Malawi is one of the several African countries that have recently passed, or become notorious for maintaining, draconian homosexual laws. However, these African countries have been coming under severe pressure from Western countries, such as Britain and the United States, to scrap these laws. Recently the United States has said that it will review its foreign aid policy based on countries' homosexual laws. And here is where Malawi comes in. Malawi has been receiving over a hundred million dollars in aid from the United States. The threat that the United States may cut off this aid has prompted Malawi's Minister of Justice to say that Malawi's homosexual laws will be reviewed. Instead of telling the truth about why the laws will be reviewed, namely that foreign powers will no longer give aid if the laws stand, he lied that the review is prompted by public opinion - as if Malawians have suddenly changed their opinion about homosexuality in the last couple of weeks.
Do not get me wrong, this piece is not about the rightness or wrongness of these laws or homosexuality itself. Rather, it is about the fact that some African countries cannot have the spine to do what they want to do because they rely on foreign aid. In recent African history, there has been much talk about neo-colonialism, imperialism, and the like, and the need for African countries to overcome these impediments to their well-being. However, few among our elites seems to think that these unwholesome influences cannot be overcome just by railing against them. African countries need to ween themselves from foreign dependence if their call for the overcoming of these impediments is to pass muster. If you cannot make rules in your own house, if the rules you make in your own house depends on the wishes of people outside your house, then you are in quite a pitiful condition. And that is the condition in which African countries such as Malawi, Uganda, Kenya, Cameroon, etc., find themselves today. Their ministers and religious people come out and rail against the immorality of the West while taking their begging bowls to this same West in broad daylight. If Africans are to maintain their morality, whatever the rightness or wrongness of that morality, they must be able to support that morality with their own wealth. Without their own wealth, their supposed morality will always be seen as expedient. That seems to be the case with Malawi, a country that does not seem to know whether it is for or against homosexuality because it is poor.
Do not get me wrong, this piece is not about the rightness or wrongness of these laws or homosexuality itself. Rather, it is about the fact that some African countries cannot have the spine to do what they want to do because they rely on foreign aid. In recent African history, there has been much talk about neo-colonialism, imperialism, and the like, and the need for African countries to overcome these impediments to their well-being. However, few among our elites seems to think that these unwholesome influences cannot be overcome just by railing against them. African countries need to ween themselves from foreign dependence if their call for the overcoming of these impediments is to pass muster. If you cannot make rules in your own house, if the rules you make in your own house depends on the wishes of people outside your house, then you are in quite a pitiful condition. And that is the condition in which African countries such as Malawi, Uganda, Kenya, Cameroon, etc., find themselves today. Their ministers and religious people come out and rail against the immorality of the West while taking their begging bowls to this same West in broad daylight. If Africans are to maintain their morality, whatever the rightness or wrongness of that morality, they must be able to support that morality with their own wealth. Without their own wealth, their supposed morality will always be seen as expedient. That seems to be the case with Malawi, a country that does not seem to know whether it is for or against homosexuality because it is poor.
No comments:
Post a Comment