By Prince Bill M. Kaping’a Political/Social Analyst
One terrible thing about headlines is that we tend to jump to conclusions before we even get to the gist of the matter. It would therefore be prudent for anyone to read this article exhaustively before accusing us of being homophobic!
US Vice President, the most important person under the sun, of course after Joe Biden, shall soon be making her way to Lusaka, Zambia for the much anticipated Democracy Summit slated for later this week. She is also expected to tour 3 other African countries. As expected, rumours are swirling around as regards the purpose of such a high profile visit by Harris Kamala who is said to have some links to our country. Is the visit meant to cement the relationship between the US and Africa so as to assert its authority on the African continent amidst the increasingly influence of China? Or is it another botched attempt by the West to impose Western values on the poor Africans?
Africans are generally peaceful people. You don’t usually expect them to beat their chests and swiftly gather their machetes to confront those coming to exploit their resources. Whether it’s someone from China, USA or indeed planet Mass; they are willing to do business with you, of course in exchange for 3 pieces of silver. However, Africans aren’t dimwits as some people would want to believe. Attempt to impose any rubbish on them and you will see how they would react!
This brings us to the issue of gay rights that many of us believe may be top on the agenda of Harris Kamala. It would be absolutely arrogant, and yet extremely ignorant of her to stray into the forbidden territory of attempting to lecture us on gay rights as seems to have become fashionable by the West whenever it suits them. Why do you always want to tie the issue of gay rights as a precondition for donor aid if indeed you are genuinely keen on helping extricate us from the jaws of poverty?
Western leaders ought to appreciate that folks around the globe have distinctive world views on Christianity……What may be deemed as permissible in the cold climate culture, may simply be dismissed as abominable in the hot climate culture such as ours!
Without being too general, we shall confine ourselves to our beloved country. Zambians are generally a conservative people…….nay, way too religious bordering on dogmatism! Dare to attempt impose foreign values on them and you will be flummoxed how they will immediately close ranks and work like bees to sting you…….fight back for a common cause!
A case in point is when a shadowy organization called …………recently hoodwinked the police and obtained a police permit on the pretext that they wanted to protest against the increasing cases of gender based violence in the nation when in the actual sense they were championing gay rights. Before long, they were displaying gay pride colours and spewing obscenities and vulgarities echoing chants that they reserved every right to use the intimate parts of their bodies however they wanted!
With the speed of lightening, the Church, the opposition, NGOs and traditionalists alike engaged into full gear and scaled the mountain tops to search for the worst adjectives under the moon to describe the New Dawn Administration for what they deemed as allowing abominable occurrences to obtain on our soil. Tabloids went to town dedicating editorials lampooning and bashing the conduct of those in government as “Satanic,” totally contrary to the declaration of us as a Christian nation as though this means anything at all!
When the Minister of Information Hon. Chushi Kasanda finally came out in the open to state the position of over the matter, many of our citizens still remained skeptical. It had to take the entire president to promptly call for a meeting with Church leaders during his visit to the mining town of Chingola to assure and reiterate the public, for the umpteenth time, that his government does not condone gay rights.
We are not by any means trying to haul suspected gays into the dock, assume the role of adjudicators and judge them accordingly as judgment belongs to God, the Almighty! However, it is important to appreciate that every society has got its own norms and values; the West remains with little or no choice but to accept the fact that they can’t foist what they consider as righteous down the dry throats of Africans!
Why do the Americans want to make our president unpopular, especially at a time when he is desperately trying to construct our broken nation under difficult circumstances, by attempting to coerce him to tread on a dangerous trajectory as they have done elsewhere where such initiatives have been rebuffed, explicitly?
Over the years the West has maintained strong ties with Israel and Saudi Arabia without necessarily having to arm twist them over various atrocities and human rights violations obtaining in those nations. Other than condemning or subjecting our leaders to public lectures on such controversial issues, the West is better off engaging in what former South African president, Thabo Mbeki, referred to as quiet diplomacy!
Why should the West have a different set of rules of engagement, condescending for that matter, when it comes to Africans? Are we that dumb…….or indeed dimwits! In the past, successive Zambian governments have not bothered to unleash the police to sniff around for gay people……..they’ve largely been ignored, just as they have lamentably failed to curb the rape that we keep on hearing about behind the secure doors of prisons!
We believe mankind was created in the image of God regardless of our skin colour or the shape of our nose. We don’t obviously expect our friends from the West coming to teach us how we must indeed conduct ourselves under the guise of donor aid. Until next time………