Being gay in southern Africa.

No, I am not a fan of “yellow journalism” and I don’t approve of sensationalism. Yes, I am in South Africa right now which logically enough is located in southern Africa but I am not homosexual, which probably makes you wonder why I am writing this blog. Well, in the last few months I have had some interesting conversations with coworkers and friends, mostly all male, about the way homosexuality is viewed in South Africa and Mozambique.

It seems that a lot of the discomfort or dislike around the topic of homosexuality comes from lack of knowledge about homoe or direct contact with people who are gay, lesbian, bisexual, etc. Homosexuality is not a topic that I openly discussed with many Mozambicans, if any, while living in Mozambique for 2 ½ years. This goes back to our training with Peace Corps when I clearly remember in one of our sessions being told “we have no problems with your sexuality and you are free to be who you want to be but we highly recommend that if you are gay, lesbian, etc. you keep it to yourself as being this way can be dangerous in Mozambique.” That is right sexuality is not only a taboo topic in Mozambique and to a lesser degree here in South Africa but also one that can be dangerous. Sadly enough this comes as no surprise as I have heard of hate killings around the world that involved homosexuals who were killed due purely to their sexuality.

As I said above homosexuality is a less discussed or known topic in Mozambique than South Africa and I am sure that many Mozambicans who are homosexual or homosexuals that visit Mozambique as tourists or for work would say that outside of the capitol, Maputo, homosexuality is a very taboo topic. It is sad to me that people are not more accepting and loving but we all are entitled to our own beliefs as long as these beliefs don’t hurt others or infringe on others rights. I imagine that in Mozambique especially before “democracy” came while Mozambique had strong links to Communist countries, being gay was particularly unsafe. I heard stories from one friend about a gay Mozambican man who was beaten up by some younger Mozambicans who were tired of his advances and flirting with them. I also heard that two girls in their early 20’s who come from Chókwè, where I lived in Mozambique, have been “dressing and acting like boys” for many years now and while most people who know them seem to have gotten used to it they are still not fully accepted by society.

As for South Africa which boasts one of the most progressive and all inclusive constitutions in the world, and is leaps ahead of the US Constitution, homosexuals are protected. It looks like an amendment will soon be made that legalizes “same-sex marriages”. On December 1^st last year South Africa’s highest court (the Constitutional Court) legalized same-sex marriages but said that Parliament had one year to put everything in place before it became law. Needless to say this is a hot topic here and many people are not happy that South Africa might soon be joining the Netherlands, Belgium, Spain and Canada as only the fifth nation in the world to legalize same-sex unions.

I am sure that I will have more information to share on this story over the coming months as I discuss homosexuality with more people. If you want to know more about the situation in South Africa as far as same-sex unions go please read articles from the following sources:

SABC News

Reuters

International Herald Tribune

South African Heritage Day and Mozambican Armed Forces Day.

Yesterday, September 25^th, was a holiday in South Africa and Mozambique. In South Africa Heritage Day was the 24^th but it was observed yesterday and yesterday, the 25^th, in Mozambique was a holiday for Armed Forces Day. I spent yesterday at the Funda Community Center in Diepkloof, Soweto as a guest invited to watch song, dance, drama, photography and other presentations by a youth group called "The Learning Together Project" who has spent the past few months learning about, debating and celebrating the South African Constitution which turns 10 years old on December 5^th. This group mostly made up of teenage students along with adult leaders first started meeting at Constitution Hill and after a number of meetings there moved to Funda Community Center, where I took part in the celebrations yesterday. I hope to join this group in October after the school holiday this week and work with them as the discuss topics such as racism, education, violence and gender relations and use art forms such as dance, photography, acting and music to ponder these issues and communicate messages. I took few photographs but my friend Iqbal who invited me to the event was the official photographer and thus I hope to get some images from him that I can share with you. I hope to write more about this group in future blog entries.

As for Mozambican Armed Forces day and other national holidaysI think anyone who has spent a significantamount of time in Mozambique, traveled the country a bit and knows some of the names of schools, towns or streets would be able to easily tell you the dates of some of the holidays in Mozambique. From Maputo, the capitol, to Chókwè, where I lived, there is a town called 3 de Fevreiro and I know of schools named 25 de Junio and streets like 7 de Setembro.

To learn more about holidays in South Africa you can visit http://africanhistory.about.com/library/bl/blsaholidays.htm. For more information on the historical significance throughout Africa of days of the year you can visit AfricanHistory.about.com. Also to see what other holidays are observed in Mozambique you can visit the Mozambican Embassy website.

Moçambique is in the house!

Marcilio, my best friend from Mozambique and my photography assistant on The World Through My Eyes, who has been in South Africa for over a year at a college in Randfontein came to visit me in Sandringham at the Smith's home/ETC offices. He came on Friday with his friend Alex who is also from Mozambique and also doing his studies at Western College in Randfontein. Alex is from Xai-Xai which is in Gaza Province the same province as Chókwè where Marcilio is from and I served in the Peace Corps.

It was only a short visit to see each other, catch up and for Marcilio to know how to get to my house. I had not seen Marcilio since January of 2005 when I was last in Mozambique. It was great to see him and know that he is really not that far away and I look forward to seeing him more times over my stay here. It was also great to get to speak in Portuguese for a more extended time than when talking on the phone and especially speaking in Portuguese with Mozambicans again!

The wonders of the internet…

How do I spend my free time you ask? Well as I don’t have my own car so I sometimes ask for a ride to run errands but really going out on my own is tough even with an international driver’s license seeing as how South Africans drive on the wrong side (j/k) of the road you know the left side and I have to get used to driving on that side of the road. Well you say but Blake “You lived in Mozambique for over 2 ½ years and they like South African drive on the left side of the road so why can’t you?” To which I have to answer I was never the driver in Mozambique as Peace Corps didn’t allow it and even when I was there outside of Peace Corps the only thing I usually wanted to do was act like an ostrich while driving so as not to see the wild driving that often occurred by the chapa/mini-bus/taxi drivers I road with, not Annie and Charles of course, or the other drivers on the road. It really is different not taking any public transport here and being driven around by Linzi, Douglas, Jared or Ben. I am doing my best to keep my eyes open while we are going around to learn where shops, offices and other places are located to hopefully get up the courage one day to be the driver. I think my using public transport in Mozambique the great majority of the time kept me from hearing drivers in their own cars from commenting on the terrible driving by the chapa/mini-bus/taxi drivers or maybe these drivers in Mozambique weren’t nearly as bad as the reputation that they have here.

Enough for now about drivers and driving and on to the title of this blog entry which you were probably beginning to think was written and then forgotten about. No worries I did want to tell you one more reason why I think the internet is amazing (I have a long list of reasons I think it or its use rather by certain individuals, organizations or governments is terrible). I spent about two hours this past weekend on Saturday or Sunday night fixated on Google’s satellite maps at http://maps.google.com/maps. I spent some time finding my parent’s home in Portland, the ETC offices/my room here in South Africa but the majority of my time was spent locating Chókwè, Lionde, Conhane, Xai-Xai, Macia, Maputo, Matola, Boane and other locations in Mozambique. It was fascinating getting a birds eye satellite view of the country where I spent 30 plus months living, working and traveling. I was amazed at how close I could get to my houses in Chókwè (one for Peace Corps and the other for The World Through My Eyes), Escóla Agrária (the agrarian school) where I taught, the home in Boane where I had my home stay during training and much more. I will not bore you with all the details although I am sure that Tober, Aimee, Nanosh, John, Orlando, Rebecca, Jimmy, Nimi and others can relate to finding a lot of enjoyment in something like this especially in a place where so much time, sweat and patience was expended.