McLeod Group guest blog by Edward Jackson, August 16, 2021
Ghana has long been known for its moderate governance, free speech and multicultural tolerance. But a proposed new law would radically and cruelly suppress the rights of LGBTQ+ people there. Canadians should support efforts to kill this bill.
What is happening in Ghana?
For the past six months, with reckless intent, Ghanaian President Nana Akufo-Addo has used the power of his office to fan the flames of anti-LGBTQ+ hate in his country. An LGBTQ+ centre was forced to close and 21 activists were arrested and held without bail for nearly a month. Most egregiously, this campaign has prompted the tabling of a private member’s bill in Ghana’s Parliament that not only carries more severe criminal punishments for LGBTQ+ people but also provides for up to ten years in prison for anyone who advocates for them and their rights.
What is driving this extremist turn?
While public attitudes in Ghana are largely negative toward homosexuality, the LGBTQ+ community is tiny and poses no threat to any institutional interest, including the President’s right-leaning New Patriotic Party. However, Akufo-Addo, who used to practice human rights law, now appears to believe that his political future depends on the support and financing of social conservatives in Ghana’s mainly Christian south and Muslim north. He is clearly prepared to abandon the longstanding, impressive tradition of Ghana’s political practice of moderation, tolerance and compromise, and to defy the protection of free speech for all provided in the country’s constitution. In addition to trying to solidify his political base against a demonized adversary, the president is using this issue to distract the public from far more pressing issues, including fighting the COVID-19 virus more effectively.
Who are Ghana’s leading rights-suppressors?
At a public church event in early 2021, Akufo-Addo reaffirmed that his government would never legalize same-sex marriage, fully aware that this was not a prime objective of the LGBTQ+ community – and that his words would incite a new wave of anti-gay hate. Subsequently, the campaign of LGBTQ+ rights suppression shifted to Parliament, where the torch was taken up by the government’s Minister for Gender, Children and Social Protection, Sarah Adwoa Safo; the Speaker of Parliament, Alban Bagbin; and Opposition MP Sam Nartey George. Both Bagbin and George are members of the left-leaning National Democratic Congress, Ghana’s other major political party.
Outside the legislature, a key player is Moses Foh-Amoaning, executive secretary of the virulently anti-gay National Coalition for Proper Human Sexual Rights and Family Values of conservative Catholic and Pentecostal Christians, parts of the Muslim community and some traditional chiefs. Also on the new bill are the fingerprints of the World Congress of Families, a US-based right-wing Christian hate group that has enabled anti-LGBTQ+ legislation in Nigeria and elsewhere featuring provisions similar to those in the law proposed for Ghana.
Who are the targets of this campaign of hate?
Arrayed against these culture warriors and their well-financed and voluble political and religious institutions is a cluster of small, underfunded and embattled advocacy and service organizations – and the 21 individual activists who were detained. Fearing for their personal safety, many community champions have gone underground and now only operate online. LGBT+ Rights Ghana, the organization whose centre was raided and shut down by police, has mounted a counter-campaign against the new bill, hosting online town hall events to crowdsource ideas from its supporters.
Another group, Rightify Ghana, has taken to Twitter to build opposition to the proposed law by educating its followers on the implications of specific measures in the bill. It argues that the bill is harmful to LGBTQ+ people, “doesn’t make economic sense and undermines Ghana’s democratic credentials”. Also working online to mobilize support for queer and transgender Ghanaians inside and outside the country, Silent Majority, Ghana affirms that “We are all entitled to live free from harm, violence and discrimination”.
What is at stake?
Human rights are at stake. Lives are at stake. Public statements by politicians and religious leaders in recent months have let slip the dogs of this culture war. One of Ghana’s most celebrated former football (soccer) stars, Michael Essien, decided to withdraw his public statement of support for the activists when his social media account was ferociously attacked by an anti-LGBTQ+ online mob.
Members of the LGBTQ+ community in Ghana now fear for their personal safety. With the prospect of the new legislation intensifying the climate of hostility, more LGBTQ+ people are now declaring, as one recently did, “I’m afraid that I will die”. But Akufo-Addo, ironically the recipient of democracy and peace awards, remains sanguine about the real and present danger to these citizens created by the events he helped ignite.
Isn’t supporting LGBTQ+ rights in Ghana a neocolonial act?
Akufo-Addo and his allies will certainly tell you that. However, the country’s current criminal code provision outlawing homosexual relations is actually rooted in British colonial law prohibiting “unnatural carnal knowledge”. Moreover, the fact is that there are many outside organizations, both religious and political, desperate for a culture-war win somewhere, anywhere, in the world, that are providing substantial expertise and money in support of the anti-LGBTQ+ campaign in Ghana. On the other side of this struggle is a group of Ghanaian citizens who are striving courageously for the right to be themselves, to love whom they choose, and, simply, to live safely. External assistance from the global community can be viewed as neocolonialism – or as solidarity. Who do you think deserves our solidarity?
LGBTQ+ rights groups are gaining support. A Ghanaian blogger recently urged her readers to “kill the bill”, reminding them of the country’s proud history of Ghanaian citizens as freedom fighters, not as suppressors of rights, and quoting these words from Ghana’s national anthem: “Bold to defend forever/The cause of Freedom and of Right/Fill our hearts with true humility/Make us cherish fearless honesty/And help us to resist oppressors’ rule/With all our will and might for evermore”.
What should Canadians do?
Ghana has long been one of the largest recipients of Canadian international assistance. Its open economy, free press and, until now, moderate governance have all made the Ghana-Canada partnership a productive one for decades. Canada has also been fortunate to benefit from the talents of the vibrant diaspora of Ghanaian-Canadians. But in choosing hate over inclusion, authoritarianism over democracy, Ghana’s president is leading his country down a dangerous path. In response, until this odious bill is withdrawn and the crackdown on the LGBTQ+ community is lifted, Canadians should:
- Lobby Marc Garneau, our Minister of Foreign Affairs, and Karina Gould, our Minister of International Development, to use diplomatic channels to condemn the new rights-suppression bill, working closely with other like-minded countries and the United Nations.
- Support Canadian NGOs like the Equality Fund and Dignity Network Canada to find safe ways of channelling more funding and support to LGBTQ+ organizations and individuals in Ghana – and see what strategies and additional measures they recommend.
- Mobilize Canadian religious organizations that support LGBTQ+ rights, like the United Church of Canada, to oppose the new legislation in Ghana.
- Encourage the Canadian government to impose travel bans to Canada on the leaders of this campaign of hate, and work with the U.S. government to institute similar measures.
Other actions are possible and may be necessary, but these four steps would constitute a good start.
Akufo-Addo wants to win his venal culture war. Let’s make sure he doesn’t.
A founding member of the McLeod Group, Edward Jackson is a Canadian university professor and management consultant with extensive experience in Ghana. Image: Marko Bukorovic.