Ghana: demonstrating Africa's backwardness

And intolerance.  Why can't Africa grow up?


The BBC reports that "a Ghanaian minister is "promoting hatred" by urging people to report those they suspect to be homosexual."  The broadcaster says "Ghana's Centre for Popular Education and Human Rights said Paul Evans Aidoo's comments could endanger the nation's underground gay community."

So, already marginalised and hounded Ghanaian homosexuals face further fear and retribution as landlords and tenants are urged to report those suspected of being homosexual.  I'm surprised this doesn't extend to those suspected of being drug-traffickers, slave-owners, prostitutes, loan-sharks, rent racketeers, thieves, con-men or rapists.  No, just ordinary every-day types whose personal chemistry and upbringing induces them to love people of their own sex rather than follow traditional lifestyle paths.

As most intelligent and educated people understand, homosexuality is not a choice:  it's a necessity.  Rather than live a lie, gays in Ghana choose to be themselves.

Ghana will only ever be taken seriously as a civilised society when it can differentiate between bigotry and liberalism.  When it can choose to educate the uneducated to accept differences in people rather than demand homogeneity.

Ghana should be ashamed to call itself a developing nation, when in reality it is a backward-looking country which fosters injustice.

The people of Ghana must appreciate reality.  Just as Fidel Castro had to do in Cuba when he decided to jail gays for lengthy prison terms (I recall it was something around ten years) for a single act of sex with a partner.  The Cuban government has released most of its incarcerated innocents, just as Ghana is about to lock up its own in prisons where - as we all know - homosexuality is rife.  Unless Ghana is the only country in the world where banged-up inmates don't bonk each other to alleviate frustration.

In 2010 the BBC noted "Fidel Castro has said that he is ultimately responsible for the persecution suffered by homosexuals in Cuba after the revolution of 1959.  The former president told the Mexican newspaper La Jornada that there were moments of great injustice against the gay community.  "If someone is responsible, it's me," he said.  In the 1960s and 70s, many homosexuals in Cuba were fired, imprisoned or sent to "re-education camps"".

It's always been suspected by homosexuals that the most strident homophobes are secretly attempting to off-set their own same-sex leanings by promoting intolerance of gays.  There may sometimes be some truth in those assertions.