The politicisation of sexuality and rise of homosexual movements in post-colonial Cameroon

Abstract

The article analyses the emergence of ‘homosexual’ organisations in Cameroon. Originating in a controversy over lists of public figures ‘presumed to be homosexual’ published in three newspapers in 2006, it explores the link between a critical political analysis of the concept of homosexuality and the emergence of the homosexual movement in Cameroon. Two main organisations, the Association pour la Défense des droits des homosexuels (the Association for the Defence of Homosexual Rights [ADEFHO]) and Alternatives-Cameroun, cover different areas of activity, one concerned with sexual rights and the other with sexual health. Their connectedness to the international systems in which such causes are categorised is analysed, and it is suggested that this connection operates as both a resource and a constraint. The role of the actors illustrates the political tensions at play: these include youth, organised collectively, who publicly reject homosexuality. The article sets out to give a critical analysis of the issues underlying this confrontation by demonstrating that it is also influenced by post-colonial tensions and their repercussions.

Keywords:

• homosexuality
• homosexual organisations
• human rights
• cultural citizenship
• Cameroon

Acknowledgements

The author would like to thank the Agence nationale de recherche sur le SIDA (ANRS) for their financial support of this research. He thanks Julie Castro, M.-E. Pommerolle, F. Eboko and the ‘Africa's Struggles’ group for their editorial comments. He also thanks K. Delauney, C. Broqua, M. Gourarier and M.-E. Handman for their constructive advice, and all those that helped in the publication of this article.

Notes

The data used in this article are the result of research for a doctorate currently being undertaken at the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales in Paris, with support from the National Agency for Research on AIDS and Hepatitis (ANRS).

This article was translated for ROAPE from the original French text by Clare Smedley. Email: [email protected]

See http://www.africagay.org.

See Article 347b of the Cameroon penal code.

The use of the term ‘men who have sex with men’ is about distinguishing between men who engage in homosexual practices who do not recognise themselves as homosexuals, and ‘identity’ homosexuals based mainly on their having ‘come out’, as a means of ‘performative’ designation and identity construction.

‘Liste des pédés’.

For a summary of articles in the Cameroon press, see the Courier international, 22 February 2006; see also Olinga (2006).

‘En errance’ has a literary meaning of wandering or drifting, and here indicates that the nationalist memory was still unfixed, and not yet the subject of consensus.

For significant movements, one needs to look towards South Africa, which is considered an exception for having included protection of sexual orientation in its 1996 constitution, followed by the right to adopt in 2002 and the right to recognition of same-sex unions in 2005.

The ‘témoignage homosexuel’ in this case involved people, especially activists, telling the story of their own homosexual experience: this storytelling about African/Cameroonian homosexuality is a significant and successful strategy at the international level.

That is, all the historic organisations in the North but also South Africa that explicitly and actively (both financially and symbolically) support nascent organisations. The most active in this case were Aides and Inter-LGBT (in France), Behind the Mask and Ilghra (in South Africa) and ILGA (in Belgium).