So, who is a Malawian again?

The news excited the international community; it will no longer be a criminal offense to be gay in Malawi. The issue has not gone well with some Malawians and the past week has seen the cyberspace awash with debate with some saying that decriminalising homosexuality is not welcome because homosexuality is “unMalawian.” So what is Malawian?

Malawi is a god fearing country and God forbids homosexuality, this is the core argument of the anti-gay crowd, they go on to say that gay culture clashes with Malawian culture and again the question springs up, what is Malawian Culture?

“The concept of "Malawian" is a mental construct that exists in the minds of people. It is similar to the construct of political party affiliation,” said College of Medicine Psychologist Chiwoza Bandawe

Undule Mwakasungula of Human Rights Consultative Committee (HRCC) joined in on the debate: “If you are a Malawian that makes you Malawian, whether born in Malawian or not but as long as you there for the good of Malawi progress you are Malawian.”

Both Mwakasungula and Bandawe said there is nothing that can set Malawian Culture as a single entity

“It is a misnomer to suggest that there is one uniform "Malawian". Malawians are made up of people of different faiths or lack thereof: Christian, Muslim, Secular humanists etc. Malawians are made up of different economic standings as well as different backgrounds and ways of thinking. Malawi cannot have just one dominant culture,” said Bandawe

Mwakasungula said as a nation Malawians have not agreed what can constitute of Malawian culture, it’s just something they say but it is nothing clear cut.

So if the much touted Malawian culture cannot be pointed at, can what is “unMalawian” be singled out?

No, says Mwakasungula, he argued that Malawians have sung the song of being Malawians for too long so that they feel that they ought to protect cultural values which also happen to be undefined.

Bandawe echoed Mwakasungula’s argument and gave an example of laptops; cell phones and use of Facebook which he said are popular among Malawians and wondered if they are Malawian - Malawians, he concluded, come in all shapes and sizes.

The dominant feeling among the people that are advancing the anti-gay agenda argue that decriminalising homosexuality will bring the wrath of God on Malawi will corrupt morals of children’s morals and that it is just unnatural.

To be gay is like to be a black man, non of it is a crime

Recently several clergymen warned Joyce Banda against repealing the law against homosexuality and asked if she is trying to be above God, another pastor even called for a referendum on the matter. Mwakasungula however charged that many Malawians are using culture and religion to oppress minorities.

“We should not hide behind culture of religion to persecute minority groups.  Culture is dynamic and we have seen so many things we believed in years back being modified.  We can't be rigid because you don't like something or the way others are behaving,” said
Mwakasungula

Another academician and blogger, Jimmy Kainja also agrees with Mwakasungula and says he sees nothing wrong with adults being gay.

“Tolerance is very important. It's hard for me to believe that someone is out there to oppress minorities just for the sake of it. I believe a lot of people are deluded by their own beliefs and they try to impose this on others.

“This is where the question of national identity comes in - what is it? Why do you we accept some foreign values and refuse others? It's all subjective and ignorance, this leads to lack of tolerance,” said Kainja

There also seems to be a strong feeling among Malawians that homosexuality is being forced upon Malawians by Western powers, already some people are jokingly calling Malawi a “donor-fearing nation.” Western cultural influence is an unstoppable force with Hollywood influencing people even in China and Russia. Has Malawi been influenced by the West culturally?  

Can Malawi resist Western culture?

 Mwakasungula pointed out that Malawians use Western education, dress like Westerners, eat Western dishes and that most of the religions in Malawi are Western.

Malawians use western style of government, the family sizes are shrinking, MTV is visible in the streets even the accents of many a girl are trying too hard to echo the English and American,

Arguing on the same in a group on Facebook, Cynthia Mahata said: “The thing about Western culture is you have to get it all or reject it all, it comes as a package”

Adds Kainja: “Patrice Lumumba said ‘Africa will write its own history, from south to the north of Sahara.’ He was right, Africa will write its own history but it will be a negotiated one; influenced by global trends and culture.”

Are Malawians therefore being hypocritical in adopting capitalism and yet denying sexual minorities a place? Or is it unMalawian to raise such questions?

The Ultimate or Detestable Red Soldier?

During the July 20 demos in Malawi, people came out to the streets to protest various issues but this one was the ultimate protester, in a country where the whole nation almost agrees to be homophobic, this guy put on this T-shirt and was not moved at all...

Malawians should not play God on gays- Legalize homosexuality

Two days ago i ran an article by Hasting Ndebvu, this is my reply to that...

 

‘Malawi is a God fearing nation; gays will corrupt our children; gays are crazy; being gay is illegal.’ These are some of the arguments Malawians give in justifying homophobia. Convincing as the reasons seem, I find them wanting and in this apology I set out to put across a case for gays (transsexuals, gays and lesbians and Bisexuals).

First, I should put out this disclaimer that: we never say a cat is a caterpillar just because it is sitting on a pillar. These arguments are simply opinion staged for argument’s sake - to join the national debate, if you relate to them, well, put the cap on, it fits you.

Gays are not unnatural

The likes of Robert Mugabe have charged that gays are unnatural, that homosexuality is fit for dogs. I will not cite Mutharika’s similar rants because they were just a vain attempt to be ranked alongside Mugabe. With that said, I ask: are the Mugabe’s and the lesser known homophobes like Mutharika scientifically endowed to declare that gays are unnatural?

Yes research has shown that they are unnatural but it has also shown that gays are but normal. The seemingly complex algorithm is simple; everybody does research with motives. Recently Satoshi Kanazawa concluded that black women are the least attractive, Hitler used fake science to justify superiority of his race. Research is just funded and organised opinion.

As I know, homosexuality has been detected in over 150 animal species and that scientists now agree that there is no mental or psychic issue about being gay.

The reason hating gays is called homophobia is because we cannot justify the hatred, in fact it means we fear them. We claim that gays commit more suicide; that gays do allot of crime; that gays live shorter dangerous lives. To me it’s all a vain attempt to keep on hating gays.

In America, more crime is committed by Blacks, in Malawi more crime is committed by the poor ghetto people. It’s simple, if people are deprived and picked on, they are likely to commit suicide, to rob or act violent. It’s not being gay that makes one’s life short; it’s the conditions society puts them in. Blacks die faster than whites as do Africans vis a vis Japanese, its economics not genetics or sex.

 The religious card

Then there are people, some of them visibly satanic, who would like to play the religious card and justify homophobia by quoting scriptures.

I will not quote the Quran because to me that book is just a poetic version of the Bible and with the call for violence on Sura 4: verses 21-2: “... and if two of you commit it, then hurt them both...,” it’s better to leave it there because seriously, God cannot call for harm on his own creatures.

It is fact that homosexuality is listed as sin in the Bible, but what sin is not listed? People behave as if Sodom and Gomorrah were destroyed solely for homosexuality and yet Bible says the cities were destroyed for their pride and arrogance (Ezekiel 16:48-49).

Then there is Leviticus 18:22 and 20:13 that clearly says men should not sleep with other men. These verses are the talk of the homophobes, most of whom have not studied hermeneutics.  Yes, the Bible says gay practices are sins but it doesn’t stop there.

Stealing, gossiping, killing, lying, adultery are all condemned, as a matter of fact, the Bible prohibits tattooing, round haircuts, mixing fabrics, touching dead carcasses of animals like dogs and rats. Onan was killed for using the withdrawal technique in family planning terms, which by analogy also alienates masturbation (Genesis 38:9-10) 

I should take time to condemn the Lilongwe pastor who called for death of gays. He surely needs Theology 101 basics. The strict rules were what we term, Holiness Codes, they were for the priests, those from the tribe of Levi who lived almost like monks. If we take what Numbers, Deuteronomy and Leviticus said then we would not even be alive because we somehow commit deathly offences daily.

Before I turn this into a Bible commentary, which I would happily do, I should just say that the Bible was not written by God. It was written by people, people with cultures, people with attitudes and values, in Epistemology such knowledge is under revealed knowledge and cannot be disputed or paraded as gospel truth, so the Bible should not bind us, but rather guide us, that’s after agreeing on its canonicity.

Then there is this lame and, to borrow Bingu’s words, ‘stupid’ argument that since gays cannot procreate then they are against the Biblical order to ‘populate the world like sand.’ I will not ask you to point for me the guy who spoke to God for fear being labelled a heretic, but I will ask if we are not lucky to have gays coming along in this time of population related problems?

Gays will not add to our population, they will adopt the kids we father like pigs and fail to accept them (am not speaking of Kamuzu here), if we want to multiply like sand, some people are already doing a god job about it, why bother a small group of gays?

 It should also be made clear that being gay is not about having sex, it’s like marriage, and its purpose is long term companionship where sex is a member of the bigger universal set called marriage. Having or not having children in gay marriages is the same as in straight couples, it’s a choice. Who took Kamuzu to task for not having any known sons?

The only sin that gays seem to do is by inserting their members into each other’s rectums or in the case of women licking each other’s pudenda. But if we were to employ Cheaters’ Joey Greco to spy on the homes of some of us, many would be outlawed. People are performing blow jobs, cunnilungus, three-somes, double penetrations and some enjoy an occasional anal sex dosage with their partners. Who comes and points fingers at you?

Some say ‘design determines purpose,’ yes the penis is a rod that seeks a cavity, some take that cavity as the rectum and if the grinding of clitorises during lesbian tribadising suits them who are we to protest?

It’s very funny how straight people spend time chasing gays instead of chasing guys and girls, some of the straight people are too old or ugly or out-of-the-equation to be ‘the type’ for gays and yet they are on their case like a flamingo to a Rhino.  Why can’t we live and let live? 

Why do we behave as if the legalisation of gay sex will see a penis in our rectums? I thought once married it’s up to the partners to do things to each other as they please? We should not be hypocrites and play holy saints. 

Gays are people too, with rights

Gays, just like Lhomwes, babies, girls, men and miners are people with full rights. Yes, our constitution didn’t recognise them but can’t we understand that the constitution was coined a long time ago? Even in Greece where Democracy sprung, women were taken as property; it took time to recognise them. Blacks in America were slaves; it took time [and realisation] to recognise niggers as people. 

Discriminating gays means that is also alright for white people to still have reservations about our claim that we are not apes.

Just like God did to humans, we have been given free choice as echoed by Ecclesiastes who says we should enjoy our youth as we wish. Let everybody live their life as they choose. Let us not be little gods and start judging, a thing even God has reserved for end times. We are, in fact, being blasphemous by labelling gays as sinners- that’s God’s duty.

Gays, like University students have full rights; right to choice, right to association, right to opinion right to be protected, right to life and right to hold a belief.

Homophobia is costly

We all remember Shabba Ranking, the Jamaican DJ who took the world by storm with his sweet slack chants, his career crashed because of homophobia, along came Buju Banton whose ‘Boom Bye Bye’ tune still haunts him today, he is in a Florida prison and is likely to get 20 years IHL due to his homophobia, though its unrelated to his drug offences.

Now Shabba was tough and as tough as Shabba was, he publicly apologised. Also recall how Sizzla is boycotted in Britain and US. What the Jamaican artistes did is exactly what Malawi is doing, we know our market and support is in the West and yet we try to fight with it.

Respected Rastafarians like Apple Gabriel have accepted gays; in his 2010 album, ‘Teach Them Right,’ He sings of showing love to the gays, what an example for the untraveled Malawians.

In addition to my many Justification of legalisation of homosexuality is the issue of HIV/Aids prevention. gays are at the heart of the fight, imagine what problems we are creating if we dont iclude them in our HIV plans?

Malawi has no Culture

If you are still old fashioned and decide to watch MBC TV, you would likely catch Philip Business, Bessie Chirambo, Vuwa Kaunda or Hetherwick Ntaba tearing apart gays and their argument is that homosexuality is against Malawian culture. I foam at such generalisations and still wonder what we mean when we say Malawian culture?

Is Malawian culture the thieving Nyau culture, the vulgar Lower Shire mouths the pudenda peddling women at Malipenga dances in Nkhatabay or the game poaching Kasungu and Rumphi? Is Malawi culture tribalism, where a child born in Rumphi is Tumbuka first and Malawian next or the Mhlako who refuse to hide their favouritism in dealing with national cakes?

This myth called Malawi culture does not exist, and the jingoism that we are a God fearing nation is just another word for blasphemy. There is nothing Malawian about our culture apart from the stupid practices, the tribalism and the stinking politics. The religion is a rubberstamp; the real people are drunkards and staunch capitalists. Porn is easy to watch on government computers in Malawi than in the US.

In the world over, just like Malawi, priests dabble in paedophilia and some sex scandals go all the way up to the Pope’s nose. In the church they are pedagogically saint-like but we meet them in the weekend papers and in vibrating cars at airports.

With that angrily said, I think we are done with the Malawi culture crap, just like we dropped traditional religion for Christianity, lets accept the culture that is on us and not live in denial. Western culture is enslaving, yes but what are we to do? Our elders loved salt and cloth and sold our bright young men as slaves. Let’s integrate into Western culture and those who still feel tribal can practice their tribalism in their homes as the Israelites did under Babylonian rule.

Despite the likes of Tiwonge Chimbalanga being essentially unschooled, we still claim that homosexuality is a Western phenomenon. Malawians cannot just let other people do what they want, it stems from Kamuzu, who enjoyed women: watching them dance and impregnating some and yet thought the rest of the population should be restricted hence the banning of miniskirts and beauty pageants. Why do we think we are masters of other’s destiny when we cannot even steer our own country?