Rejecting Western-Framed, Funded and Initiated Sexuality Activisms: The African Union (AU) Leads by Example

A United States of America based sexuality activism organisation, Synergía – Initiatives for Human Rights, together with other Western-funded organisations, Alternative Côte d’Ivoire and Human Rights First Rwanda were recently denied observer status by the African Union (AU), through the the African Commission of Human and Peoples’ Rights, in a move that was applauded across the continent and beyond. Headquartered in Banjul, The Gambia, the Commission was formed in 1987 in Addis Ababa to be Africa’s continental human rights watchdog.

The reasons given for blocking these organisations were that they did not fully explain how they fight for rights of gays and lesbians and other groups that they categorised as vulnerable. The Commission further clearly stated that sexual orientation is not a right in the African Human Rights Charter and that promoting gayism and lesbianism is against African values.

Consistently, in 2018, the Commission withdrew the Council of African Lesbians’ observer status for the same reasons.

The AU is not alone in this fight, there are many other organisations and institutions in the West and East that are:

• Defending proper education and socialisation and fighting against negative radical gender ideology.
• Protecting the natural family as the foundation for a prosperous society.
• Challenging the West for its imperialistic view of human rights.
• Defending children and society against the so called ‘gender choice’ where children are told they are born genderless.

Those who are bringing the activism to Africa want Africa to believe that the West is fully for gayism and lesbianism, but that is not the case. There is opposition is the West to these kinds of rights.

What are the Implications for Social Work?

The message from the AU is clear, Africa should defend its philosophies and values. In that respect, social work in Africa should be framed along African values. There are organisations working for human rights in Africa and they are doing commendable work, however, there are others that are more focused on attracting funding from the West, that they are able to do anything.