I am grateful to Sarah Kohrt of the Hirschfeld-Eddy-Stiftung for the opportunity to share my thoughts on why it is important to decolonize foreign policy. In the current global context of long-term wars which necessitated major shifts in funding priorities being redirected to defence, security and militarisation, discussions of foreign policy mainly focus on human security, fuel energy and trade. In this regard, contemporary foreign policy engagements are organised and held with specific focus on powerful partners of the United States of America, Russia and China respectively.
However, I would like to momentarily return our focus to the important but currently de-prioritised topic of human rights (particularly for marginalised social groups) within development relations between powerful countries such as Germany and countries with struggling democracies and economies particularly in the global south.
It is important to decolonise bilateral and multilateral relationships between powerful donor countries which give aid for diverse development programmes and recipient countries – many of which have got different histories of colonialism. The historical turn of flag independence constructed former colonisers as donors who give resources for development programmes on the one hand, and those who were colonised as recipients of aid aimed at building the public services of their countries on the other hand. Thus, former colonisers such as present-day United Kingdom, France, Germany, Spain, Portugal, Netherlands and Italy are today’s predominant donors from the global North. Their former colonies in Africa, Asia and Latin America are today’s recipients of development aid.
This feature of colonial legacy characterises many foreign relations under the umbrella of development today. Rather than being relationships of equal partnership, instead there are asymmetries of power within these foreign relations between donor countries and recipients of development aid. Colonialism imbued colonisers with power to be agents, and simultaneously constructed their colonised subjects as powerless and dependent victims. An old African proverb states that “the hand that gives is always on top”. Another common proverb states that “he who pays the piper calls the tune.” Decolonisation invites introspective and reflexive questioning of the workings of power and powerlessness to influence agenda setting, resource allocation, distribution of labour, prioritisation of needs, identification of benefits, valuation of outcomes, etc. For whom does colonial power work? In whose service do colonial relationships thrive?
Within predominantly patriarchal and heteronormative societies with hierarchies of power located within gender, ethnicity, age, class and geographical location, it is important to constantly interrogate for whom does political and economic power work. Who is included when the national cake is shared? Who is excluded? Whose needs are voiced? Whose issues are silenced and erased? Who is legible? Who is illegible? For example, in patriarchal societies where gender binaries are the only acceptable norm, while men and boys are usually at the top of social hierarchies, only women and girls are recognised as the legible gender minorities. Non-conforming gender identities, nonbinary people, third gender, transgender, transsexual and intersex people fall outside the register. Furthermore, in heteronormative societies, only heterosexuality is socially accepted. Other forms of sexualities are invisibilised, erased, denied, and ignored. In extreme cases, non-heteronormative sexualities are othered, alienated, demonised, pathologized, alienated, or criminalised. Current exclusion often perpetuates colonial legacies based on binary dichotomies of patriarchy and heteronormativity.
When defining citizenship in the post-independence moment, to what extent were gender and sexual minority groups included or excluded in the national consensus? Instead of further entrenching colonial exclusions inherited at flag independence, it is important that a decolonial foreign policy endeavours to include non-conforming gender identities and same-sex sexualities in participating inclusively within the diverse development programs that are enabled using aid. Deploying the agentic power of givers, it is possible to deliberately create, implement, monitor and protect inclusive funding streams designed for recipient countries that are patriarchal and heteronormative, but more so if they are misogynistic and homophobic. In fact, it is possible to demand that development support is conditional upon being implemented in ways that engender gender equity and/ or inclusivity of specific marginalised groups. The conscious politics of renaming foreign support under labels such as “feminist”, “queer”, “inclusive” etc can ensure that otherwise excluded social groups are included. Thus, lesbians, gay men, transgender, bisexual, intersex and queer people are categorically brought onto the development tables in ways that are meaningful in diverse local contexts.
How does one go beyond the mere rhetoric of naming or re-naming existing foreign policies? Or better still, how does one ensure that renaming is effective and results into implementable changes that redress current injustices of exclusion? Instead of transposing cookie-cutter policies and programmes that are designed outside and forced onto diverse contexts, it is important to collaborate with local experts from diverse sectors, including non-governmental organisations of relevant social groups and even informal indigenous associations with gatekeepers to local knowledge. In this regard, it is important to transform paternalistic and patronising relationships between superiors and their under-dogs into emancipatory working relations which recognise and build local autonomy, self-determination and context-relevant authority that allows interventions to be tailored to nuanced understandings of the needs on the ground. Instead of fighting for the human rights of marginalised people using foreign languages and metaphors, local languages and understandings are appropriated to fashion the same message in culturally relevant ways. Thus, solutions are better embraced because they are homegrown and owned by insiders to local communities.
Even in patriarchal heterosexist national cases such as Uganda my home country, it is possible to decolonise development aid in ways that are inclusive of currently criminalised LGBTIQA+ people. An urgent priority area is supporting legal reform generated within networks of grassroots civil society organisations, professionals such as lawyers and journalists and other engaged individuals. Safeguarding confidentiality, security and safety when legal reforms processes necessitate visibility of individuals and groups requires continuing education about human rights for police officers, prison officers and judicial officers specifically as well as journalists and community members generally. Mainstreaming queer issues into public services such as health, education, housing, legal aid, free expression, digital democracy etc is as important as intersectionality that includes alternative gendered sexualities into planning, implementation, monitoring and evaluation. Capacity building of diverse community leaders to speak out and speak broadly about the protection of the human rights of marginalised citizens including LGBTIQA+ people is important to growing allies.
Stella Nyanzi
Writers-in-Exile program, PEN Zentrum Deutschland.
Find conference inputs, photos and the video here:
Invite and program / Einladung und Programm
Article (German only)
Photos
Begrüßung / welcoming adress Postkoloniale und dekoloniale Strategien in derMenschenrechtsarbeit, Axel Hochrein
Keynote Dekolonialisierung und die Menschenrechte, Max Lucks
Video message The Pacific Islands and the Fight for Decolonization, Ymania Brown
This conference is part of the project “Cultures and Colonialism ‒ The struggle for LGBTIQ+ human rights in light of the decolonization debate” from the Hirschfeld-Eddy Foundation.
