Happening in front of our eyes: Threat to Namibia's democracy

RAINER GÜNZEL WRITES:

Ekandjo, Namibian parliamentarians, political parties, church leaders, and others: If you say being gay is not African, you don’t know your history. If you are on a mission to marginalise groups, please do your research first.

What is most mind-boggling though, is that most Namibians are still faced with economic hardship (more than thirty years after independence), physical abuse and sexual violence against women and children at an alarmingly high rate, malnutrition which is still causing unnecessary deaths in 2023, growing numbers of “street children” and child neglect (still no evidence of more decisive actions by neither the church nor the elected politicians), persisting elevated crime rates, beastiality noted by traditional leaders in the North, our high suicide rate, polygamy, environmental devastation and pollution, ongoing corruption, and the list goes on and on.

You talk about your definition of a family, however, a very large percentage of Namibian children are either raised by one parent (most often by their mother, with the father mostly absent) or not even by one of their parents (who, in some cases, do not care to raise the life they put on earth), but rather a grandmother or another relative. Can the bishops and other church leaders please inform us about their definition of a family (based on the Bible) as I myself see only a few examples in Namibia?

However, neither Ekandjo, the parliamentarians nor the churches have addressed any of the above important issues with the same speed and determination as they have started their apartheid-style hate attacks on the gay (LGBTQ) community.

If the great Mr. Nelson Mandela were alive today, he most likely would have spoken out in support of the LGBTQ community in Namibia as he had done in South Africa. Through his suffering during the apartheid era, wisdom, and mental maturity he was able to put hatred and marginalisation behind him. Being the enlightened man he was, he knew very well that these anti-gay laws were introduced during the colonial times and further reinforced during the oppressive apartheid era. It was Mr. Nelson Mandela who ensured that South Africa became the first African country to guarantee equal rights for the LGBTQ community.

No single human is born with hatred. We are made to live in peace and harmony with one another if it were not for persons like you who, through their hypocrisy, show disrespect for basic human dignity (as preached by Jesus Himself).

The ignorance and hatred suddenly targeted at the above group begs the following question: Ekandjo, parliamentarians, and church leaders, at least be honest and inform your fellow Namibians which foreign ideological establishment is sponsoring, organizing, and financing this derogatory campaign.

In the words of Ban Ki-Moon, the former secretary-general of the United Nations: "To those who are lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender, let me say: You are not alone. Your struggle for an end to violence and discrimination is a shared struggle. Any attack on you is an attack on the universal values the United Nations and I have sworn to defend and uphold. Today, I stand with you, and I call upon all countries and people to stand with you too.”

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