Date: Thu, 30 May 1996 00:58:11 +0200 (MET DST)
From: skolander@bahnhof.se (Bjoern Skolander)

"SAHWIRA"
- gay and lesbian rights are human rights

a report from Klaus Skovsholm

The Book Fair on Human Rights in Harare last year enjoyed unanticipated
publicity following the strong attack by Zimbabwe's president Robert
Mugabe. According to Robert Mugabe, gays and lesbians were, in short, so
depraved that they could not enjoy any human rights at all. Furthermore, he
even encouraged his fellow Zimbabweans to report gays and lesbians to the
police. As is well known, these state-ments provoked an outcry of
indignation around the world.By order of the Zimbabwean government the
printed exhibits were subsequently removed, an unnecessarily strong action
backed by the government's threat to withdraw all public funding from the
book fair.

These are all well known facts; what is less known is that there was one
thing the government could not change: the gay and lesbian organization of
Zimbabwe had lawfully rented their stand, which, therefore, remained,
deprived of its printed exhibits, but manned by gays and lesbians.
Nonetheless, there was one printed exhibit: a sign put up by the organizers
explaining that the exhibits had been removed by order of the
government. The public's reaction to the book fair must have been a thorn
in the flesh of Robert Mugabe: the stand was literally paved with flowers
laid down by visitors - as if someone had died.

During my recent visit to Zimbabwe, a member of the Zimbabwean gay and
lesbian association presented me with a beautiful gift: a 52-page folder
with the title "Sahwira"; a folder intended for the Harare book fair. The
title is cunningly chosen: "sahwira" is a Shona expres-sion meaning "my
closest friend". The Shona people is the predominent tribe in Northern
Zimbabwe. In Shona terms, to call some-body "sahwira" has far reaching
consequences, such as unconditionally helping one another, be it in kind or
money, and, during your absence, it implies that your sahwira acts as a kind
of trustee in relation to your home and even your family. And what should
not be forgotten is that the expression is normally for exclusive use
between two men or two women.

The folder contains the life stories of a number of black, coloured, and
white Zimbabweans. Reading the folder certainly disproves the common belief
that there are no gays and lesbians in black society. What comes across in
all their stories is that they live in a country where denial of their
existence is widely spread and where social pressures to marry, especially
in the rural areas where the vast majority of Zimbabweans live, make it
very hard to live as a gay or lesbian. Zimbabwe does not come across as a
normally violent society towards gays and lesbians. 

In Shona society, for instance, it is not considered to be unusual, although
not en-couraged, that two young men have sexual experiences together. Mind
you, they are expected to grow out of it. I was told in Zimbabwe that the
younger generation does not take much interest at all if a person is a
homosexual or not. These factors may well be part of the reason why there
has been no witch hunt of gays and lesbians following Robert Mugabe's
statements. One can therefore wonder about the unfortunate
experiences lying behind Robert Mugabe's strong views regarding gays and
lesbians.

The folder is a unique document and to pay my respects to the human rights
of Zimbabwe's gays and lesbians, I'd like to present you with the following
extract about Ruth:

"MY WIFE'S NAME IS RUTH"
My name is Martha. I am 23 years old and one of nine children. My wife's
name is Ruth. She is 24 and the fourth born in a family of six.
I fell for Ruth the first time we met. She asked about my marital status 
and I told her I was single and lonely. She wondered why, when I lived in 
a country full of nice guys with plenty of money. I told her my problem. 
I told her most men reject my companionship, saying my structure was more 
of a man's than a woman's. It turned out that our problem was the same.
As for my way of living, I live on my passport. I do cross border shopping
and sell the goods back home. Besides going out of the country, I do
hairdressing at the back of my home, and my wife does crocheting and
knitting. Currently things are not all that easy considering the increase 
in the price of our staple food.

Ruth happens to be the closest partner I have ever had. Had it not been 
for her, life could have been much more difficult. She gives me support
whole-heartedly. I love her because even if I run out of cash she tries 
her level best to comfort and soothe me. During my spare time with Ruth, we
go to church and pray to God. We have high hopes that one day our prayers
will be heard and attended to. Ruth and I wish that one day we will expand
our business. We wish to have a place to rent where we can operate our
business efficiently. We wish to go as far as operating a barber's shop in
which we can also sell products associated with hair maintenance.

What makes me wish to expand business with Ruth is that she promised me
that as long as she is alive she will not get married to a man but only to
me, a woman. She vowed never to make a mistake like that, and that's 
exactly how I feel. We are even thinking of paying lobola (bride price) 
for my one and only Ruth. My Ruth is one to whom one may pour out all the
contents of one's heart, chaff and grain together, knowing that the gentlest
of hands will take and sift it, keep what is worth keeping and with the
breath of kindness, blow the rest away.

      A woman and her woman
      Husband and her wife
      She marries
      And she married another she"

SOURCE: Egalite's Newletter No 14, May/June Issue 1996