Date: Tue, 18 Jun 1996 23:04:19 +0200 (MET DST)
From: skolander@bahnhof.se (Bjoern Skolander)
Subject: Human Rights and Homosexuality in Southern Africa


HUMAN RIGHTS AND HOMOSEXUALITY IN SOUTHERN AFRICA
Written by Chris Dunton and Mai Palmberg
Current African Issues No. 19
ISBN 91-7106-395-1 pbk 41 pp

At the 1995 Zimbabwe International Book Fair one of the exhibitors, the
organisation Gays and Lesbians of Zimbabwe, was prevented from taking part
on the order of the Zimbabwean government. This opened up an unprecedented
debate in southern Africa. The questions were many. Are gay rights part of
the human rights that the liberation was fought for? Or is the campaign for
gay rights an imperalist manoeuvre to force the loose values and alien
life-styles of industrialised society on Africa? Can religion accept
homosexuality? The debate on these and other issues is conveyed in this
report on the book fair drama in Zimbabwe, and the debates that followed in
Botswana and Namibia. One chapter gives the arguments in the debate in south
Africa, the first country in the world to include protection againts
discrimination on the grounds of sexual orientation in its constitutional
bill of rights, adopted in May 1996. Another chapter surveys African views
on homosexuality, and one chapter gives a global overview of homosexuality
and law. An address list of human rights organisations and organisations
working for gay and lesbian rights increases the value of the booklet as a
tool in the human rights development in Southern Africa.

CHRIS DUNTON is associate professor in English at the National University of
Lesetho, and has written on literature in Africa, especially Nigeria, and on
homosexuality as a theme in African literature.

MAI PALMBERG is co-ordinator of the project "Cultural Images in and of
Africa" at the Nordic Africa Institute. She has written on the liberation
struggle in southern Africa, and compiled a book on AIDS in Africa. 
Email: mai.palmberg@nai.uu.se


Special Price before 31 st August 1996: SEK 60,- (surface mail included)
Credit cards accepted.
Nordiska Afrikainstitutet (The Nordic Africa Institute)
P O Box 1703 
S-751 47 UPPSALA
SWEDEN
Telephone +46 - (0)18 - 56 22 00
Telefax: +46 - (0)18 - 69 56 29
Email: nai@nai.uu.se

PS: I am not associated with The Nordic Africa Institute.
Bjoern Skolander
skolander@bahnhof.se



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