3 narrative approaches for decolonizing "African Values"
Decriminalization is not a western agenda but a freedom agenda. It is not a push against "African Values" but a push for the value of African lives. Our narratives must reflect and reinforce this.
In the previous edition, I noted that we often play into the enemy's hands when we defend attacks on African lives using strategies that entrench and ignore the colonial roots of African oppression.
Our defence of African lives must expose and rid itself of these veiled colonial narratives or we will lose the battle even before we've figured out our weapons. In this edition, I will attempt to outline three practical approaches to "do it better" as far as narrative change is concerned.
The Africa Christian Professionals Forum (ACPF) will host its second "Pan-African Conference on Family Values" in May 2025. In this meeting, these advocates for the elimination of queer Africans will:
Discuss new strategies to encode their beliefs into the laws and constitutions of their respective countries.
Celebrate the second anniversary of Uganda's Anti-Homosexuality Act, and they will pressure the new president of Ghana to sign his country's version of the anti-gay bill (if not yet enacted).
Amplify their opposition to the Safe Motherhood Bill in Sierra Leone; and in the same breath,
Praise U.S. President Trump for re-instating the Global Gag rule and returning the U.S. to the helm of the anti-woman pact misleadingly named "Geneva Consensus Declaration".
That's just a slice of the projected agenda. The bulk of the time will be spent reinforcing false and homophobic narratives about queer Africans. They will repackage lies about the need to "protect children" and "protect Africa" from the Western "gender ideology". I hope you don't miss the paternalistic irony of "Africa" needing ideological "protection" by a special group.
The ACPF is confidently doing all this because they have hoodwinked us into seeing them as "an African" group. They have feigned African consensus through the simple smoke-and-mirrors tactic of registering an organization with Africa as part of the name. This is a strategy taken right out of the American and European conservative Christian playbooks for co-opting of cultural pillars like "family" to bypass the hard work of building buy-in from the ground up.
They are building from the top, by pretending and presuming to be already at the top.
The ACPF claim of the "Christian" identity automatically co-opts every person in Africa who claims to be a Christian, whether or not they are homophobic, whether or not they hate women. The "Professional" sign-post sanitizes the brand, signalling that these are just harmless technocrats that value science and the law. It is therefore not surprising that the leaders of ACPF are not pastors or priests, but lawyers and doctors. They know that when a doctor attacks the WHO, everybody sits up.
They know many of us will judge the book by the cover. Our assumptions about the meaning of their dress code will shape and make up for the non-existent substance underneath. These agents of hate are masters of misdirection and pros at posturing to the masses. Here's something you can be sure the Africa Christian Professionals Forum will not discuss in May -- how to be a Christian or a Professional in Africa.
So how can storytellers respond to such a devious and shape-shifting challenge? Here are three narrative approaches we can take:
1. Preach to the masses, the choir can adapt
Simplify your message to the most accessible language and frames. Our tendency is to preach to the choir(other advocates and activists). Yet, simplifying your message will not exclude the choir. The choir is already part of the masses, but the masses are not part of the choir. Furthermore, many of us do not have the privilege and resources to craft and disseminate messages tailored for every imaginable audience (lawmakers, technocrats, business community, religious leaders...), but we can definitely share narratives that reach the mainstream spaces occupied by everyone.
For instance, most Kenyans do not know what ACPF is, despite the organization being registered and headquartered in Kenya, but many are familiar with the name of its co-founder and chairperson, lawyer Charles Kanjama. They know him as a celebrated Senior Counsel who is on the speed dial of every media house that needs to unpack our daily constitutional quandaries. But do Kenyans know about Kanjama's hand in the "African values" and "Family values" crusade in Africa?
The masses will respond to the familiar names of individuals better than amorphous names of institutions. Name the individuals behind the colonial crusade to criminalize homosexuality in Kenya.
But more importantly, cut the jargon. Even a term as seemingly straightforward as "homophobia" is not quite mainstream. More accessible terms like "promoters of gay-genocide" will catch the right attention and evoke the right emotion with the masses. Don't be afraid to use them. I will be sharing (and using) more examples in subsequent newsletters and posts across other digital media platforms.
2. Preach the protection of people over the protection of systems
It is much easier to talk about "protecting our constitution" than to talk about "protecting my queer sister". Yet, the latter is the point of the former. The personal message is always the more powerful narrative.
It is much easier to promote "the sovereignty of Ghana" than to promote "the dignity of Mensah," a Ghanaian queer person who cannot freely walk the streets of Accra and was excommunicated from his church for being gay.
Prioritize the lived experiences and perspectives of African queer people in your messages. With safety considerations in mind of course, stories of queer Kenyans, Ghanaians, Ugandans... will powerfully illustrate the ongoing harm caused by these vestiges of colonial laws. But beyond merely illustrating harm, these stories will humanize and embody the hope that we all have for every African person to live a free and dignified life free from all forms of discrimination and harm.
Until (and as) we figure out the right systemic changes (laws and policy), we will protect the people. Otherwise, for whom are we figuring it out if not all of us; the least of us; the most vulnerable amongst us?
Nothing is worth protecting at the expense of human lives. Not even Africa or "African Values."
Which brings me to my final recommendation.
3. Preach the hope of Africans healed from colonial trauma
Despite the lies peddled by promoters of gay genocide in Africa, decriminalization is not a "Western agenda" but a freedom agenda. It is not a push against African values, but a push for the value of African lives. Decriminalization is a necessary path to the true liberation of Africa from the stubborn vestiges of colonialism in our laws and collective psyches. This is a "freedom for Africa" cause, and "a freedom for Africans" ambition.
As we preach this hope, we must remember to state and define the legitimate, personal and universal basis (core values) of our hope: Human dignity, self-determination, cultural reclamation and revitalization, justice, equality, community... and love. This will never be a one-size-fits-all process. The specific "gateway" values will vary depending on the immediate context and needs of the communities involved at a given time.
Decolonization is ultimately about self-determination. Advocating for the right of countries to make their own laws, free from the legacy of colonial influence, is a powerful way to frame the decriminalization of homosexuality. But meaningful self-determination of States (State sovereignty) must be rooted in the personal autonomy of the people living in that State -- the self-determination of all citizens. There is no true State sovereignty without personal autonomy; and any narrative that claims to defend the sovereignty of African states while preaching the exclusion of some African citizens is not just a bad narrative -- it is a harmful one.
Let's strive to tell better stories.
Until we all become full citizens.
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Narrative Spotlight: How do we get people of all political identities to willingly support social progress without compromising anyone’s values? Trabian Shorters, cofounder of BMe Community, recently shared four narrative shifts worth normalizing in your campaigns. Read about them here.