Michelle Obama Attends Beyonce Concert
7 Weird Ways To Bug-Proof Your Picnic
Tiwonge Chimbalanga, 20, and Steven Monjeza, 26, were sentenced on Thursday by a Malawan judge and given a total of 14 years in prison, with hard labor, just for being openly gay. As the couple was taken away in cuffs and climbed in to the vehicle that would take them to the prison, they came upon an angry mob outside who jeered and spewed messages of hate, bigotry and intolerance for homosexuality, shouting phrases, like, "You got what you deserve!" and "Fourteen years is not enough, they should get 50!"
For the couple, who were the first in Malawi to be openly gay by holding an engagement party at a hotel, as far as the end result of their trial goes, the writing was undoubtedly on the wall. Chimbalanga and Monjeza were actually doomed from the very beginning, because the country they live in deems homosexuality as, in the words of Malawian President Bingu wa Mutharika, "evil, bad before the eyes of God and an act that Malawans just do not do!"
Malawi is one of Africa's poorest and most conservative states. Although the gay movement there is gaining a little confidence as the result of international backing, the country still firmly plants its roots in a fundamentalist Christian belief system. The anti-gay laws that exist in Malawi's law books date back to the colonialist era.
Homophobic Malawans who think that a gay movement would undermine national morals, point the finger of blame at Westerners. Many of the natives view homosexuality as a foreign phenomenon. After all, up to 40 percent of Malawi's development budget comes from foreign donors.
Betsy Chirambo, an adviser to President Bingu wa Mutharika, expressed concern over calls by some activists for the West to withdraw aid to Malawi because of the case. She told the Associated Press, "It is not our culture for a man to marry a man. That is not even in our constitution. Some of these rights are not good for our culture."
Yet, despite the call to action by gay activists and politicos who are outraged by this recent violation of human rights, Malawi stands defiant.
On these shores, Philip Crowley, an assistant secretary of state, expressed this country's deep disappointment with the conviction of Chimbalanga and Monjeza. "We view the criminalization of sexual orientation and gender identity as a step backward in the protection of human rights in Malawi," Crowley told the AP.
In Africa, there are at least 37 countries that consider homosexuality illegal. In Uganda, laws are being considered to condemn homosexuals to "life in prison" or "for repeat offenders" execution. In South Africa, lesbians are being gang raped, so that they could "switch back to normal."
Is there really light at the end of the tunnel for gay people in Africa?
Meanwhile, Chimbalanga and Monjeza's lawyer plans to appeal their case. While the couple was awaiting the outcome of their trial in jail, they were beaten. What will their fate be now?
If you would like to offer the couple your support, send your correspondence to:
Steven Monjeza and Tiwonge Chimbalanga, Prisoners, Chichiri Prison, P.O.Box 30117, Blantyre 3, Malawi.
Comments: (33)
Add a comment
By: ADMR on 5/20/2010 11:03AM
I said It Many Times, The Perversion Of HOMOSEXUALITY did not originate with African people/culture;they DO NOT condone It.
At the very least, they are honest about It, HOWEVER those on the DL having unwanted sexual attractions due to childhood trauma ( molestation specifically ) should seek extensive therapy...
ASAP
Reply to this Comment | Report This
By: ralph on 5/22/2010 11:02AM
Homosexuality is not a perversion. The reason why God destroyed Sodom and Gommorah is not really because they were gay people, but because they were wicked gay people. The same rules apply in the straight and gay world, because there are plenty of good straight people, and there is undeniably plenty of good gay people in this world too. In the New Testatment God says that," He forgives who He wants to forgive, and He punishes who He wants to punish". So that means if He chose to destroy Sodom and Gommorah for one reason, and intend for another generation to be gay for another reason, then that's His choice, and there's nothing you or I can do to question Him! God did not have the Bible printed so that we can read and figure out all of His ways, because the Bible is just a few things for us to learn about God. We learn the rest by walking with Him. There have been some people that have been delivered from homosexuality, but only because they weren't true homosexuals to begin with, and there are others who have begged God all of their lives to change them, and they've grown old, God still hasn't answered them, because He intended for them to be gay.
Report This
By: Patrick on 5/22/2010 2:01PM
Ralph thank you for your message. That was the very FIRST time I really heard, IN MY HEART, what friends have been TRYING to explain to me for years. Anti-gay Christians don't realize the trauma and terror they've inflicted in my life. They don't realize how very, VERY difficult they've made it for me to PERCIEVE my ok'ness with God, let alone ACCEPT that I'm loved by God. It's so sinful for anti-gay Christians to STEAL my belief that I can approach God for His support when I'm hurting. How only THEY CAN SEE the truth and how I am blind. All I can hear ringing in my ears is THEIR "preaching my damnation" -- over and Over and OVER -- again and Again and AGAIN. They're like hearing a BROKEN RECORD stuck on one word --"homosexual, homosexual, homosexual". Well, what do you do with a broken record? You toss it in the garbage where it gets burnt. Sadly, that may be what God will do with them on Judgement Day. Anyway, may God have mercy on them; upon ALL of us.
Report This
By: selfish people on 5/22/2010 8:22PM
1 Corinthians 6:18,19,20
18: Flee fornication. Every sin that a man does is outside his body; but he that commits fornication sins against his own body.
19: What? Dont you know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit which is in you, which you have of God, which you are not your own?
20: For you are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which belongs to God.
Report This
By: john on 5/20/2010 11:08AM
These two men had to bend over backwards to get this long sentence
Reply to this Comment | Report This
By: ADMR on 5/20/2010 12:38PM
Yuck...Snickering
Report This
By: johnny on 5/20/2010 7:16PM
"for being openly gay. take them to the prison, they came upon an angry mob outside who jeered and spewed messages of hate, bigotry and intolerance for homosexuality, shouting phrases, like, "You got what you deserve!" and "Fourteen years is not enough, they should get 50!"
"It is their law; we have to respect it. We in this United States don't have angry mobs who jeer and spewed messages of hate, bigotry and intolerance, do we? Think about the mass DNA roundup of men for murders or sexual assaults--what happens if any man refuse to get his DNA? Or what happens when non-biological fathers refuse to pay child support for children their cheating, immoral wives have by their lovers? These men tested the law and lost.
Reply to this Comment | Report This
By: ADMR on 5/21/2010 12:01AM
WOW & I Believe that those LOST SHEMALES should be put Under the Jail...the most DYSFUNCTIONAL form Of Homosexuality
Report This
By: Lamont on 5/22/2010 10:43AM
I am a gay man. I have to totally agree with your point of views. This was their law and they tested it. Great statement there!
Report This
By: ray on 5/21/2010 10:38AM
Malawi is a backwards ignorant third world hellhole - ive met people who left there and they wouldnt dream of going back! Here you have africans who accept the white man's colonial rules (and HIS religion) as absolute immutable "truths" when in fact they're nothing of the kind! This couple should have left - ive met gay africans who came to this country and who prefer staying here!
Reply to this Comment | Report This