By Rosebell Kagumire
Rosebell Kagumire is a pan-African feminist writer, editor of African Feminism (an online platform amplifying feminist voices across Africa) and an activist whose work focuses on media, gender, human rights, peace and conflict.
Her writing appears in international outlets and books. Kagumire is on the Editorial Board of Minority Africa, an online platform reporting on the rights of minority groups by journalists from minority groups across Africa.
Kagumire says: “We have seen the growing influence [of religious conservatism] in the last decade in many countries like Uganda, Ghana, and Kenya, especially with laws targeting queer communities in effect or before parliaments.
“This is driven not only by religious conservatism but by populist leaders amidst failing economies. Queer people are scapegoats for national rage in the political arena. But the continued fight of queer Africans is beyond the queer community as we have seen the same forces target sexuality education, reproductive rights and women’s bodily autonomy.
“In many ways, there’s a push to roll back any feminist gains of the last decades, however small. That’s why queer communities shouldn’t be abandoned to face hateful and anti-rights movements alone: because the threat is always bigger than to one particular community. Their struggle is the struggle of all of us who fight for the dignity of all Africans, regardless of status or background.”
