The 2013 Elections in Zimbabwe: End of an Era for Human Rights Discourse?
Many Malawian politicians have exploited religious and cultural discourses, encouraging the discourse of the “God-fearing Malawi nation” while also acknowledging the country as a secular state. This discourse – which most recently underwent further development in the early 1980s when Christians and Muslims, funded by donor money, accelerated their evangelical drives in the context of a one-party Malawi – resonates with a patriarchal, conservative political dispensation. This paper traces the evolution of the “God-fearing nation” discourse in Malawian politics. It posits that the government used the “gay rights issue” as a strategy to disorient human rights activists and donors. Gay rights were de-linked from other civil rights, forcing a binary approach toward gay rights, which were seen by government supporters as “anti-Christian”, “anti-Malawian” concepts. The debate with donors enabled the government to claim “sovereign autonomy” and galvanise the population into an anti-aid mentality (better no aid than aid that supports homosexuality).
Year of publication: |
2013-11
|
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Authors: | Ncube, Cornelias |
Published in: |
Africa Spectrum. - German Institute of Global and Area Studies (GIGA), ISSN 0002-0397. - Vol. 48.2013, 1, p. 99-110
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Publisher: |
German Institute of Global and Area Studies (GIGA) |
Subject: | Malawi | domestic policy | foreign and development aid | homosexuals/homosexuality |
Saved in:
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