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ABSTRACT
A key issue confronting African Christianity in the 21st century is the way to negotiate the discourses and practices surrounding same-sex relationships against the context of increased advocacy for the rights to sexual expression. Same-sex relationships have found their most scathing criticisms and opposition from within African Protestant communities, particularly Anglican and Pentecostal organisations, where prominent religious leaders have voiced strong opinions in support of legal prohibitions and heavy imprisonment terms for those convicted of homosexual practices. Gay rights activists have repeatedly accused proponents and supporters of legal prohibition of homosexuality of hate speech and homophobic intentions. Drawing examples from the plural, multi-religious Nigerian society, this essay analyses the palpable tension in the debates around claimed rights to free sexual expression and rights to manifest and propagate belief and how these intimately intersect with contested citizenship rights.
Acknowledgements
The research on which this work draws was supported by The John Templeton Foundation through the Nagel Institute for the Study of World Christianity project on ‘Religious Innovation and competition: Impact in contemporary Africa’, under Grant ID no. 2016-SS350. A version of this paper was presented at African Consortium for Law and Religion Studies (ACLARS) conference in Rabat, Morocco, 14–16 May 2017. Thanks to Rosalind Hackett for her comments and suggestions during the panel discussion. Nheoma Eme Worugji read and commented on an earlier draft. I am grateful for the comments and suggestions also from the anonymous reviewers of this article and the editors of this edition of JCS. The usual caveats hold.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.
Notes
1. In some constitutions of advanced democracies, a distinction is made between social rights and fundamental rights. This important distinction is lacking in the Nigerian Constitution (see Ikpeze Citation2015), hence, the right to sexual orientation and expression that could pass as social rights are often classed together with, and as, fundamental rights. In the Nigerian context, the claimed right to sexual orientation is at core the right against discrimination and indignity because of sexual orientation. ‘… [D]iscrimination on the grounds of place of origin, sex, religion, status, ethnic or linguistic association or ties shall be prohibited’ (The Nigerian Constitution Citation1999 as amended, section 15(2)).
2. In this paper gays, homosexuals, LGBT or LGBTQI (meaning Lesbian, Gays, Bisexuals, Transgender, Queer (or Questioning) and Intersex) will be used interchangeably; for technical differences in the literature, see Woolf (Citation2013).
3. There is no agreed definition of what constitutes ‘hate speech’; however, it is parsed to include a public speech act that incites, inflames emotions or creates a symbolic code for social repugnance or denigration against a minority group or persons based on ethnicity, religion, gender or sexual orientation (Lillian Citation2007, 731–733). While there is no hate speech law in Nigeria, the concept is not alien to legal and social commentators.
4. Some of the laws introduced by the British in Nigeria (e.g., the Vagrancy Law in Nigeria which was only repealed in 1989) were clearly intended to humiliate and harass sections of the colonised communities and imprint the sense of British superiority and decency on the subject population.
5. Hadd: is punishment deemed as fixed by God and unvarying or cannot be waived.
6. http://www.lawnigeria.com/LawsoftheFederation/Same-Sex-Marriage-Prohibition-Act,-2014.html (accessed 5 November 2017).
7. The Church of Nigeria (Anglican Communion) ‘Position of the Church of Nigeria (Anglican Communion) on the Bill for an Act to Prohibit Marriage between Persons of the same Gender, Solemnization of Same and for other Matters Related Therewith’, (http://thinkinganglicans.org.uk/uploads/CoNposition.pdf), (accessed 28 September 2017).
8. Ibid, 2.
9. Ibid, 3.
10. Ibid, 5.
11. In a widely circulated sermon delivered on 4 May 2017 during the all-night monthly prayer event, The Holy Ghost Service, titled ‘Abba Father 4’, Adeboye told his audience that the spiritual father of a believer is more important and influential than the biological father. A spiritual father, he claims, promotes the realisation and actualisation of a person’s destiny. ‘Your spiritual father is more superior than your biological father. Your spiritual father has a superior authority than your biological father … Your spiritual father can alter the cause of your destiny for the better, … can cancel the curse in your generation, … can cancel your appointment with death … deliver you from ambush …can see what you cannot see and warn you … can commit God for you, he can create a situation between God and you. When your spiritual father blesses you, or curses you, the result is instant…’ (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6eNTEOKo3o8).
12. There is an irony here; all the countries (Canada, Spain, Belgium, the Netherlands, for example) that have legalised homosexuality and/or same-sex marriage have better socioeconomic indices than Nigeria (Alozie, Thomas, and Akpan-Obong Citation2017).
13. Although Western countries that have generally accommodated a legal protection of homosexual lifestyle have aging populations, different reasons or factors (other than homosexuality) account for this. Aging Western population is generally traced to such factors as high contraceptive use, small family sizes due to lifestyle choices, and increased life expectancy, for example.
14. For a list of ten reasons given by Adeboye why gay relationship is wrong, see: http://ynaija.com/thegaydebate-the human-race-could-be-wiped-out-adeboye-lists-10-things-wrong-with-gay-marriage.
15. The prohibition against discrimination based on sex and status is amenable to be interpreted as a prohibition against sexual orientation and lifestyle.
16. Ben Ezeamalu, ‘There is no ’Hate Speech’ under Nigerian Law – Lawyer’, Premium Times (Abuja, 19 August 2017), https://www.premiumtimesng.com/news/more-news/240822-theres-no-hate-speech-nigerian-law-lawyer.html (accessed 22 January 2018).
17. http://www.lawnigeria.com/LawsoftheFederation/TERRORISM-(PREVENTION)-(AMENDMENT)-ACT-2013.html (accessed 22 January 2018).
18. ‘Hate Speech – Police set to Descend on Offenders’, The Nation (Abuja, 26 August 2917), http://thenationonlineng.net/hate-speech-police-set-descend-offenders/ (accessed 22 January 2018).
19. Chris N. Anyanwu, ‘Nigerian Catholic Bishops Take a Swipe at media Misrepresentation’, http://en.radiovaticana.va/news/2015/09/28/nigerian_bishops_conference_against_media_misrepresentations/1175390 (accessed 3 October 2017). The full statement by the CBCN titled ‘Our Stand on Marriage, Family and Human Society’, signed by its President, Most Rev, Ignatius Kaigama, can be found at http://www.thenaijaverdict.com/2015/07/nigerian-catholic-bishops-on-homosexuality/ (accessed 3 October 2017).
20. ‘Nigeria: Catholic Archbishop says Foreigners force Homosexuality on Africans’, http://www.speroforum.com/a/HVNAKNQLCY10/74746-Nigeria-Catholic-archbishop-says-foreigners-force-homosexuality-on-Sfricans (accessed 3 October 2017).
21. Sean Smith, “We do Not Advocate Punishing Gays, Says Nigerian Bishops“, The Tablet, 1 October 2015, http://www.thetablet.co.uk/news/2728/0/we-do-not-advocate-punishing-gays-say-nigerian-bishops (accessed 3 October 2017).
22. The Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (1999 as amended), http://www.nigeria-law.org/ConstitutionOfTheFederalRepublicOfNigeria.htm .
23. The Lighted Church, Lagos, has a billboard that reads: ‘Exploit the Earth but think Heaven’.
24. The ecclesia kurius as the assembly of the Lord is the gathering of persons who enjoy the freedom of the children of God – made accessible by the Risen Christ – citizens of heaven who are no longer slaves or strangers or aliens as in an earthly domain.