa can share its knowledge on multiple genders, especially since Britain’s supreme court reinforced the gender binary through its recent decision that transwomen can be excluded form women-only spaces. Africa can contribute to that conversation globally.
Useful Tips
Choose partners carefully. Don’t compromise on dignity and respect in partnership regardless of where the funding is coming from. Be realistic about what the funding can do, because funders often expect too much for the size of their contributions.
Democratic funding, planning, and programming which shifts from a narrative of progress and backwardness to one of support, particularly for the efforts of marginalized groups, including LGBTIQ individuals.
African money for African priorities
For sustainability, queer organizations in the global South should focus on homegrown funds, alternatives to current Western-centric funding and participatory funding structures. For instance: UHAI in East Africa is an indigenous international activist fund, while The Other Foundation, and Civicus (South Africa) have their headquarters in South Africa.
Decolonising Funding
Cross-cultural artistic exchanges between queer youth groups can mix art, learning and activism to decolonize ideas of gender and aid. For example, in Berlin, queer youth use ballroom and drag to build community. It’s about mental health, queer community, queer culture, and finding joy. In July such an exchange will take place to bring German and African ballroom and drag artists together.
Hope for the future
“The hope that I have for the future is the knowledge that is within us”, said Florence Khaxas, pointing to the intersectional struggles, the work of reclaiming indigenous knowledge, and resourcing communities as goals within the capabilities of local leadership.
Clementine Burnley*
*Clementine E Burnley is a feminist migrant mother, writer and community organiser. She lives in Edinburgh. Her work has appeared or is upcoming in Magma, the Poetry Review and The Centifictionist.
She’s a 2021 Sky Arts Award Winner, an alumnus of Obsidian Foundation and a 2021 Edwin Morgan Second Life Grantee.
You can find out more here:
https://clementineburnley.com/uber/
Social media: twitter @decolonialheart, or IG @Ewokila
This webtalk is part of the project “The Pink Factor: LGBTQI+-Rights in the Geopolitical Conflict about Values and Resources” from the Hirschfeld Eddy Foundation.
