Sister Namibia editor fights for lesbian rights post-apartheid

Off Our Backs, Mar/Apr 2002 by Eastlick, Megan, Frank, Liz

The following article was written by an off our backs intern, Megan Eastlick, based on interviews with the editors of Sister Namibia, a lesbian and women's rights magazine published in Namibia.

In 1989 Namibia democratically elected its first president and ratified a new constitution. After a century of colonial rule and decades of control by the South African apartheid government, Namibians were given a chance to elect their own leader. They overwhelmingly chose Sam Nujoma, a man who had dedicated his life to the fight against apartheid in Southern Africa. Nujoma promised to bring the people of Namibia together for a time of reconciliation and healing. Eleven years later, he has apparently forgotten this promise, and publicly stated that all lesbians and gays in Namibia should be imprisoned and deported for their "un-African" behavior. Many members of his party, the South West African People's Organization (SWAPO) have rallied to his support, and the SWAPO Youth League has started leading marches and protests throughout Namibia to demand that lesbians and gays be removed from society.

The women of Sister Namibia, a woman's magazine that is distributed without cost throughout Namibia, have been among the leaders in the fight against the government officials' homophobic tirade. Last year I interviewed Liz Frank and Elizabeth Khaxas, two of the magazine's members who have been in the forefront of legal battles for gay rights in Namibia. Liz Frank, a citizen of Germany, has been with her Namibian partner, Elizabeth Khaxas, for over ten years. She has fought a long, drawn out battle in the court system to have her relationship be a factor for consideration in her application for a permanent residence permit. The Ministry of Home Affairs first denied Frank the right to permanent residence and refused to consider her relationship as legal grounds for her to be able to stay in the country. In a landmark ruling, the High Court disagreed and said that the relationship should be taken into account in the decision. The government appealed the decision, and Frank failed to win the second trial.

During Frank's second attempt to gain legal residence in Namibia, she was granted a permanent residence permit, which means that she will be able to stay in the country. The court has also said that individual rights of lesbians and gays are guaranteed by the constitution. Despite the favorable ruling in the Frank case, the Supreme Court decided that Namibia's constitution does not give the same protection to single-sex couples as to those that are heterosexual. Two of the judges responsible for verdicts against Frank have said that the president's hate speech represents the "norms" and "values" of the Namibian people. According to Frank, "this outrageous ruling has put new wind in the sails of the president's campaign against LGBT people."

Although the president and members of his cabinet have publicly called for the arrest and deportation of homosexuals, there is no provision in the law that would allow for such an attack on individual human rights. Any such law would blatantly disregard provisions in the constitution that guarantee privacy. Besides being an unconstitutional assault on human rights, the call to deport gays and lesbians would turn out to be nearly impossible. As Frank says "The calls to arrest and deport Namibian gays and lesbians would certainly diminish and look quite ludicrous if it became obvious how many there are and who they are."

Despite these obstacles, the minister of Home Affairs, Jerry Ekandjo, has stated that his ministry is preparing legislation that would prohibit homosexuality. However, the Prime Minister has denied that. any such legislation exists, and has spoken about the constitutional rights of every Namibian citizen. He believes that the protection against gender-based discrimination in the constitution also applies to sexual orientation. Unfortunately, the Prime Minister only speaks of such matters when forced to do so in reply to questions from donor agencies, foreign embassies or members of parliament.

Sister Namibia has heard rumors that SWAPO members are working on legislation that would prohibit marriage between homosexual couples. Since the party has the two

thirds majority needed to pass laws in parliament, such a law would be able to pass if members of the party in parliament were unwilling to go against the president and leader of their party. If such a law did pass, The Rainbow Project, an organization that works on LGBT issues, and Sister Namibia would have to challenge it, along with a current law that outlaws sodomy, in the court system.

The level of support for the homophobic rhetoric is not known. It is difficult to research attitudes towards homosexuality in Namibia because of people's reluctance to talk openly about issues relating to sex. Frank believes that "there is generally a lot of ignorance regarding issues of sexuality, but also a tacit tolerance of family members who are different." This tolerance has not kept several groups from forming alliances with the president. Members of the SWAPO Youth League have begun to protest LGBT rights. Sadly, the SWAPO Party Women's Council has also turned against the lesbian community, in company with the SWAPO Party Elders Council. It seems that homophobia is present in every sector of Namibia, and the propaganda and rhetoric used by the president are serving to drive a wedge between the people.