Silent is only the violence

Dar es Salaam is hot. Some few are sitting in front of the TV and getting confused. CloudsTV a channel famous for breaking boundaries and entertaining the youth of the country, is screening an Interview. It will be the first interview in which a young homosexual man is telling his story. The story about a life, about his life, in a country in which “culture” and “religion” are justifications for repression of the others.

The others are victims of rape-crimes, members of opposition parties, atheists and single woman and sexual minorities. Humans who face a permanent pressure by the society and who can rarely, actually never, ask for protection.

So it is today, the first time on the TV. I receive messages from friends who are fascinated, shocked, sad and scared by this interview. What such a discussion is triggering in a country which claims to be a democracy, is not imaginable. Tanzania is not a democracy, such as Germany, Mozambique or Canada. The basic values of democracy (such as freedom of speech, freedom of meeting, or freedom of religion) are not accepted in Tanzania. State media, and there is a lot of this, will immediate after the interview repeat the old statements. Homosexuality “is not our culture”, it is “not compatible with the values of African societies“ and it is against “the religious understanding of the culture”. The ministry of Culture, Youth and Sport Fenella Mukangara agrees with those opinions. And she is not alone. Even the director of the Legal and Human Rights Center Helen Bisimba, supports the hate-speeches in the media. This should not confuse anyone, since the director of the LHRC is famous for her homophobic speeches. But it should surprise those countries who are financing her organization. But it seems that no other than the victims by themselves are doubting those arguments.

And the victims are the ones who are going to hide again. Homosexuality is punished by the law, is punished with repressions and with blackmailing by the police. Many members of sexual minorities in Tanzania got beaten, raped and attacked. Few years ago some members of all parties in the east-African country demanded a similar law, like the neighbor country Uganda tried to implement. This law (death-penalty for any homosexual activity) got stopped in the last minute by the high court. The former Tanzanian president Kikwete was not famous for his quick actions and did not push a further discussion to this topic.

The recent president Magufuli is different. After rising up taxes, deporting the poor out of the city center and facing economic stagnation he needs a quick success. Punishment of minorities has a tradition for “dictators in danger”. Museveni, Mugabe and now Magufuli. They try to make mood against the repressed. The president already announced that any support of homosexuals will be punished by the law. But that the law is based on the implemented injustice of the former British colonists, is not important for anyone. The religious leaders are already organizing mass hate preaches to protest against sexual minorities. The parliament (bunge) is meeting to discuss further actions.

And while all this institutions are planning new activities against sexual minorities, the probably most dangerous instrument of punishment in many African societies is already in full swing: mob-justice. Uncounted are the killed, unheard and untold their stories and unpunished the violence of the criminals.

Silent is just only the violence.