We have seen the men: Steven
Monjeza, Tiwonge Chimbalanga and Fortune Banduka. But have we heard from the
lesbians? Are there any in Malawi? Brace yourself.
Mercy Kumwenda, 23 says she is
tired of living in the shadows and has come out to declare that she is a
lesbian and she has called on “whoever is makes the laws” to leave lesbians
alone and to protect them.
“People think that you are a
witch, abnormal, satanic or you just want to make money but for me its inborn.
I mean how do you I sleep with a man if I have no feelings for a man, I have
tried dating men but it didn’t work,” said Kumwenda.
Kumwenda was speaking on the
sidelines of a women’s rights consultation meeting organised by the ministry of
gender in conjunction with Oxfam and Gender Coordination Network at Wamkulu
Palace in Lilongwe on Wednesday.
The meeting was aimed at hearing
the voices of rural women in preparation for the next set of millennium
development goals; among the invited was Mercy Kumwenda.
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| Unprecedented .... Mercy in flesh, not hiding. |
Kumwenda is of medium height,
with an unforgettable face owing to a scar on her face. She harbours no shyness
about her plump build and played confident as she mingled with the rest of the
delegates.
The first question I fired at her
was if she was sure of coming out in the newspaper, which she said she was,
this despite her admitting that she hasn’t told her parents about her being gay
yet.
“Currently only people from my
work know…there are millions of lesbians out there but they cannot speak out
because they fear being called names and jeered at in the streets,” said
Kumwenda.
She however said that without
coming out, like she did, government would not help her and her friends would
continue to suffer oppression.
She denied any possibility of
being a learned lesbian saying she found out about her being gay in standard
eight when she got very attracted to her best friend who later became her lover
whom she claims she continues being very close to.
“We actually have a name
Mathanyula for it showing that being gay is not from the West, it has been in
Malawi for a long time,” said Kumwenda.
The horrors that gays face in
Malawi are well documented starting from those sanctioned by capitol hill where
being gay is punishable by a jail sentence that can go up to 14 years, almost
all Malawian gays according to literature occur in underground networks.
“My friend sustained a broken arm after being
beaten at a club for kissing a fellow lesbian. The hospital also looks at them
in askance when we want to access medical care for STIs and they ask us to
bring partners which we cannot do because we would be picked on therefore
lesbians go to private hospitals if they can afford, ” she said.
She said lesbians do not need to
come out to prove that there are out there, she said whoever wants to quantify
them should commission a research.
Kumwenda said she knows about 40
lesbians in Blantyre and Lilongwe and with the secretive lives they lead,
potential partners are identified through these cells of friends a point she
stressed eliminates fake lesbians from real ones.
“If you are a fake lesbian you
wouldn’t know the connection lesbians have by merely looking at each other,”
she said.
A member of the Assemblies of God
church, she believes that homosexuality is not a sin arguing that an inborn
natural phenomenon cannot be a sin. She insisted that man should not rush to
judge because there is only one judge: God and that he is yet to call for the
judgment day.
Asked what she had to say to the
framers of law who made homosexuality illegal, Mercy said she doesn’t even know
who made the law and where he got the authority and the law makers and
homophobic Malawians, Mercy had a brisk message:
“Leave lesbians alone. They are
human being no matter what people say. Let them be, make laws to protect us we
were born here and there is nowhere else we can go.”
Homosexuality in Malawi took the
agenda when a gay couple Tionge Chimbalanga and Steven Monjeza were arrested
after holding public engagement ceremony in Blantyre, Malawi in 2009. Late
President Bingu wa Mutharika has equaled gays to dogs and a pastor in Lilongwe
has called for the death of gays reflecting the harsh homophobia on the
streets.
The constitution guarantees
nondiscrimination on Chapter Four/ Section 20 but this is sharp contrast with
the penal code which promises 14 years to all gays.
Malawi President Joyce Banda has
been shaky in the face of the debate; she at first gave hope and hinted at
suspending homophobic laws but upon local pressure from her electoral
competition relented and said it is up for the nation to decide.
Human rights activist have long
argued that homosexuality needs to be decriminalized in Malawi because its discrimination
and fuels HIV. Current figures indicate that HIV prevalence is at 21% among
gays way higher than the 14 percent of the rest of the population.
Research conducted on the subject
blames the current HIV rates on the fact that gays are not targeted with HIV
messages and are forced to sleep with each other in their crammed cells owing
to the dangers of coming to the open.
It remains to be seen how Mr.
Kumwenda will react to their daughter coming out but what we can tell here is
her coming out is a milestone, she is the first ever lesbian to come out in
Malawi.
I support Kumwenda with all my
journalism. To be gay is not a crime.
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