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Abstract
Recently, Uganda has made international headlines for the controversial Anti-homosexuality Bill and for a set of tight measures that have limited the freedom of sexual minorities. This article argues that Uganda's growth of Pentecostal-charismatic churches (PCCs) is playing a major role in influencing and defining the Ugandan public sphere, including (but not limited to) the ways in which sex and sexuality are conceptualized by and within Uganda's print media. This article suggests that the socially conservative nature of PCCs is highly influential in shaping the way print media write about sex and sexuality. This is because Pentecostal-charismatic (PC) constituencies constitute a considerable numerical market that print media cannot ignore. Second, PCs actively work toward influencing and shaping public policies, politics, and public spaces, like newspapers, that discuss and address public morality and decency in the country. As this article will show, within a highly “Pentecostalized” public sphere, alternative public discourses on sexuality are not allowed.
Acknowledgments
The authors would like to acknowledge the generous support provided by the Leverhulme Trust [grant number RPG-2012-512], through the Research Project Grants scheme, that funded this research work between July 2012 and August 2014.
Notes
1. Daily Monitor, “Kadaga, Canadian Minister in Gay Row.”
2. Reuters, “Uganda Says Wants to Pass Anti-gay Law.”
3. Tamale, “A Human Rights Impact Assessment.”
4. Edwards, “Ugandan Anti-gay Bill is an Obscuring Screen.”
5. Epstein, The Invisible Cure.
6. Gussman, “The Joseph Generation in Uganda.”
7. Debates on the reform of the Marriage and Divorce Bill cover a wide range of marriage, divorce, and gender issues, including bride wealth, female circumcision, and rights of cohabitating couples. The Bill caused controversy from the beginning, with some objecting to the very naming of the proposal which places marriage and divorce in the same breath, other arguing that it was a Bill that only favors women. A common objection was that the Bill undermines traditional and religious understandings of marriage and property relations.
8. Interview with senior leader in the Pentecostal Assemblies of God. Kampala, 25 March 2013.
9. For an extended analysis of the “Pentecostalization” of the Uganda public sphere, see Valois, “Public Rebirth.”
10 Thomas, Strong religion, zealous media.
11. Thomas, Strong religion, zealous media.
12. Meyer and Moor, Religion, Media and the Public Sphere, 57.
13. Those churches are Watoto, previously known as Kampala Pentecostal Church presided over by the two non-Ugandan pastors Gary and Marilyn Skinner; Life Line Ministries presided over by Bishop Julius Peter Oyet, a vocal pastor in his support of the AHB; Covenant Nation Church set up by President Museveni's daughter, senior pastor Patience Museveni Rwabwogo and frequently attended by the First Lady Janet Museveni; Miracle Centre Cathedral run by senior pastor Robert Kayanja and his wife Jessica Kayanja, very well-known and influential pastors in Kampala.
14. According to Uganda Demographic and Health Survey (2006), most of the population is exposed to some form of media. In general, men are more likely than women to have access to mass media; this is true for all types of media. Radio is the most popular medium. Listenership in Uganda is very high, with InterMedia estimating in 2005 that 100% of the population had listened to the radio in the past year, 92.8% in the past seven days, and 73.7% as recently as the day before; InterMedia, Uganda. About 21% of men read a newspaper at least once a week, compared with 15% of the women. Reflecting the limited television broadcast coverage in the country, the percentage of women and men who watch television is low (11% of women and 14% of men).
15. Interview with Mwanguhya-Mpagi, Kampala, 29 January 2013.
16. Sadgrove et al., “Morality Plays and Money Matters.”
17. Ward, “Eating and Sharing,” 112.
18. Gifford, “Pentecostalism in Museveni's Uganda,” 105.
19. Ward, “Eating and Sharing.”
20. Gifford, “Pentecostalism in Museveni's Uganda,” 104.
21. Lindemann, “Just another Change of Guard,” 387.
22. Cited in Daily Monitor, “Museveni 24 Years Later.”
23. Gifford, African Christianity.
24. Freston, Evangelicals and Politics in Asia, Africa and Latin America, 142.
25. Gussman, “The Joseph Generation in Uganda,” 68.
26. Cooper, “The Theology of Emergency.”
27. Patterson, The Church and AIDS in Africa.
28. The US President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) is the US Government initiative to tackle HIV (as well as tuberculosis and malaria) around the world.
29. Gussman, “The Joseph Generation in Uganda,” 68.
30. Gussman, “The Joseph Generation in Uganda,” 68.
31. Cooper, “The Theology of Emergency,” 3.
32. Cooper, “The Theology of Emergency,” 2.
33. Cooper, “The Theology of Emergency,” 2.
34. Cooper, “The Theology of Emergency,” 2.
35. Clarke, “Agents of Transformation?” 82.
36. Gussman, “The Joseph Generation in Uganda.”
37. Gussman, “The Joseph Generation in Uganda.”, 68.
38. For a critique of the way, HIV has dominantly framed discussions around sexuality in sub-Saharan Africa while aspects like eroticism, pleasure, and feelings remained excluded; see Sponk, “Sex, Sexuality and Negotiating Africanness in Nairobi”; and Sponk, Ambiguous Pleasure.
39. Tamale, “Out of the Closet,” 5
40. Gysels et al., “The Adventures of Randy Professor.”
41. Tamale, “Eroticism, Sensuality and Women's Secrets.”
42. New Vision, “Uganda Bans Miniskirts, Pornography.”
43. Meyer, “Christianity in Africa,” 464–67.
44. Similarly, see for example the study of PCCs and sexuality in Mozambique by van de Kamp, “Public Counseling: Brazilian Pentecostal Intimate Performances.”
45. Watoto Church sermon, 16 February 2013.
46. Opolot, “Red and Raunchy.”
47. Opolot, “Red and Raunchy.”, 33.
48. Interview with a Red Pepper journalist, Kampala, 10 June 2013.
49. So much so, that the newspaper's football team is called “The Hyenas”; interview with Red Pepper journalists, Kampala, 10 June 2013.
50. Hyena, “Skilled! Hyena Hooks a Neighbors [sic] Wife.”
51. The newspaper announced its rebranding on 17 May 2013 and was closed down on 20 May 2013, the day it published its first rebranded copy.
52. Rugyendo, “The Red Pepper Rebrands.”
53. Interview with Red Pepper journalist, Kampala, 10 June 2013.
54. See Nyakato, “Nourish Your Way to the Birth of Jesus Christ with Christmas Cantata”; Mwesigwa, “Sleek Bodies, Gospel Music”; Ahimbazwe, “Miracle Dance Heaven”; Editorial, “Weekend buzz: Rev Bar at Watoto”; Mukisa, “Taking the Nightclub Experience into Church.”
55. For example, church events are regularly covered in the Observer's “Weekend Buzz” section in its Friday edition, and journalists from all newspapers disclosed that the media departments of some prominent city churches would ensure that the press knew about their future events for publicity reasons.
56. Uganda has the world's youngest population. About 78% of the population is under 30 years old, and 52% of its population is under 15 years old; see UNFPA, State of the World’s Population.
57. Interview with a New Vision journalist, Kampala, 6 February 2013.
58. Interview with a New Vision journalist, Kampala, 6 February 2013.
59. Interview with a New Vision journalist, Kampala, 6 February 2013.
60. Interview with a New Vision editor, Kampala, 23 May 2013.
61. Haggai Institute, “Barbara Kaija's New Vision Covers More than the Media”; Lloyd, “Uganda's Controversial Pastors.”
62. Haggai Institute, “Barbara Kaija's New Vision Covers More than the Media”; Lloyd, “Uganda's Controversial Pastors.”
63. Haggai Institute, “Barbara Kaija's New Vision Covers More than the Media”; Lloyd, “Uganda's Controversial Pastors.”
64. Interview with a New Vision editor, Kampala, 23 May 2013.
65. Interview with a New Vision editor, Kampala, 23 May 2013.
66. Interviews with a journalist from the Observer and one from Red Pepper, 10 June 2013.
67. Interview with a New Vision journalist, Kampala, 6 February 2013.
68. Interview with a New Vision journalist, Kampala, 15 March 2013.
69. Interview with a New Vision journalist, Kampala, 15 March 2013.
70. Interview with a New Vision journalist, Kampala, 15 March 2013.
71. See http://haggai-institute.com/barbara-kaija#.UhZRMhaDbww, accessed on 30 July 2013.
72. Interview with a New Vision journalist, Kampala, 15 March 2013; interview with a New Vision journalist, Kampala, 11 June 2013.
73. Interview with a journalist, Kampala, 20 May 2013.
74. Interview with a journalist, Kampala, 20 May 2013.
75. Interview with columnist at the Observer, Kampala, 11 June 2013.
76. Interview with columnist at the Observer, Kampala, 11 June 2013.
77. Interview with an Observer editor, Kampala, 25 May 2013.
78. Interview with an Observer editor, Kampala, 25 May 2013.
79. Interview with a New Vision journalist, Kampala, 20 May 2013.
80. Interview with a New Vision journalist, Kampala, 20 May 2013.
81. Nakajubi and Odyek, “Must Marriage Be Such a Big Deal?”; Vision Reporter, “Unity Vital in Fight against Poverty Says First Lady”; Kagolo, “Govt Commends Victoria University over Gay Stance”; Natukunda, “The ‘Crime’ of Getting Pregnant at University”; Editorial, “Couples urged to communicate”; Vision Reporter, “Ankole Diocese Leaders Hailed for Youth Mentorship Programme”; Isabirye, “Are Church Boys Slow?”; Lutwama, “My Son's Brush with Death Renewed My Faith”; Vision Reporter, “Uganda Youth Forum Holds Re-union”; Mambule, “Women Warned on Domestic Violence”; and Saad and Agaba, “Parents Asked to Advise Daughters on Sexuality and Adolescence.”
82. New Vision, “Uganda Youth Forum Holds Re-union.”
83. Saad and Agaba, “Parents Asked to Advise Daughters.”
84. Saad and Agaba, “Parents Asked to Advise Daughters.”
85. Sadgrove et al., “Morality Plays and Money Matters,” 112.
86. Interview with a New Vision editor, Kampala, 20 May 2013.
87. Interview with a Daily Monitor journalist, Kampala, 24 May 2013.
88. Sadgrove et al., “Morality plays,” 112.
89. Ward, “The Role of the Anglican and Catholic Churches in Uganda.”
90. Meyer, “Christianity in Africa,” 447.